Vandread Fan Fiction ❯ VanDread - Halo ❯ Team Work ( Chapter 4 )

VanDread - Halo

Disclaimer: I have no ownership of either Halo and VanDread, they belong to their respective owners and creators.

Chapter 4

Team Work

< >: Thoughts

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

“101, 102, 103, 104, 105…”

The UNSC Spartan was busy doing his usual routine of keeping fit in the gym area of the fused Frigate, and he wanted to keep himself in top condition for any possible threat to the ship. The weights he was using were already at their highest settings, namely at nearly 910 pounds. For most people it was a pretty high setting, but for him, it was nothing but a light workout.

While he continued with his exercises, he thought back on the announcement that the Captain had made at least a day before to the rest of the crew. The women were naturally surprised with her announcement that the men were now to be part of the ship's crew, along with him and Cortana…he knew for a fact that not everyone on the ship would be very happy with the changes and additions to the crew, for now however, there was nothing for him to deal with so he might as well keep himself busy with keeping his skills razor sharp.

As he continued to push the heavy weights up and down, he then recalled his latest position as the ship's combat specialist and also to serve as part of the ship's security force. His actions in dealing with the alien forces that boarded the ship made it rather obvious why he was to be part of it. However, he decided to stay in the UNSC section of the fused ship for the time being to have some privacy for himself, not to mention this would help in keeping the women he had to work with a bit at ease until he was fully accepted into their ranks.

In truth, there were also female UNSC Marines and he had worked with them in more than one occasion, and since the UNSC Marine Corps, like the rest of the UNSC Armed Forces was a co-gender outfit, it was not surprising to see men and women working closely together. However, since the women of Megele had grown up without any contact with men, and viewing them as the enemy no less, he decided to let them get used to his presence on their own time.

As he reached the number of 300 repetitions, he then got off the bench and went to where Cortana was going to meet up with him. She had been assigned to the Bridge and the Register…the first was naturally as the one who could interface with the second well to access the UNSC weapons and systems that had been fused with the Ikazuchi, and then on the second job, she would learn the process on how the women worked in order to keep the Dreads in top operational condition. He then grabbed his Mark VI and put on the armor. As he made his way through the corridors of the fused Frigate, he wondered just what the others were doing at this very moment.

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

In one of the wash-rooms on the female ship…

Belvedere was currently placing on her usual application of make-up along with her comrade who was from the security teams, and ironically enough…she was the very same one that Hibiki had poked in the posterior with his finger. The blonde member of the bridge crew then began to tell her friend about the latest rumor surrounding men.

“Did you hear the latest rumor about men? It's said that they have some sort of weird tube stuck between their legs!”

“No way! Do you think it's some sort of antennae?!”

“You know…if that's really true, I wonder if it's hard for them to walk around?”

“That's so gross!!!”

“I know!”

“It must be very icky for them then!”

Unknown to the two of them however, they weren't the lonely ones in the wash-room as Dita perked her attention at the latest rumors about men, and the moment she found out about this latest rumor, she looked at herself, between her own legs and when she was assured that she did not have that very same appendage, she smiled to herself and decided to find out from her Mr. Alien if it was true about men like him.

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

Unfortunately, Dita's way of finding out the truth behind the rumor wasn't very…well, subtle…

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

In another washroom…

“AAAAARRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!”

Hibiki was in hysterics, and for good reason as a certain redhead was currently with him the toilet stall that he was currently using. He had just dropped his pants and was about to do the call of nature when Dita suddenly appeared and looked at him…namely at a certain part of his body with shining, expectant eyes. He quickly got his pants back up and shouted at the young woman.

“GET OUT OF HERE!!!”

He grabbed her jacket by the collar and quickly hauled her out of the stall and to the outer hall, namely the wash-room where the men were given their own place to use, namely with Magno's orders. As soon as he was able to drop Dita outside of the room, he quickly shut the door and placed an electronic lock.

Dita turned around while still on the floor and called out to Hibiki in a pleading and questioning tone.

“But why can't I watch Mr. Alien?”

“HOW THE HECK AM I SUPPOSED TO GO WITH YOU WATCHING?!?!?!”

Dita sighed in disappointment as she realized that she was not going to get her chance to see if the rumor was true about men having tubes stuck between their legs.

“I was only curious.”

“Curious about what?”

Dita turned in surprise and smiled in relief as she found herself looking back at Cortana. The former AI now human being was still in her normal garb and was busy taking a break touring the ship to get to know both the colony ship section and the Megele ship before she went to her duties in the Register and then to the bridge.

“I was trying to find out if the rumor about Mr. Alien was true.”

Cortana looked at the door behind Dita and couldn't help but smirk a bit at the fact that it was the wash-room for men, what was Dita doing there anyway? And what sort of rumor did she hear that made decide to try and peek into the men's wash-room.

“What sort of rumor are you talking about anyway Dita?”

“I heard that they had a sort of tube stuck between their legs, and I wanted to see if it was true and I wanted to see if Mr. Alien has that same tube stuck between his own legs.”

Cortana was slightly confused about that, that is, until she put two and two together and realized just what the rumor was supposedly about, and the former Ai couldn't help but smile and have a slight blush on her face. She didn't expect that the sixteen year old redhead was interested in male anatomy, namely THAT part of male anatomy, and what is functions were…namely when it dealt with the opposite sex.

The former AI was only familiar with some of the concepts of human anatomy and it's functions, and had pretty much been unconcerned about it all as she was very much still an AI at the time…but now that she was fully human, she couldn't help but feel somewhat intrigued and embarrassed by the whole deal, as she was still getting used to being a full scale human being.

Dita then guessed that since Cortana worked with the Spartan, she might know about it and being the curious and inquisitive teen that she was, she quickly asked Cortana if she knew something about this so-called tube.

“Do you know if men have it Cortana?”

The former AI sighed a bit as she tried not to embarrass herself further as she blushed a bit more, she then answered the redhead with as much tact and delicacy as she could muster in her current state of mind.

“I know men have it, it's a very important part of their bodies if I were to recall.”

That was when Dita threw a bombshell right on Cortana's head with the next question she had in mind when Cortana confirmed that men did have tubes stuck between their legs.

“Have you seen one?”

Cortana looked at Dita with absolute shock and embarrassment as her once light blush turned into a sea of crimson, she was trying her best to contain her sudden reaction and try not to further embarrass herself even further in front of the young woman, but she couldn't help herself as she continued to blush, she then realized that if she didn't answer Dita soon, the redhead going to ask yet another embarrassing question.

“Well…honestly Dita, I haven't really SEEN one myself. But I think it's better you don't try and find out too much about it…at least not yet anyway.”

“What do you mean by that?” The redhead asked in a curious manner.

<Damn…this girl's too inquisitive for her own good.>

Cortana then walked away as Dita followed her to the rest of the ship's sections and as they did so, she replied in answer to Dita's line of questioning.

“Let's just say that when the time is right…and you're really prepared…then you'll find out what that tube is and what it does. And just for today Dita, I suggest you leave it at that. Now then, I've got some things to do so if you want to come with me, you'll have to be my guide then.”

Dita smiled as she decided to accompany Cortana, she might have found a brand new friend in the former UNSC AI.

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

Elsewhere…

The Navi-robot who was now named Pyoro was currently jumping about making cheering noises as Parfet was standing on a hallway and speaking through a large bull-horn device to amplify her voice without being too loud.

“Excuse me, I'm sure that you would all agree with me that the Ikazuchi is a lousy name, so I'm currently compiling a list of names that have been submitted to me so we can choose the new name for the ship.”

She then placed the device aside and spoke to none other than Jura and Barnette who had been rescued from their plight in the elevator once they had full control of the ship once more.

“And whoever wins by having the winning name for the ship will be guaranteed a year's worth of food certificates redeemable at the Trapeza!”

Jura was naturally surprised at the statement and showed it too.

“A year's worth! Are you serious Parfet?”

Barnette then noted one particular name in the screen of Pyoro just as the Navi-robot showed them the list of names that had already been placed in by the crew.

“What's this one… the Nirvana…that's rather corny name!”

Parfait then whispered in her comrade's ear.

“The Commander picked that name you know.”

“How do you keep track of all the name suggestions anyway?”

Parfet grinned and replied as Pyoro still floated nearby.

“I've just have the others log their name choices into Pyoro here.”

The two women were somewhat surprised and quickly made two and two together and realized that the name of Pyoro was meant for the Navi-robot before them.

“You named the Navi-robot Pyoro?”

“Miss Parfet gave me that name, isn't it a good name?”

Jura sighed and the gave her own contribution as she and Barnette began to leave, with Barnette inputting her friend's suggestion, with was Luxury Night, much to the confusion of the small robot as it tried to picture the idea.

The Spartan then came on the scene and looked at the Navi-robot and the head engineer, and he naturally decided to move on, names for ships were not his specialty anyway so why bother with such details? That was when he got an incoming call from the communications net to head for the Medical Bay under Duero's orders.

However, Parfait spotted him and quickly called the Spartan over, the UNSC Super Soldier then walked over to her, slightly surprised that unlike the others, the head engineer was not scared at his approach.

“Hello there Chief, do you know of any ship's names?”

“Mostly military names ma'am.”

“I see…well, it doesn't matter right if it's a military name, I just need a good and cool name that we can give to the ship, if you know one, can you tell it to me now before you leave?”

The Spartan thought it over and decided to take on the name that came into his mind.

“Elysium.”

“What does that mean?” Parfet and Pyoro asked.

“It's old Earth for Paradise if I recall it right.”

With that the Spartan took his leave and headed for the Medical Bay.

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

At the Medical Bay…

Duero gazed in interest at the images he was viewing. “Peculiar… this organ doesn't even exist in a man's physiology." He remarked as he further studied the computer displays showing the gestating baby within Ezra.

Ezra looked at the young medic and explained what they were viewing. “It's called a uterus."

“Hmmm… a reproductive organ… most interesting."

Ezra rested on the bed comfortably, as she began to explain to Duero and Kyle what else they were looking at. “I wanted to have a baby, so I decided to carry the seed."

This made the young medic curious even more. “What's the seed?" Duero asked.

“It's when an ohma donates an egg and has it spliced with the genes of the fahma. Then it is implanted into the fahma's womb to be nurtured and to grow. Where I come from, anyone who wants to be a fahma can be one."

“Hmmm…. So that means I can become one?"

Ezra developed a rather large sweat drop as she tried to find a way to explain that particular fact to Duero.

“I doubt that would work out Doc.”

The two of them turned as the Spartan came into the Medical Bay. He figured that Duero wanted him there for a medical check-up which was standard Tarak practice, even though he personally knew that he was in top physical form, the Spartan agreed that some routine medical check-ups would be very helpful in the long run

“What makes you say that John?”

“Well…men were never meant to give birth to children…as far as I recall, only women do that. How are you feeling ma'am?”

Ezra was somewhat surprised as the massive Spartan addressed her in a very respectful manner, and she realized that he was asking as to her health, she then spoke in answer and decided to use the Spartan's first name to show that she respected him as well.

“I'm feeling fine John, a little tired but fine.”

The Spartan nodded as he then went to a faraway bed and took off his helmet so as to begin removing his Mjolnir Mark VI, however, he made sure not to do it in front of a civilian, namely Ezra. He then wondered how the others had taken to the video records that Magno had requested. Cortana had to spend nearly a day and a half gathering all the information and records to present to the pirates and he naturally wondered on the results of the records being made public.

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

(The records will include every battle he has ever fought in, namely in the games and novels, from Halo: Combat Evolved, to First Strike, to Halo 2, Halo: Uprising, and naturally, Halo 3, all of which, being that it's the Legendary ending of the third game that started this story will mean that in the videos, the settings will be in Legendary.)

The officers of the still unnamed ship watched in shock as the records of the Spartan's battles were now being shown to them all in the view screen. Cortana had managed to finish her compilation and had handed them the records that showed just what the Spartan had been involved in for the past many years of his life…and the records were very much extensive as they looked at it.

This was the very first time they were actually seeing alien species, namely the Sangheili, the Unggoy, the Kig-Yar, the Lekgolo, the Jiralhanae, the Yanme'e, and then the Flood. Buzam, Magno, and Gascogne watched as the Spartan and his human allies, both male and female face off with these foes in many battles for the past years of his life. From the Pillar of Autumn to the first Halo Ring…leading to the final battle on the newly constructed Halo Ring on the edge of the Milky Way. Seeing the aliens that the Spartan had fought with showed to the women in the room that he was not someone to be pushed around and someone to be taken VERY seriously when the time came for combat to start. The sight of what the aliens could do to humans, namely the brutal and merciless Jiralhanae and the works of the Kig-Yar was somewhat disturbing and to know that he had killed just as many of these warriors made it very clear to them that he was not lying about him being from another world.

They watched the battles in the Pillar of Autumn and then the battles on the surface of Halo, and they were on the edge of their seats when they saw him lead the rescue of Captain Jacob Keyes in the ship known as the Truth and Reconciliation and the battles afterwards, namely when they attacked the Silent Cartographer and more. They were feeling rather queasy as they saw the Flood for the first time and they were stunned when he had detonated the Pillar of Autumn's fusion cores to destroy Halo and how close he had been to death when he rode that Warthog all the way to the fighter with the entire ship blowing up all around him.

As they watched the records highlighting every battle in space, and on Earth, namely the battle station Cairo, they were stunned out of their minds as they watched him open the airlock into deep space, grab the anti-matter bomb and fly into space…aiming the bomb at what seemed to be the LARGEST ship they had ever seen, flying past a burning UNSC ship which if he didn't miss would have flash fried him, entering the ship with the bomb and only having moments to spare as the weapon was reactivated and the ship was consumed as he landed on the UNSC frigate the In Amber Clad.

They saw him fight in the African city of New Mombasa and destroying the Scarab. The battles they then saw on the next Halo Ring were unlike anything they had ever seen before, and when they watched him kill the Prophet, they were in awe at how had managed to slay all the Honor Guards alone and unaided, even if he came close to death quite a number of times…he still defied the impossible and killed the Prophet with his bare hands. They then watched as he escaped from the temple, but wind up in the tentacles of the Gravemind…the leader of the Flood.

It took quite a bit of effort for the women to contain their lunches at the sight of the Flood's leader, just as it took a ton of effort for them not to throw up at the sight of the Flood Infection Forms doing their works on the various beings they infected, whether they were human or Covenant. They watched as he left Cortana behind who was still very much an AI at the time and pursued the Prophet of Truth.

They saw him in many battles afterwards with his new allies, the Covenant Separatists, namely the Battle of Voi, the Second Battle New Mombasa, to the Ark, to his battle in the now infested High Clarity to rescue Cortana, and finally to Halo itself…and they were treated to the sight of him and the Arbiter moving at high speed on a collapsing ring all around them at once…there were so many close calls and massive amounts of explosions and energy weapons fire flying all over the place until they all arrived at the Forward Unto Dawn.

When they finally finished their study of the videos, they decided that it was better that the man would be given as much respect as they could give…because if he could survive fighting such creatures for nearly his entire life, then they doubted that anything they have ever encountered would compare to his own experiences.

“Well, it's official…that Spartan is someone I don't want to be enemies with.”

Gascogne said as she sighed and thought about she had witnessed on the videos and what she had seen the Spartan do when he was in combat, all that made her even more convinced that they were very lucky that he was now on their side.

“For a moment before…I honestly doubted his story and his achievements, but now that I saw that all he had been doing was very much real, I have to agree with Gascogne, that Spartan is someone we cannot afford to have as an enemy…even the most elite of Megele's commandos would not last as long as he has in such battles with those kinds of foes, and for nearly three decades no less.”

Buzam said as the recordings ended, it was then she decided to play the records of Duero's examinations on the Spartan when he was not in his Mjolnir Mark VI. The tests ranged from his reflexes, carrying strength, his ability to hit with his fists and feet, his ability to recall valuable information, his senses, and more.

The officers were stunned in the test where he was tested for how fast he could run, as the test began to gain in speed, the women were amazed to see him running to almost 60 KMPH on foot, any normal person would have suffered massive heart failure and collapse at such running speeds, but he seemed totally at ease with what he had just accomplished.

The tests that were on his senses and reflexes were incredible as his reaction time was not measure in minutes or seconds, but literally milliseconds as he caught a coin in midair at such a speed it would have been impossible, along with determining which side the coin was going to land on, and his ability to disassemble and reassemble a Tarak assault rifle, a UNSC rifle, and then a Megele laser rifle, and fire each weapon individually with amazing accuracy and power.

They also saw him with a special set of equipment that could measure the psi or pounds per square inch that a person could throw with a punch. The Spartan fired a few punches and the first punch, being the weakest was already 1001 psi, the second was slightly stronger and was at 1023 psi, the third punch was a lot stronger and was 1255 psi, the fourth punch was far stronger at the range of 2050 psi, the fifth punch was by far the second strongest and was at 2955 psi, and the sixth and final punch hit at about 3890 psi, enough to crack normal steel and to bend high density metals…which when further amplified by the Mjolnir Mark VI was a very terrifying number, which explained to Gascogne how he was able to bend and rip those bars aside like they were nothing but soft metal bars. Even his kicking power was beyond anything they had seen as one blow had ripped apart the practice dummy like a scalpel, they didn't even want to guess what would happen if he had a combat knife with him.

The women were also impressed with the sheer synergy of his abilities and the augmentations working as one on the next tests, further telling them that they were lucky he was not their foe, even alone, this man could do some very serious damage to those he might meet, even if he was bare of his armor and weapons, the sheer amount of damage he could do with his arms and legs, plus his mental faculties and battle experience would make him someone not to be underestimated by anyone.

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

Later…in the message pod deployment bay of the still unnamed ship…

Buzam was busy working on the last of the message pods and typed in all the current information they had been able to gather concerning the unknown forces that they had encountered. The Captain had announced to the crew that the aliens seemed to have started a massive scale operation known as the `Harvest' and the aliens' targets included both Tarak and Megele, while they were pirates and had no loyalty to Megele by most standards, they were not going to let some new force destroy their best `customers'. But in order to make things work out, they had to integrate the men into their crew, this naturally made a large number of the women rather unhappy.

Things got even more interesting as the announcement came out that the Master Chief and Cortana were to be part of the crew as well. The women who had seen the utter carnage this one man could unleash on his foes were very uneasy about having to work with such a person, while the others who learned about him being placed as combat specialist and had not seen the carnage he was capable of thought that the man was not going to be a good fighter. They were also not very much at ease that Cortana was among their new crew members…not that they had an axe to grind with the former AI, but they were not happy to know that a woman who was not from Megele was among their group.

For now however, things seemed a lot more peaceful than most could hope for and it seemed that while there was to be no doubt that tensions would be running high for a bit, the crew were more or less civil towards each other, and that was enough for now.

As Buzam finished loading the data cards and programming security protocols and coordinates to the pods, she then turned as she got a communiqué from Magno while the old woman was still in the bridge.

“BC?”

“Yes Captain, the message pods are ready to be sent out.”

“I see…but why were there two message pods there BC?”

Buzam then indicated the second message pod that she was currently working as the first pod she had been working with was now ready to fired out from the firing tubes.

“This second one is for Tarak Captain, considering that they too are under threat, they have to be informed of this crisis as well.”

Magno thought it over and understood Buzam's plan, while the men were not their allies, they were not going to stand by and do nothing when it concerned the soon to arrive alien forces who were intent on conquering both worlds, as such, the men did need to be warned of what was to come before them.

“All right then…do it.”

“Yes Captain, launching the pods now.”

Buzam pressed the release button and the pods were now launched, while the rest of the bridge crew were watching, just as Cortana arrived to see what was happening on the bridge, though she was aware of the fact that the pods that were deployed contained messages to both Tarak and Megele.

However, just as the message pods seemed to be in the clear, the location that they were heading to was suddenly lit up by a pair of explosions. Buzam gasped at the sight as a quartet of the same alien fighters appeared out of the explosions and headed right for them.

Cortana quickly reacted and entered the holo-tank and was now in her AI form, just as Magno made the call to alert all of her crew that they had incoming enemy forces to deal with right now.

“All hands prepare for battle!!!”

“Attention! All personnel! This is not a drill, Enemy contacts have been sighted! All pilots to their machines!”

Cortana also made it clear that the announcement was no joke and it had results, just as the enemy forces began to attack the ship.

John-117 had just finished giving his blood sample to the Tarak doctor as he heard the sirens and the calls to action by both Cortana and Magno, he wasted little time and placed back on his suit and took his helmet and put it on, he then got into contact with Cortana on the bridge.

“Boarding craft?”

“Negative John, appears to be just their space fighters, the Dreads should be…wait a minute…I'm picking up a signal from a lone Vanguard, Hibiki's launched already! He's going to engage the enemy right now!”

“He's going to do what?!”

Meia was stunned when the ship had been attacked as she and several member of the bridge crew were on a coffee break. She quickly met up with Jura and the two of them made their way to where their Dreads were stored, however, when they got there, the Dread Squadron leader was surprised to see Dita standing there doing nothing.

“Dita/ What are you doing just standing here? Board you're Dread!”

Dita turned and spoke as to why she was very much still there on the floor and not in her Dread.

“It's just that Mr. Alien is already out there, whoosh! He was so fast!”

The redhead even did a pirouette spin to prove her point, and that got a look of dissatisfaction from Meia and a look of surprise from Jura as well.

“What? He's out there already?”

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

Out in space…

The Vanguard that had been transformed by the Paeksis and owned by Hibiki was already streaking forward with the energy sword already in hand and heading straight for the four fighters that were on their attack vector, the four alien fighters that the pirates dubbed as Cube Fighters due to their method of containment and transportations then directed their attention towards the Vanguard.

Inside his Vanguard's cockpit, Hibiki was in an all time high as he wanted to finally face his foes and show the women just what sort of man was he.

“You guys are in so much trouble, because Hibiki is here!!!!”

The Vanguard pilot used his Vanguard's sword to cut down the first of the Cube Fighters, slashing the alien fighter in half before it could retaliate. Two of the fighters began firing their weapons at the Vanguard but Hibiki was able to guide his Vanguard away from the attacking forces and take out yet another fighter.

As soon as the second fighter was destroyed by the Vanguard and it's young pilot, the other two fighters closed the gap and crashed hard into the Vanguard, covering it in explosions and debris. As the ship approached the wreckage, the elderly woman and the rest of the bridge crew looked on and spotted the Vanguard relatively intact and sitting on space as if being smug. Hibiki then contacted the ship and was very much wearing a smug look on his face, much to the dislike of some of the women on the bridge namely Magno, who looked at the young man without batting a smile.

Hibiki then went on to say how lucky they were that he was around and that they needed his help more than ever, considering how capable he was with his Vanguard and he was laughing the whole time, making Magno sigh and roll her eyes.

“Cheeky little guy isn't he?'

Cortana remarked was some measure of amusement as she shook her head.

However, another person who was not very happy with Hibiki's words and antics was a certain UNSC Spartan who looked at the image of the young Vanguard pilot with his posture saying that he was not in a very patient mood with Hibiki's actions.

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

In the Hanger Bay…

As soon as Hibiki entered the Hanger Bay, he was greeted by the arrival of the Dread pilots, namely Dita, Jura, Barnette, and most of all Meia. As he opened his cockpit he looked to spot meia glaring at him and Dita apparently looking at her leader with some degree of worry.

“You must be here to thank me for taking care of things out there, right?”

Meia glared even more and showed her dislike for his antics.

“Don't act so conceited and self important! You could have gotten yourself killed, going out there alone, you are only to act with my direct orders.”

Hibiki then leaped down and looked Meia right in the eye with a smile of arrogant smugness on his face as he walked over towards her.

“Don't make me laugh…how do you expect to beat the enemy if you let a little danger bother you…you don't have to bother about that, you have me now to protect you.”

Hibiki's actions of flexing his arm muscles did not endear Meia to him, in fact it just made her even more angry with him. She gritted her teeth and snorted.

“Small dogs always bark the loudest, and you are the loudest one of the whole litter.”

Hibiki was surprised and stunned at the description and he glared right back at the fiery aqua-haired Dread leader.

“Hmph, that might be true, but that is far better than not being able to bark at all.”

“Except you're not the one barking at all…it's just that Vanguard of yours right? You don't even have you're bark at all, you probably don't even have the teeth to go with them?”

Hibiki glared and responded with his own anger.

“Are you looking for trouble from me?!”

“What's the matter? Can't handle the truth?”

“Who in the name of the Deserts died and made you the king of me?! Who do you think you are?!”

“YOU are still our prisoner on this ship.”

“Oh yeah?! In case you're eyes and ears aren't working, this prisoner saved you're rear ends, just like on the first time we fought those things the first time we met them…or did that fact just happen to fly out of you're memory?!”

Dita was in panic as she watched the whole exchange go underway and she could only hope that things won't get out of hand.

And just as it was about to get out of hand…

“Hibiki!”

The people in the Hanger Bay turned to see none other than the Spartan walking over to them, he may not have any of his weapons on hand at this moment, but that certainly didn't mean that he was going into the area without any form of protection.

Hibiki had expected that the Spartan…being a man like him would take his side and shut the Dread Squadron pilot up…he was more than capable of that, that much the hot headed Tarak teen knew and had seen already. The massive giant could easily beat the woman before him and she couldn't do much against someone like him, he could easily show this woman her place!

Meia likewise was tense, having seen how capable the Spartan was in combat when she had been there to the section which had the most carnage of their first encounter with the aliens, she had great pride in her abilities, but she had her own doubts on how she might fare with the Spartan Super Soldier.

However, much to the two people's respective surprise, the Spartan sided with neither of them but glared at the two of them instead and he seemed to be staring at the both of them with very calculating looks, as if determining just who among them he was going to deal with.

The Spartan then glared at Hibiki, his displeasure very evident in his voice as he spoke.

“What were you doing out there by yourself?”

“I was protecting the ship!!!”

“Really? Or were you trying to impress and show off?”

Hibiki was surprised and was not very happy with the suddenly unexpected talking down to by the Spartan towards him, despite seeing how capable the Spartan was and what the man was capable of doing to those who were his enemies, the hot headed Tarak teen was not going to back down from him and he was willing to face the Spartan to prove that he did the right thing.

“I did what I needed to do damn it! They took too long to get ready for battle…they're so slow…”

“Excuse me?! You've got some nerve there shorty!” Meia said with a glare as the two of them looked at each other and began shouting at each other, ignoring the Spartan while Dita looked on and tried not to look and hope that the two of them would calm down before they did something they would regret.

“Who are you calling shorty?!”

“Who do you think?!”

“Why you…listen I did what I had to do and I did it just fine! I don't need you're permission, nor to do I act on you're orders! I am a man after all! Why should I have to follow you're orders?!”

“You are a man, there's no doubts about that fact, but you are a member of this crew and as such you are to follow orders from those who are higher ranking officers!”

“Like you?”

“Yes, I am the one responsible for all combat missions on the ship, and since you are a pilot, even if it's a Vanguard you are under MY authority, therefore you have to follow MY orders.”

“Like I care…!”

“ENOUGH!!!!!!”

The people in the Hanger Bay were frozen at the loud shout coming from the Spartan who continued to glare at both Meia and Hibiki. John-117 was not in a very calm mood, though he still remained focused on the tasks at hand. He knew that the two of them had valid arguments, Meia was the leader of the Dreads and as such was commander of all space borne operations on the ship, and he could tell that she had the skill and talent be where she was…in hindsight, she reminded him of the female UNSC Marines he had worked with on occasion…

She namely reminded him slightly of Orbital Drop Shock Trooper Lieutenant Melissa McKay, though she had been considered KIA ever since the first Halo Ring's destruction. Thus she did have the rank and authority to be the one to call the shots on operations like ship defense. And following orders was the best way to keep oneself ready for whatever might suddenly change in the heat of combat.

However, he knew that taking the initiative was a welcomed trait among soldiers since the enemy would take advantage of those who stuck too tightly to protocol and cause considerable damage to the ship in question and while there were only four fighters, they would have done enough damage to warrant attention, not to mention the fact that from his point of view, they were a recon picket group…the Covenant used such tactics before, to probe and test defenses, he had no doubt that before they were destroyed, those Cube Fighters had acquired enough combat data for their masters to come up with important strategies. In that regard Hibiki had taken a correct course of action, silencing the enemy before they could have transmitted more vital intelligence to the enemy.

What he did NOT approve of was Hibiki's recklessness in combat, going off to fight four opponents by himself and not going without any back-up, or proper information regarding the foes he was about to face…granted it was just four of those Cube Fighters, but that to him was hardly an excuse to go off on your own without any proper preparations. He knew enough that even the most determined soldiers needed support from any source in order to accomplish a mission, in war, the enemy didn't care if you were the elite or the raw recruit, you were still a target, and it only takes one thing to go wrong to end you're life in one flash.

Hibiki had the talent and the raw skill, plus having built Vanguards in his youth made him familiar with their basic operations, giving him an advantage over the others, that much the Spartan already knew of ever since seeing him in combat.

However, Hibiki was not properly trained, he had no military training to begin with and thus he lacked the military discipline, experience, knowledge, and tactical skills in combat. He was brash, reckless, arrogant, and very much full of himself, a good combination in a competent team player and soldier on the right occasions, but a death sentence for beginners and a weak link in a team of soldiers. He knew that very well…having seen countless Marines die needlessly when they were still fresh and not fully trained and familiar with combat.

Learning along the way was fine on some cases, but with an unknown foe like the ones they were fighting, now was not the time for stupid heroics that could very well get you all killed. With that in mind, he looked at both of them and replied.

“You both go talk to the Captain, because later…I will have a conversation with her on this matter as well.”

With that, the Spartan walked away, leaving the group alone, and wondering just what the Spartan going to say to the Captain.

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

In one part of the ship, Parfet was greeting the others from the Register, the Cooking staff, and the Security personnel, and it was naturally on the topic of getting new names for the ship that they were flying. Currently the ship was on stand by mode and not moving around very much

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

In the bridge…

As the two pilots were now talking to Magno, she could only look and try not to hide her amusement on the situation as Meia and Hibiki were talking back on forth, at least Meia, having been a member of the crew for some time was very respectful in front of her, while the young Tarak teen on the other hand was more of the kind of person who didn't seem to care that much about rank.

“Look, I already went out there to help you women, and I did it well enough, so could you at least be fair and at least listen to me when I ask for a favor, it's the least you could do.”

“Captain, with all due respect, he is reckless and is a danger to this ship and to the morale of the crew!”

Bart likewise looked at the situation and sighed as he listened to the trading of barbs back and forth between Hibiki and meia, not to mention the Tarak teen's ways to trying to have Dita leave him alone and to get Meia away from him so he could do his job.

“Looks like being diplomatic is not his forte in the least.”

The two glared at each other, and it was then that they all looked to see Cortana smiling and sure enough the Spartan came into the bridge as Belvedere and Amarone looked on. Magno turned on the arrival of the battle hardened Spartan and smiled a bit as the Spartan stood ram-rod straight and saluted her.

“Permission to speak ma'am?”

“Permission granted Master Chief, what is it you wanted to talk about?”

The Spartan wasted no time as he spoke to the elderly woman about what he intended to do with the situation that was brewing between Hibiki and Meia, the last thing he wanted to see was this situation getting out of hand and the aliens using the confusion to their advantage, and that was far worse than any shouting match that could start brewing between the two pilots with very different outlooks of the very same situation.

“I want to take Hibiki under my supervision for half of the duration on this voyage, this means that while he is under my command, he stays with me at the Frigate section of the ship. And when it's time for him, he can be under you're supervision and command. Does that sound fair enough…”

Meia glared at the Spartan, not liking the idea very much as she had planned to have the young Tarak teen placed into the Register under Gascogne's capable hands to he could learn what it meant to work in a team, however, she was careful around the Spartan having seen his abilities in slaying the alien soldiers that tried to invade the ship before…though she was among those who had not seen the Spartan's combat records, along with his test records and results, thus had no idea how skilled he truly was.

Hibiki grinned and decided that he might as well be with the Spartan, and he answered before the Captain did.

“Working with the Master Chief is a lot more preferable than working with the weirdo here, I'll pack up my gear and move in with him, see you ladies later!”

As soon as Hibiki was gone, meia turned to glare once more at the Spartan and spoke.

“Just so you know…Spartan, the Captain still has the authority to override your decision to have him under you're care, and she still hasn't made her decision.”

“I'm not questioning that ma'am. What is you're decision regarding my request Captain?”

Magno looked at the battle hardened Spartan and wonder just what the man was going to do with his young charge, he had to have a reason to ask this from her and it was high time she found out what exactly that reasoning was.

“Before I give my decision, I want to know exactly why you requested that young one to be under you're for half of this journey, for someone like you, you have to have some sort of reason as to why you want to…baby-sit that youngster, so, care to tell me why?”

The Spartan nodded and spoke patiently as he explained as to why he requested permission to keep an eye on Hibiki.

“Hibiki Tokai has promise Captain, he has what it takes to be one of the best pilots in his time and he already has the raw talent and skill to become that.”

Meia snorted but kept her peace.

“However, he does have his flaws, he is brash, headstrong, reckless, arrogant, he has too much emotion, and he does not think rationally in combat, and as you might have guessed, he lacks understanding of team work and unit cohesion. These are flaws that can be a hindrance to him when the time comes, and while he does have promise, he lacks the basic military training and discipline in order to be an effective soldier and pilot. Without any form of foundation, he will become a liability in combat, and that is something that the crew on this ship cannot afford, am I correct?”

Meia was surprised as she had expected the Spartan to side with the young Tarak teen, and so were the others, even Bart thought that the Spartan would side with Hibiki at this point and time. Magno herself was interested in what else the Spartan was going to say.

“That is true…anything else?”

“He has what it takes and I am not going to let good talent like that go to waste, and letting him find out what else he's good at may just as well bring out those talents, wasting it will be a serious mistake, plus, his Vanguard's ability to fuse with the Dreads when the need comes to it gives us a certain tactical edge over our enemies, and I have no doubt that the force that attacked us was merely a recon team sent to probe our ship's defensive capabilities and responses, I've got no doubt that they've already sent their data to their masters, and they will be at work in coming up with a way to kill us more effectively. While we might be relaxing, the enemy is already coming up with a way to kill us, once we know what we need to do, then we can be better prepared.”

Magno nodded as she could not argue with them logic in the Spartan's case and decided to allow him to go ahead with his plans to train the boy personally.

“Very well, he's under you're supervision for today, afterwards, he can be placed under the supervision of our head of the Register, Miss Gasco. You know who she is?”

“Miss Gascogne Rheingau? Yes, I know who she is, that's also a wise arrangement. Well, then, with you're permission ma'am, I would like to begin training Hibiki.”

“You have my permission.”

As soon as the Spartan, Meia looked at the pirate Captain with some degree of worry and surprise, she had allowed the Spartan to get the upper hand and that did not sit well with the young Dread pilot, she had planned to make sure that Hibiki would learn his lesson, but it seemed that the young man had escaped from her and under the Captain's permission no less!

“Captain, you can't expect things to go smoothly, even though that Spartan is not from our dimension, he is still a man, he might let that young one off the hook!”

“I understand you're concerns Meia, but Master Chief is a man of his word, if he says that he is going to teach Hibiki proper military discipline, then he will do it…after all, he did go out of his way to keep a promise, am I right Cortana?”

The two turned to face the human sized AI and she smiled back, recalling the time she had been rescued by the Spartan in the infested hive of the Flood that was once the Covenant Holy City of High Clarity. In truth as she learned about it, they had every right to abandon her since she was nearly compromised by the Gravemind and she had nearly told the Gravemind everything it needed to know, but John came for her regardless and he did say that when he made a promise, he would keep it, no matter the odds.

“You're correct Captain, if he promises that he's going to discipline Hibiki, then it is a promise that he will keep no matter what. Besides, if the cheeky kid thinks he's going to have it lucky when he's under the Chief's supervision…he has no idea how wrong he is.”

“Are you sure?” Meia asked pointedly.

Cortana's AI form disappeared and the holo-tank's hatch opened to send the former AI now human out and back to her human form complete with clothes, she had to report in with Gascogne's group at the Register and she could not be late as there was no need for her to be in the battle-zone for a while.

“When you have the time, why don't you find out for yourself?”

With that, Cortana bade Magno farewell and made her way to the Register, just as Magno barked to Bart to quit eavesdropping and get the ship on course, the blonde navigator sighed and once more went back to work, though he was very discontent about his current situation.

“They sure don't know how to respect people around here.”

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

In another part of the male ship…

“AAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!”

Parfet had gone off to explore the rest of the ship and had accidentally opened another unexplored section of the former colony ship/slash Tarak battle-ship and now found himself buried in a large amount of strange and brightly colored pills, she along with Pyoro were buried under the stuff and as soon as she was able to look around as to what all this stuff was. Knowing that Pyoro had been among the men for all his life before she met him, she decided to ask the Navi-robot what these were.

“Pyoro, you've been with the men before right?”

“Yes I have, why do you ask Miss Parfet?”

“What is all this stuff?”

The Navi-robot managed to flip itself to face the head engineer as it had been buried upside down when the avalanche of pills fell on it and, as soon as it was upright, in a manner of speaking anyway, it answered the head engineer's question.

“This stuff as you mentioned is actually food pill rations that all men of Tarak consume.”

Parfet looked at the pills with some form of surprise as she never expected the men would actually survive eating all these.

“Men only eat this stuff?”

“Yes, one pill is known to have enough vitamins, nutrients, and body minerals to ensure at least 300 hours worth of labor.”

“Hmmm…”

“Hey Parfet? Have you seen Mr. Alien?”

The two of them turned as they spotted none other than Dita Liebely, the head engineer already knew just who Dita was looking for and therefore decided to tell her what she had heard concerning the Tarak teen.

“I heard that he was supposed to be assigned in the Register system under Miss Gasco, but right now he's being assigned to work and train under that Spartan.”

“He's training with Mr. Green Alien?”

That was when Dita spotted the rainbow of pills. And she was very much curious as to what these things were.

“What's this stuff?”

“This stuff are food pills from Tarak.” Parfet said as she recalled Pyoro's description of the food pills.

The moment Dita heard that, she became excited and knelt down to the pills looking at them with curiosity and interest.

“This is alien food?!”

Before Parfet could try and reason with the redhead not to try eating it herself, Dita took one of the pills and took a bite of it and chewed. However, she grimaced at the taste of the pills and spat it out, sticking out her tongue in disgust.

“How was it Dita?' Parfet asked, hoping that her friend was all right.

“The aliens actually eat this tuff?!”

The Navi-robot then spoke.

“If you are referring to the Spartan named John-117, I don't think he eats these, considering that he is not from Tarak, but Hibiki does as this is the only source food in all of Tarak, or so I've heard.”

With that in mind, the redhead realized that she just might have found a way to get closer and learn more about Mr. Alien. As she was about to leave, Parfet called out to her as the head engineer had forgotten momentarily that Dita was among the crew who's name contribution she hadn't gotten just yet.

“Wait Dita! We need a new name for the ship! And you haven't given you're contribution yet!”

Dita replied as she moved out of the room.

“How about Roswell?”

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

In the Frigate section…

Hibiki thought that since the Spartan was a man and he was on somewhat cordial terms with the UNSC Super Soldier, then he could get some slack in a sense.

He was mistaken…

The moment he had entered the Forward Unto Dawn section of the still unnamed ship, he found himself meeting the Spartan who quickly told him to head to the newly completed living quarters and take a bunk and head to the training hall, because in less than ten minutes…training was about to begin. And as soon as he was done with his things, he arrived at the training hall, the Spartan was there in his Mark VI and told Hibiki to begin running around the large hall for at least fifteen rounds, and with weights on his legs no less, the young man protested that he didn't agree to that, but the Spartan merely glared at him and he knew that at this point and time…he didn't have much in terms of choices as he began to run around the hall, which was very large, and all the while the Spartan was looking at him like a hawk after a rabbit for dinner.

The Spartan counted his rounds through the internal timer in his Mjolnir Mark VI and looked at Hibiki to determine his current running rates and to see just what he was capable of in training, namely in the basic UNSC Marine training regime. He made sure to have an electric baton on hand, but he would only use it if he had to, he was there to train and discipline Hibiki, not torture him.

Hibiki felt like he had been running a marathon for nearly six hours, which in truth was only 2/3 of what he was doing now as the Spartan continued to watch him and order him to his feet when he tried to stop and get him back into action, that and the large baton he had in his hands made the Tarak teen move even more so it could end.

A few hours later, Hibiki felt like he was going to collapse as he finally completed the last round of running and as the Spartan gave him a nod, he fell on the mat and groaned as he felt fire flow in his muscles as they groaned out and ached, creating a painful symphony to his body. The Spartan looked on at Hibiki impassively as he walked over to him, his hearing picked up the boy's groans and his words.

“Oh man…I thought this was going to be simpler…”

“Nothing is ever simple in warfare Hibiki.”

The youth looked up to the Spartan looking down at him and he gulped as the Spartan offered his hand, unsure of what this meant, he reached out slowly and the Spartan then hauled him to his feet, the Spartan then turned and told the Tarak youth to get ready for the rest of the workout and the Tarak teen could only groan out as the Spartan indicated the weights in the training room. He was to lift at least 90 pounds of weight for over four hours. After which, his arms were aching and he was given yet another water break afterwards, but not enough time to rest.

Later…

Meia arrived to the section where the Spartan was currently training Hibiki and she was intent on finding out just what sort of training the Spartan was giving the young man. Despite the fact that the Spartan was not from Tarak and not an enemy of theirs, she was still very wary of him, no doubt because of his abilities and the fact that he was a man who she was not going to trust easily.

She entered the training hall, as she had asked directions from Cortana who was currently in the Register, and sure enough she spotted the Spartan standing there, bare of his helmet. As she walked forward, she then spotted the Spartan bare of his helmet and before him was Hibiki doing push-ups and he was covered heavily in sweat, the young teen was having weights on his arms, legs, and a vest with sewn weights in them, despite being far from them, she could tell that the boy looked like he was going to pass out.

“102…103…104…105…106…107! Can I stop now?!”

Hibiki looked at the Spartan who merely shook his head, the Tarak teen was so tired that he didn't register Meia's presence, while the Spartan ignored her presence as well, he was more focused on training Hibiki. Meia looked on with shock at how impassive the Spartan was as he replied.

“No.”

Hibiki tried to summon the strength to complain to the Spartan, but his arms felt like lead and he merely stayed there on the floor.

“How many more do I have to do?!”

“At least 500 more, once you do that in one hour, then you can rest and eat, if you don't finish that in one hour…you don't get dinner. Period…and you have to do it all over again.”

Hibiki's eyes widened.

“You can't be serious!!!! You're being unreasonable!!?!?!?!?!”

“I am serious, and I am reasonable…I didn't say anything about you not having any water now did I? You've got one hour Hibiki, don't waste it.”

Hibiki groaned and saw he had no choice in this matter and decided to get this over with and began to finish his push-ups, making Meia gulp at what she was looking at, and it made her consider that her punishment for Hibiki was nothing compared to this.

John-117 then turned and spotted Meia, acknowledging her presence with a slight nod, though with the same expressionless face.

“What brings you here Meia?”

Meia walked over to the Spartan and when she looked at the Spartan and was stunned as she had never seen him bare of the helmet. She was stunned at how pale he was, his skin was like white snow and that covered with his expressionless face and cool and focused eyes made him very intimidating to the young woman, that along with his height and armor made him someone to talk to respectfully. Meia gathered her words and spoke back to the Spartan, showing that she was not going to back down against him.

“I wanted to see if you were actually going to train him or let him go.”

“And have you?”

Meia merely nodded silently and then replied.

“Just don't think that I'll trust you just yet, or him…”

With that, the Dread Squadron Leader left the area, leaving John-117 alone with Hibiki as the Spartan looked on and waited for Hibiki to finish his exercises.

An hour later…

Hibiki collapsed as he finally completed the last push up and lay down on the mat, exhausted to the core and he felt so drained that he couldn't even move. The Spartan saw that and helped him to his feet and took him to a nearby bench that was near the wall and then gave the young man a drink, Hibiki drank the cooling water eagerly, having sweated himself to near exhaustion and he gasped for some breath, he barely glared at the Spartan who looked at him, and when he got enough of his stamina back, the Tarak teen glared at the Spartan.

“Are you trying to kill me?!”

“No…and you did well enough…for a raw recruit.”

“What do you mean by that?!”

“What you've just done…it's qualifications for UNSC Marines, basic entrance situations. And despite being a civilian, you did well enough.”

Hibiki was surprised at that and looked at the Spartan and asked.

“Y...You…you were testing me?”

The Spartan nodded and then began to tell him something important, something Hibiki needed to hear.

“You've got potential, I knew that from the start, but you are brash, reckless, and arrogant, those traits are the fastest way to die, that and you have no concept of working as a team, you may not like the women who you are with, but if you want to survive out there you have to work with others regardless of how you feel about them personally.”

Hibiki snorted and replied.

“Why should I anyway? I bet you didn't have to work with women before!”

“You're wrong, there are female Spartans as well, and there were female Marines and officers in my universe, and they were as fierce and as skilled as the men were. I have several fellow Spartans who were female and they were the best of the best, and I have worked with them for years too.”

Hibiki finished his drink and promptly reached for his pill rations and began to eat them, the Spartan looked at the pills and took one as well and ate it, he then swallowed it…not minding the lack of taste, but vowed that as soon as Hibiki was able to get back on his feet, he was going to get him to try real food, how did this young man grow up with such terrible rations was beyond him.

He then spotted Dita as she came in and she ran all the way up to Hibiki and smiled at him, the Tarak youth looked up and groaned at her arrival, he was still exhausted, and seeing the perky redhead made him more irritable than before.

“What is it this time?”

Dita smiled wider and offered him her newly made meal in a box, the Spartan knew what it was and allowed Dita to unwrap the clothe covering and she then opened the box, allowing Hibiki to see the contents. She then tossed away the pills and that made Hibiki even more agitated.

“Hey! That was my dinner!”

“You can try these Mr. Alien! They're much better than those horrible pills you have been eating for so long!”

Hibiki looked inside the lunch box to find rice, egg rolls, squid, and fish rolls, he was not sure what this all was, but he was not going to try it just yet, but he was so hungry and the smells seemed to be very different from what he had smelled before. He then looked at Dita and wondered if she was going to give him poison, until the Spartan looked at the food with approval and spoke to him.

“It's all right Hibiki, you can eat that. Who knows…you might even like it.”

Hibiki was still unsure about this, but he was very hungry, and the Spartan did say that it was all right, so he nodded sullenly and opened his mouth. Dita took this as her cue and took out a pair of chop-sticks and took some of the food and offered it to Hibiki who took it into his mouth and began to chew and after doing so a few times, he swallowed the food…expecting the worst. But that was not going to be the case.

As the tastes hit him, he smiled warmly and quickly looked at the food.

“What is this stuff?!”

“This is cooked food, we have this a lot on Megele, I made this for you Mr. Alien, do you like it?”

Hibiki wasted no time and took the lunch box and began to gobble up the food at a stellar rate and Dita looked on with approval, she then looked at the Spartan, and was surprised to see him without the helmet, and having such pale skin. However, she knew that the Spartan was a good alien and a friend and as such she was not frightened of him.

“Would you like me to make one for you too Mr. Green Alien?”

The Spartan shook his head as he knew that Hibiki needed good food more than he did, besides, the section of the ship that he was currently in had it's own kitchens and food supplies, plus there was a vast number of still stocked MREs on the ship and that was enough to keep the Spartan well supplied, so it was not needed for Dita to spend the time and effort to cook for him as well, but the gesture was…nice either way.

“There's no need for that, but thanks for the offer.”

“Okay, but if you change you're mind Mr. Green Alien, just tell me, I'll make a great meal for you!”

Hibiki sighed as he finished the food and placed the container aside, and he leaned back on the wall to relax and let the newly consumed food.

“That was good!”

“Then say thank you.”

“Huh?”

The Spartan then answered the question that Hibiki asked.

“When someone gives you something like that, it is considered a sign of respect and appreciation to say thank you, she made that meal for you with her own hands and put the time into making it, so if you appreciate the food that she made for you, then you should say thank you to her.”

Hibiki thought about it and decided that the food was nice and the redhead did deserve to be shown his appreciation for the meal…though saying thank you to a woman was a bit hard for him, but with the Spartan asking him to do just that, he complied.

“T-Thank You for the food.”

“You're very much welcome Mr. Alien!”

Hibiki growled slightly and replied.

“Please stop calling me Mr. Alien! My name is Hibiki! Hibiki Tokai!”

The Spartan put aside the discussion and spoke to Hibiki.

“I'll take you to the Medical Bay, considering the kind of training you have, you'll no doubt have too much muscle pain in you to move around with anyway. Come on.”

With that, the Spartan helped Hibiki stand up and escorted him to the Medical bay and supported him…more like carried him, due to the very obvious height difference between the two of them. The Spartan paid no mind to the surprised looks, and Hibiki was still too much in exhaustion to care about the comments anyway.

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

In the Medical Bay…

“Oww…he really gave me a hell of a workout, I still feel the aches…”

Hibiki said as he was now in the Medical Bay. He had been brought there by the Spartan as he could not yet move due to the muscle pains he had, thus the Spartan decided to call in for Duero to expect him and the young pilot. Right now, the Spartan was outside and talking to Gascogne and Cortana about Hibiki being placed in the Register for his time under the supervision of the women.

Duero nodded as he placed special healing balms on Hibiki's body and even have him take some vitamins, glucose tablets, and some nutrient injections along with the pain killers, the Tarak teen winced at some of the injections, but didn't seem to mind too much as the pain as the pain killers made the pain in his limbs a lot more dull and less loud.

“Considering what I know of the Spartan's abilities and skills, I'd say that he was being gentle with you Hibiki.”

Hibiki snorted.

“You call him making me run fifteen rounds with weights on my legs, lifting 90 pound weights for nearly four hours and doing 600 hundred push-ups for an hour, being gentle! No offense Duero but you really need to straighten out you're perceptions on what being gentle is. What makes you so sure that he was being gentle with me anyway?”

“I looked at his combat records then they were shown to me by the Captain and the Commander, plus I have records of the tests he was subjected to when he was without his armor, trust me when I say that he was being gentle on you…let me show you then.”

Hibiki watched the videos of the Master Chief as he went through all of his tests and he was in awe at just how skilled and gifted the Spartan was in all of those tests, and it seemed that he had truly the ability, skills, and experience to win all those awards that he was known to have won in his long career as a Spartan Super Soldier of his world. He then took a look at all the compiled combat records that Cortana had handed to the officers and was viewed by the Doctor.

To actually see these real aliens and their abilities, plus their combat prowess, and to know that the man who was training him had killed thousands of them by himself in every battle he had ever fought in…and against death defying odds that would have made even the most fanatical Tarak soldier blubber on in terror…made Hibiki gulp loudly, along with seeing the Spartan fly out into space with a bomb to blow up the largest ship he had ever seen by himself and with only seconds to spare. As the records were finished playing, to say Hibiki was in awe of the Spartan would have been a vast understatement, and to know that he was among them made him shiver.

“I'll tell you one thing Hibiki, considering all that I've seen and the tests I have personally conducted on him, he is everything he said himself to be, I have no doubt that the Master Chief is more a warrior than any of us. If he is teaching you things…you had better be listening to him, because you can really learn a lot from him.”

Hibiki silently nodded, his respect for the Spartan had just taken a super sonic trip upwards, he really could learn a thing or two for the UNSC Super Soldier and he was going to do his absolute best to earn the Spartan's respect.

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

A day and a half later…

John-117 nodded with slight satisfaction as Hibiki began to do his rounds on the training mat and seemed to be more at ease with his new regime of exercises as the young man did his laps with the weights on his legs. The young lad still had plenty of rough edges, namely with other members of the nearly all female crew, but he was beginning to be a lot more disciplined than before. Of course the Master Chief knew better than to expect Hibiki to change his personality over-night, but it was a good start after all.

The Spartan had been training the young man about combat strategy, military tactics, fire team discipline, maneuvers, combat intelligence and more, along with knowing the need to be focused on the task at hand and not to be distracted by emotional outbursts. While Cortana had joked at for the past few days, he had mellowed out a little bit, the Master Chief was still a stickler to military training and protocol and therefore told Hibiki that he must learn to keep his emotions guarded or else he ran the risk of getting distracted and getting distracted in the battle-field was a death sentence. He also made sure to test Hibiki in terms of physical strength and noted that the young teen, while still not very strong, was able to hold his own and the Spartan was content with that.

As soon as they were both done, they made their way to the Register to begin their shift with Gascogne and her crew.

He had already made arrangements with Gascogne to have Hibiki work with the women under the condition, to at least be fair to the young man's sensibilities, he was not to wear a dress for the duration of his service, the Spartan himself offered to aid Hibiki in his duties when there were no important missions to take care of and no boarding actions were made by the aliens that they were against.

This was the original assignment that Meia had planned to put Hibiki in, namely in cleaning toilets and others, but the Spartan had better ideas, and that was to teach Hibiki the value of protocol in certain situations, so they were assigned to handle dangerous materials and the Spartan helped Hibiki move some serious ordinance, in order to show him that, and to show that you have to always know what you were getting involved in before dedicating yourself to the fight fully, and being responsible for whatever actions you make.

He also spent time with Cortana, helping her get used to being a human being, the things that he normally took for granted were totally foreign to the former AI and since she trusted him more than the others on the pirate crew, it fell upon him to help her adjust to being human, though he wondered if he had what it took to be human for her at times.

Unlike the others in this ship…he had been bred for a life of warfare and conflict and there was not much free time for a Spartan like him, sure a few games with Dr. Catherine, Cortana's `mother' were there as well, but a life outside of the battle-ground? He however decided not to question himself and stay true to who he was, here and now…he was human, a proud human being…and a Spartan Super Soldier and his last promise to his dying friend, Sergeant Major Avery J. Johnson was to never let Cortana go…ever.

With that, he made sure to help her out as best she could and she was thankful for that, though he made sure to let her grow on her own, and that was a good move as Gascogne and Cortana were becoming friends while the former UNSC AI was working with the tough but strong head supplier, she, along with Cortana, also became somewhat like friends to the young Tarak youth under his care.

Gascogne had to admit, both men were very helpful around the Register, and sharing some stories with the former AI named Cortana were rather interesting as they chatted about many things that interested them both and while it was a bit odd for her to know that the young woman was a former AI program, it was nice to talk to someone and play cards with. Cortana proved to be a decent card player and while she was not the best one the head supplier had seen, she was good enough to be a good challenge.

Plus this allowed Gascogne to know more about the Spartan personally, since Cortana knew the Spartan more than any of them, having worked with him for such a long time, him being her protector and all. She also couldn't help but be amused at times of some of the stories that Cortana told her about when she would tease the Spartan. But the tough Register head could tell that Cortana did have feelings for the tough male soldier…which were not surprising as he had been protecting her for all his time in the military, and she had to give John-117 credit where credit was very much due, for daring to enter the literal belly of the beast to rescue Cortana…all because he made a promise to her that when he dealt with the Prophet of truth, he was going to find and rescue her.

She saw the records and she was in awe at how the Spartan had managed to fight his way through all those monsters in the former alien holy city and still be alive now on this same ship. No one on Megele had ever heard of a man willing to risk everything to save a woman, and while many would have considered it garbage…the head supply officer would have bet all of her earnings that it would have made one hell of a soap opera on Megele.

While the teen complained from time to time, he was a bit more cooled due to the time he had spent under the care of the Spartan, and Gascogne appreciated that, despite Hibiki's mouth and still present attitude, he was willing to follow orders, even from her when she asked him to wipe the floors and scrub the toilets on occasion.

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

Meia was not very happy but had to admit that the choice of having Hibiki under the Spartan proved to be more helpful as the young teen seemed a bit more…mature than before, but that certainly didn't mean she was going to ask for any help from either him or the Spartan, she was a proud member of the pirates' and their Dread Squadrons, she was not going to ask for any help from them.

As the before yesterday passed, the pirates had not faced any new attacking forces, merely skirmishes with small scouting parties, for now it seemed that the aliens were silent and were not going to attack the ship…including on this very this very day as well…and she suspected that this would prove that the men were not needed in the battles of the pirates.

She had no idea just how wrong she was going to be at this very moment at this very moment…

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

In the bridge…

Cortana was currently in the holo-tank on the bridge, doing her routine inspection of the ship's systems that she had control over, when she picked up a faint signal, she was curious what it was, but only for a moment as she determined that it was heading for an attack vector for the ship and from the way it was moving, this ship was very fast. She then tracked and isolated the transponder frequency…and it was that of the aliens.

“Captain! I have incoming contact coming right behind us, and from the looks of things' it's a single ship belonging to our alien guests!!!”

Belvedere and Amarone also confirmed it and they were already tracking it's movements, the ship was moving very fast towards them and it seemed to be very much alone, there seemed to be no other form of support fighters behind it…not like before.

“Hey young man, get moving and get to the bridge. We've got company!” Magno called to Bart via comm.-link.

“All right already! Geez, couldn't they be a little bit more polite? Not to mention a bit more respectful?”

Bart rushed all the way to the bridge and when he got into the bridge, he was tired from having to run from his quarters in the men's room, since the ship happened to be very large in size and design.

“Why does this ship have to be so huge?”

“I hope you can show us what you're skilled at young one.”

Magno said with a smile.

“Fine…I'll show you just what I am good at…running away!”

As soon as Bart slid into the navigation well, he quickly began to do what he could to get the ship out of reach from the enemy that was following them, and he was more than ready to hit the pedal to the metal, so to speak.

“I'll take all of us to the very ends of the Universe if I have to.”

“Let`s hope it doesn't come to that.”

Cortana replied as she was able to keep track of the ship following them. However then noted that the ship that had been sighted was able to match and surpass their speed quite easily, almost in the same way Covenant Ships, even smaller ones could out pace and out run even the fastest ships in the UNSC Fleet, the ship was now ahead of them and getting into visual range.

“This guy's a fast one, there's no way I can use the MAC Guns on him Captain, he could very well evade the shots, considering the fact that he can outrun and out pace us…just as the same way Covenant ships could outrun and outdistance UNSC ships.”

“She's right Captain, the speed of the ship is not something to laugh at, even for it's size, the ship is very fast.” Amarone reported as she also kept track of the ship as it came into visual range.

The ship appeared to be comprised completely of spheres and one central eye in the middle, a very odd looking ship, but sinister in it's own right. It was colored purple and there seemed to crystalline veins underneath it and the eye seemed to be already in the process of scanning the ship and the pirates to gauge their actions.

“What are they up to this time?

The ship used it's thrusters to try and move aside, but the new alien ship seemed to match their movements perfectly, every time the ship tried to move to either the right or the left, the alien ship followed with precision, sending the pirates the message that there was to be no escape, they either fought with it and win, or lose and die.

“The alien ship is keeping a set distance between itself and us Captain, no matter where we move, it will follow us.”

“This guy's not going to let us run Captain, we will have to fight it or else it will never let us leave.”

Magno nodded.

“I guess there's no helping it now is there Cortana? All right then, Bart, keep on course! All Dread pilots, prepare for combat!!!”

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

Dread's transformed Dread was now ready for take off, but the redhead was busy with other matters as she cradled her latest box lunch for Hibiki, ever since he had thanked her for the food she had given him nearly two days before, she was planning to offer him her latest treat and she wondered how well he was doing at this moment…so much so that it was only when Meia's voice filled her Dread cockpit that she stopped petting the bento.

“Where were you?!”

Dita looked and found herself looking at meia who was not happy with the fact that the redhead was not paying attention.

“Yes? Is something wrong Meia?”

“This isn't some sort of play or a game Dita! Lives are at stake including yours…being late could mean the difference between life and death.”

Dita couldn't help but feel saddened and gave a look of apology.

“I'm really sorry.”

“We're going to try a formation attack on that alien ship, got that? And focus on the battle, there will be time for the other things later.”

Dita gulped a bit and saluted the Dread leader.

“Roger!”

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

The Register…

“All right! A battle!!! Time to kick some alien….ack!”

“Just where do you think you're going? You happen to be a Stage Hand at the moment, and stage hands are not to going to be on stage with the actors.”

Hibiki glared at Gascogne as she had grabbed him by the collar, while Cortana was already on her station and the Spartan was looking on.

The Register girls were already hard at work, filling out the incoming orders from the Dread pilots who were coming in to have their Dreads fully fueled and armed.

Barnette was among the pilots coming in and she already began to place in her order with the girls of the Register.

“Welcome to the Register!”

“Can I have the A Set?”

“The A set? Certainly, would you like to add some complimentary homing missiles to you're order?”

Barnette smiled a bit and answered.

“I don't want to make the ship too heavy, but why not? Add it on would you?”

Barnette left the Register and the Register girl that took her order bid her farewell and began to follow through with Barnette's order with smooth precision.

John-117 was impressed somewhat by the efficiency of the Register.

“You run a good system here Miss Gascogne.”

“Why thank you Master Chief. Now then, now you know the job of a Stage hand, and since you're new around here, you can take a load off and sit down and watch how things work around her when we're already in combat.”

With that said, she quickly placed Hibiki on the chair and activated restraints on him, the restraints held the young teen down and he was not very happy with what Gascogne had just done to him when he was not expecting it from her of all people.

“Hey?! What are you doing?!”

“Like I said, you're new around here so sit back and just watch how things work.”

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

Barnette's Dread was now being equipped with all the needed parts, including the set that Barnette had just ordered from the Register. As soon as everything was done, Barnette smiled as her Dread's CPU told her that everything was in good working order.

“Barnette here, I'm going out!”

As her Dread took off to the battle zone and out of the Dread Launching Platform, the Register girls bid her farewell.

Outside of the ship, the section of the former Megele cruiser opened up and out flew the other Dreads along with Barnette's to join up with the rest of the formation.

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

Hibiki was not happy with being stuck on the side lines, but the Spartan took the time to study the foe before them. He was not concerned with the looks, but what the unit was capable of doing in battle.

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

As the Dreads got into position, the alien ship seemed unconcerned with the new fighters and stood there…

Everyone in the bridge was looking as Amarone reported that the alien ship was holding it's position.

Cortana was not liking this situation at all…a new alien fighter ship that looking it a massive bunch of sphere stuck together and yet it seemed to be doing nothing, this was not right. Something about this whole standoff was not looking good to the woman in her AI form.

< That thing's just there, doing nothing…if I'm not mistaken, it's either studying us still or daring us to make the first move.>

In the Register, Hibiki was confused as to why that alien ship that had pursued them so hotly was now just standing there like a moron, something was off. The Spartan thought the very same thing as both Hibiki and Cortana did, though he saw things differently. The enemy already knew that their primary forces were Dreads and Hibiki's Vanguard, so why was it just staying there?

Unless it was LOOKING for something or someone…

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

As Meia checked and confirmed that the Dreads were all in formation and ready to attack, she was unaware that the alien ship's sensors had been scanning the Dreads, but not just any Dread or group of Dreads, but hers, Jura's, and Dita's as well!

As soon as the alien ship's CPU confirmed the presence of the three enhanced Vanguards it targeted them specifically, ignoring the other Dreads and began to make it's move towards the pirates, as it had already identified the main ship as a threat.

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

“The ship is starting to move!”

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

To the eyes of the pirates on the ship and on the Dreads, the spheres that dotted the outer hide of the alien ship began to rotate around and around for some reason, and suddenly moving spines appeared out from the center of the spheres, this surprised and frightened Dita somewhat. The spines then became jagged in different angles and streams of energy were seen in the middle of those spines and made them glow and when that was over, it became apparent that the alien ship was ready to fight.

Jura was shocked as well at the sheer ugliness of the ship as she cringed in her cockpit.

“They've got to be kidding, a Sea Urchin?!”

“Are we seriously going to fight that thing?!”

Jura asked Meia as she spoke to the Dread leader, who still remained calm and composed despite the sight before her.

“Just calm down and focus Jura, All team leaders, check to make sure that all of you're team members are in formation. All teams… commence that attack now!”

“ROGER!!!”

That was the answer the Dread pilots were waiting for as they shot forward to engage the alien ship and take it out. The aliens hip also got ready to fight as the spines suddenly began to spin at irregular but high speed patterns. As several of the Dreads, including Barnette's own fired their missiles at the alien ship, the spines took the brunt of the attacks the missiles were rendered harmless as they exploded without even touching the main ship. Several Dreads, including Jura's own managed to make it through and they watched as the ship began to move.

“This is not good, those spines blocked our shots easily… how can we destroy let alone damage that thing if we can't get a lock on it?”

Jura asked as she watched several of the other Dread pilots try to fire their own missiles, but they too had the same results like before.

“Let's get Mr. Alien! He and his Vanguard can really help us out on this mess we're in!" Dita called in her communicator as she also managed to avoid the charging Sea Urchin like vessel.

“NO! WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU ABOUT RELYING ON OTHERS?”

“But he's a good alien, he can really help us out!” Dita countered as she dodged more shots from the enemy.

“WE DON'T NEED HIS HELP! HE'S A MAN AND OUR ENEMY! WE CAN HANDLE THIS ON OUR OWN!"

Meia gritted her teeth as she directed her fighter teams once more. < I WON'T ask for anyone's help! Namely from that MAN! > Meia mentally said furiously as she remembered Hibiki and his arrogant attitude towards her before.

Though Meia was confident of her skills and abilities and that of her fellow Dread pilots. She wasn't aware that she was breaking the most important rule in battle, and that was… `Never let your pride override your better judgment'

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

In the Register…

“I guess I was right.”

Gascogne turned to the Spartan and looked at him as he studied the alien ship as it continued to move about.

“What do you mean?”

“The aliens have merely been probing us, testing our reactions and the forces we have, now that they got enough data these past two days, they must have come up with a counter measure for the Dreads, and that counter measure is that thing.”

John then brought up an image of the ship on a nearby tactical display screen as it continued to attack the pirate Dreads with a very unique style of combat.

“The spines when they are jagged can deflect missiles and render the Dreads powerless for two reasons, the missiles basically are you're first strike weapon and for a quick kill and those spines render them useless on any range as it's too dangerous to fire the missiles point blank, and the speed of the machine makes it hard to engage using only energy weapons, this means that the only way to take this foe out is to strike when it's spines are out of the way…and it has to be a very precise attack in order to finish this quickly.”

Gascogne nodded at the Spartan's reasoning, and knew that no matter how many times they would reload their arsenals, as long as the machine could evade their beam weapons and render their missiles powerless to hit it, this fight would go on and eventually they would be in real trouble. The head supplier turned to get the report of her newest load of supplies when the ship was shaken hard as the alien ship attacked the ship directly as the Dreads were still powerless to stop it.

In the Navigation Well, Bart was shouting in pain as the damage on the ship was transferred to him as several large gashes appear on his right arm.

Cortana noted that and quickly informed the Captain that if they didn't find a way to deal with this threat, the machine would rip the ship to pieces and Bart along with it. Magno nodded in agreement as despite her lack of showing appreciation for Bart's efforts, she is in reality thankful as he is the only one who could maneuver the ship.

Hibiki still tried to struggle and shout for them to release him so he could help the Dreads take out the alien fighter before it took them all out, much to his surprise, the manacles that held him were suddenly released and he looked at Gascogne.

“Time for us to get a move on.”

“Huh?”

Unknown to Hibiki, while he was having his shouting fits, the Register girls had been filling new orders from the Dread pilots to re-arm and re-stock their supplies and munitions. The women were already working around the clock to get the supplies ready and they had just informed Gascogne that her new load of orders were ready to be sent out.

The Spartan nodded and beckoned Hibiki to follow, though the youth had no idea what was going on, he didn't hesitate to follow the Spartan's orders.

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

In a few moments, a new ship entered the fray…and it was the pirate's supply shuttle, the Dreki, the ship appeared to be heavily armored and capable of withstanding several close and long range attacks. As soon as the Dreki was in position over the battle-field and several of it's operation arms went to work.

“All right girls, let's get all this done in time, 50 seconds flat!”

Several Dreads docked with the Dreki, namely Barnette's Dread, Jura's, Meia's, and Dita's as well. The tactical displays showed the silhouettes of the Dreads and they were being refilled. On the outside, the robotic arms of the Dreki were busy loading new power cells into the beam weapons of the Dreads, and new missiles were being loaded onto their hard points, inside each Dread, the women pilots were being patient.

“Look out!”

Hibiki cried out as the Sea Urchin ship attacked the Dreki, but the reinforced armor plating took the blows without damage, and he was impressed with how the women were able to keep under pressure and in combat such as this.

“So this is how the Stage hands work?”

“Now you know why the pilots never stand alone when they are on stage, if we stage hands are not around, things can fall apart quickly.”

Gascogne nodded with a smile as the Dreads were now fully powered and re-supplied.

“It's all done now girls, go out there and give them hell!”

“I'm so full!” Dita cheered out as she and the others were now back into the fight with the alien ship.

Hibiki then noticed that there was one more hanger on the Dreki that was still loaded and he wondered what was in it for Gascogne not to give it to her fellow pirates.

“You've still got one more package in there.”

“Yeah, I figured that you can use this better than the others so we can end this fight, good luck out there kid.”

Hibiki was confused and quickly made two and two together and smiled in triumph as he could now finally fight with the enemy. However the Spartan stopped him before he could leave.

“Hibiki, keep in radio contact with me at all times, I'll help you in this battle so follow my orders for this battle, do you understand?”

Hibiki nodded respectfully to the Spartan.

“I do Master Chief!”

“Good, get going.”

As soon as Hibiki left the scene, the Spartan took a seat next to Gascogne and he began to run through the information at tactical displays. He then got into contact with the ship and called to Magno because he had a plan in mind, just in case things went wrong.

“Captain, I need access to the tactical communication frequencies of the Dreads, all of them.”

“May I ask why Master Chief?” Magno asked.

“Just in case this fight drags on even further, we can't afford to waste munitions and parts, along with possible casualties, I need access to the communication frequencies so I can coordinate their operations with Hibiki's own movements out here in the battle field.”

Magno nodded and turned to Cortana and typed in a command frequency to her and told the Spartan that his request was now granted.

“You have permission, Cortana will be transmitting the frequency codes to you're Mark VI right now.”

“The codes should be coming in now John, I hope you've got a plan.”

The Spartan nodded and signaled that he now had the command frequencies of all the Dreads. And not too soon as Hibiki tried to engage the Space Urchin in close combat using his Vanguard's energy sword. The women were surprised to see the Vanguard in the battle-field, Dita was happy to see her Mr. Alien, while Meia was not in a good mood.

The Space Urchin then fired out it's spines as it evaded Hibiki's attacks, and Hibiki was stunned as he was hit by the suddenly released projectiles. He coughed out in surprise and glared at the Space Urchin as it evaded him.

“Damn it…you'll pay for that!!!”

He was then surprised when he noted that his Vanguard was not moving for some reason and then found that one of the spines that the alien ship had fired had managed to pierce his Vanguard's right rear thrusters.

“Crap!!! That alien bastard's hurt my partner! I'll…”

“Calm down Hibiki!”

The voice of Master Chief Spartan II John-117 filled his cockpit and the young man recalled his training about emotions in the battle-field with the Spartan, and he managed to rein in his temper.

“Give me you're status Hibiki, what's the damage on you're Vanguard?”

Hibiki ran through the diagnostics and swore once more and gritted his teeth a bit and replied.

“That spike penetrated my partner's right shoulder and has disabled my right thruster, the engines still work, but I can't move at all, I'll try and remove the thing somehow.”

“Keep at that, I'll route you some support right now.”

The Spartan then accessed the command frequencies that were downloaded by Cortana to his Mark VI by permission of Captain Magno. As soon as he was told my his neural interface that he could now talk to the Dreads in the battle field and their pilots, he wasted little time.

“Attention all Dread pilots, this is Spartan-117, do you read me, over?”

The women were stunned to now find themselves looking at the Spartan and hearing his voice, they had thought that they could only communicate with each other.

“How did you manage to access our communications?!” Meia shouted in irritation, that armored giant of a …a man had now just hacked into their Dread communications!!!

“With the authority of the Captain…who's the closest among you to Hibiki's Vanguard right now?”

“I am Mr. Green Alien!!!”

Dita was happy to know that the green armored alien was now with them, and with Miss Gasco no less. The Spartan nodded as he recalled what were the capabilities of the VanDread the two formed when they fused together during the first battle with the aliens. It was a long shot, but if the Dreads could keep the alien ship covered, then the two could use the VanDread's overall fire power to take the alien ship out of the fight.

“Dita, I want you to combine with Hibiki's Vanguard and form that VanDread from before…we might be able to use it's fire-power to even up the odds in this fight. The rest of the Dreads should cover you so you can finish the combination.”

“All right!!!”

Dita wasted no time and made her way towards the still unmoving Vanguard, she was happy to finally get the chance to combine with Mr. Alien. Hibiki grumbled but decided that it was better than being helpless this way when the enemy was about.

However the alien unit seemed to know the VanDread combination Dita's Dread and Hibiki's Vanguard could make and what it was capable of. The machine was not going to wait and quickly targeted the redhead's Dread intent on either crippling the fighter, or destroying it and as it got ready to fire it's spines, someone else got into the act.

“Dita! Look out!”

Meia's Dread came on the scene and managed to move Dita's Dread aside before the spines hit the redhead's interceptor, but at the same time, the spines hit Meia's Dread, sending her towards the area where Hibiki's Vanguard was, just when the teen was trying his best to get his Vanguard to move.

“There's NO WAY…” Meia cried out as she tried to get control of her Dread.

“…I'll let this thing beat me!!!!” Hibiki shouted as he finally managed to force the spine that was imbedded in his Vanguard's shoulder out and get his thrusters working once more.

The two machines were close enough and suddenly they were both covered in deep green-white light and became a brand new fighting unit. The Vanguard was placed in between the Dread and the Dread began to shift it's form very quickly, the Dread flipped it's form over and released a pair of appendages that resembled the talons of a predatory bird's. The fuselage extended further and was now resembling the head of a dragon like beast with tusks in the front and a shielding of the plate slid down to reveal it's eyes. The new VanDread opened it's claws and seemed to roar out it's completion.

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

In the Dreki…

“Well, that's new.” The Spartan said with some surprise.

“What?!” Dita asked in absolute surprise.

“Did you just see that?!” Barnette asked in absolute surprise.

“It's so COOL!!!” Jura cooed with surprise as she admired the machine as she and the others were looking at a brand new Dragon type VanDread.

On the bridge, the crew, including the Captain, Buzam, and even Cortana were impressed by the sight.

“That guy certainly has some tricks up his sleeve.” Bart commented, with some envy in his voice.

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

In the VanDread's new cockpit…

As soon as both pilots recovered from the blast of light, they tried to get themselves into more comfortable positions, but they then found themselves in the most compromising of positions, with Hibiki's back on Meia's breasts and she was in a reclining position while Hibiki was in a hunched over position. The moment they saw each other, they began to start arguing once more.

“I DIDN'T WANT YOU'RE HELP AT ALL, SO GET THE HECK OUT OF THIS COCKPIT!!!!”

“EVEN IF I WANTED TO GET OUT OF THIS COCKPIT, WHERE DO YOU THINK AM I SUPPOSED TO GO?!”

Their arguing was cut short as they were shaken about as the alien ship took advantage of their feuding to attack them. As he felt the impacts, Hibiki recalled his lessons about team work and decided to put his issues with Meia aside and reached for the controls, and they responded in the very same fashion as they ones that he had with Dita in their own VanDread, he then faced Meia and spoke as patiently as he could.

“As much as I'd like to argue with you, we don't have the time and we have that alien ship to deal with, once we're done with him, then you and I can start our shouting match again.”

Meia glared but knew the truth in Hibiki's words and put aside her issues with him and began to work the pedals and controls that she could reach on her side of the chair.

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

The results were very much explosive as the VanDread that was once inactive came to life and began to chase the alien ship with a speed and acceleration that made all the other Dreads, including Dita's and Jura's look like a bunch of garden snails.

Barnette was stunned as she saw the speed and acceleration on her scanners.

“There's no way a normal Dread can handle that kind of speed and acceleration!!!”

“Wow…now I'm really envious of Meia and Dita. They're both so lucky!” Jura said in a very wistful voice.

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

The new VanDread (soon to be labeled VanDread Meia) was running circles all around the alien ship as it tried to escape the attacking unit and fired all of it's spines in the hopes of taking out the foe it was facing, however, the VanDread merely dodged the attacks was now in front of the alien ship.

Both pilots took this as their cue to strike as they both voiced out their anticipation.

“This is exactly…”

“…what I was waiting for!!!”

An aura of light appeared before the Dragon-like mecha and covered it as it launched itself like a MAC round and smashed right through the alien ship now that it was bare of it's only form of armor, it collapsed inside and exploded into many different fragments. The once one sided battle against the pirates turned into a total victory for them.

In the VanDread's cockpit, both pilots were very much exhausted by their respective ordeals.

“Well, that is one mess I don't ever want to happen again.” Hibiki sighed.

“I didn't know that we were thinking the same thing…now I guess you now know you can't just charge in expect to win every battle with just you're Vanguard, don't you?” Meia said to him.

Hibiki looked and replied. “That might be true…but you all were not getting very far with just your Dreads as well…so I guess we're both even.”

Meia didn't reply at that since Hibiki, despite his bad qualities, did raise a point.

Outside, as the Dreads, the Dreki, and the VanDread returned back to the ship, Dita was not happy.

“It's so unfair, Mr. Alien's only supposed to combine with me.”

Jura was deep in thought and then realized that since her Dread was transformed like Meia and Jura's Dread, then that would mean that her Dread could do the very things as well, and that was a very interesting thought to the blonde woman.

Later…

Hibiki was once more eating another box lunch that Dita had given him and he then noted the look she was giving him as he ate the food.

“What is it?”

“Will you promise to combine only with me Mr. Alien?”

“My name is not Mr. Alien! It's Hibiki, Hibiki Tokai…and thank you for the food.”

Parfet watched as Buzam once more released a pair of message pods, but this time, to make sure that those were not intercepted by the enemy, they used the transponder systems of the destroyed alien ship to disguise the pods and make it easier for them to avoid being found and destroyed.

She only wished that they make it back and they were not ignored by the people they were meant for, and Buzam agreed with her as well. They could do what they could hope that things worked out.

Meia on the other hand planned to finally have a chat with a certain Spartan about his tapping into their Dread communication frequencies, she might have admitted that he did well, but there was no way she was going to let that happen once more on her watch.

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

To be continued…

Author's notes:

How is the action so far?

I have been suffering some strong body pains lately and I haven't got as much time as I normally have, but I am still going at this story with all that I've got so I hope you readers don't mind the mess that's here at the very moment.

And it seems that there will be some animosity between Meia and the Master Chief as the young woman is a proud fighter and will not stand by and be showed up, so what will be the response of the Spartan to the challenge?

We will be moving up the ramp on the story soon and as you all might recall from the original series, the next episode was on a desert world…and what happened there was where they had a full idea of the Harvest operation. And you all know that this was the first Vanguard mission in the series, and the only time the women piloted Vanguards.

But for VanDread Halo…we are going old school here…because we are going to see the Master Chief kicking the rear ends of his enemies on solid ground! And this is where the women get to have some practical idea on just how nasty the Master Chief is when it comes to a fire fight!!!!

And like before, we have a trailer!!

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Jura and Barnette could only cover their eyes as the massive Sand Vanguards closed in and attacked…but suddenly they heard a whooping sound and several powerful explosions, finding themselves very much alive, they looked to see their Sand constructed adversaries headless as they fell apart.

Dita and Hibiki noted that as well and looked to their right…

To see the Spartan carrying a massive pod in his hands and it was smoking.

The Spartan then turned and spotted several new foes heading at his direction…but there were human shaped and he wasted little time as he placed aside the Missile Pod and took out his newest toy courtesy of Cortana's use of the newly acquired data specs and the manufacturing sections of the Nirvana and got ready as the humanoid Sand beings came right at him.

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See you on Chapter 5 The Sand Box!