Vandread Fan Fiction ❯ VanDread - Halo ❯ Battle Plans ( Epilogue )

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

VanDread - Halo
Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to either VanDread or Halo, they belong to their respective companies and those being Gonzo and Bungie.
Chapter 16
Battle Plans
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**************
In the Medical Bay of the Nirvana…
Duero was running the diagnostics on both Hibiki and the Master Chief, John was still in his Mjolnir Mark VI and Duero was using a diagnostics pad made by the UNSC to check the Spartan's condition through the medical sensors of his battle suit. Hibiki had bad injuries but thankfully the injuries were not crippling, and he would be fine with the right medication.
When the two had been brought back with Hibiki in a gurney, Dita clamped onto him and was very sad to see her Mr. Alien in such a state while Jura and Meia were alongside them as well, the young Tarak Teen did his best to assure Dita he would be fine but she was still worried and had to be pried away by both Jura and Meia so Duero could do his work on him. That was at least several hours ago and both of them were recovering well enough to be able to move about.
As Duero was done running diagnostics on the Spartan, the Master Chief then asked the question to the young Talark medic.
“So, what's the word?”
“You've fully recovered from most of your injuries Master Chief, the Mjolnir Mark VI's medical care systems kicked in while you were still injured and brought you back to full recovery.”
“What about Hibiki?”
“His injuries are a bit more serious but he's also on the road to recovery and is out of danger, I've used some special healing solutions on his broken bones and they have already mended, he'll be able to fight and fly though now is not the right time for such things as his body is still somewhat tender.”
“I see.”
The Spartan got to his feet and moved his body as Duero logged in the information concerning his two patients and it was then that the door to the Medical bay opened and in walked or rather, ran, Dita, followed by Meia, Jura, Cortana, and Buzam as well.
“Mr. Alien!!!!”
Hibiki had no time to recover when Dita hugged him and didn't release him, however, when he would have normally tried to pry her off of him, he didn't partly because his didn't plan to aggravate his injuries even more than he had to, and the other part was due to the fact that it was nice to see her again.
Jura and Meia watched as Cortana walked over to the Master Chief and smiled and spoke to him in a very happy voice, showing her joy at seeing him alive once more.
“Good to see you again.”
Buzam knew that now was not the right time, but being the serious leader that she was, she knew that they had a lot of work to get to and she turned to Meia first and spoke.
“Meia, as soon as you and your fellow Dread pilots are ready, I want you all to do a full recon scan of the area and gather as much intelligence information as you can, namely on that…thing out there.”
“Yes Commander!”
Buzam then turned to Dita and spoke.
“Dita, I want you to go with them as well on the mission, I need to have Hibiki and the Master Chief fill me and the Captain in on what exactly happened out there.”
“But Commander….Mr. Alien's still hurt!”
Hibiki however replied.
“I'll be fine Dita, I just need to get some movement and then I'll come back here for any other medical treatment okay?”
Dita could see that there was no way she could convince Hibiki to rest a bit more, and she knew that Buzam was right, still, it made her worry for Hibiki's health and safety and she spoke once more to him to make sure that he understood her.
“All right, but if anything goes wrong you come back here and let Mr. Doctor treat you okay?”
As Hibiki nodded, Dita went to join Meia and the others and Cortana who had seen the whole thing replied with s gentle smile in Dita's direction.
“She got it bad.”
John had to agree and after Hibiki got back into his clothes and Marine Body Armor which was still serviceable and not in the need of being replaced, both he and Hibiki made their way to the Conference Room.
**************
Meia ran through her Dread's systems and then spoke to all the Dread pilots as they were getting ready to fly out to do their recon sweep of the battle field, it was going to be quite the mess they were going to be flying through, but they had little choice, they needed as much information as possible in order to prepare for a possible attack by the Harvesters.
“All right ladies, we're doing an initial recon scan to find out just what happened here and get ready for a possible attack, Team A and Team B will do the first initial recon scan while Team C and Team D will handle perimeter defense. Once we're done, Tam C and Team D will take their turn in the recon scan while Team A and Team B will handle the defense. I'll be in command of Team A and Team B, Jura, you and Barnette will handle Team C and Team D, is that clear?”
“Yes Meia!”
“All right, let's get to it!”
The Dreads were quick to take off while Cortana deployed an extra team of Longswords to help out defense and also external recon of the area before them. The former UNSC AI was happy that the Master Chief was okay, now all she had to worry about was the soon to come fight, and that was why she was running through her inventories to see just what sort of surprises she could unleash on the Harvesters.
**************
In the Conference Room…
Magno looked at both men and gave a sigh of relied.
“Thank the Goddess we got there in time to help out, you two okay?”
The Spartan replied first.
“I'm in good straits Captain.”
Hibiki also nodded and he touched his injured rib and his leg while wearing his Marine Body Armor that was still in good operational condition, the young man gave a confident smile and replied.
“As long as I can move and fight, I'm good to go Grand Ma.”
Magno smiled at that remark and was happy that both men were on good condition, but she needed to know just what had happened since they had been separated with the rest of the crew, they recalled seeing the debris and more. She had Meia and the other available Dread pilots do a recon sweep of the area to determine what had happened and they brought in a lot of information.
Buzam nodded as well, while she too felt relief that they were all right, she was able to hide her feelings on the matter a lot more than the others. She got to the business at hand and spoke to the two, whatever happened there was important to them so they had an idea of what had happened when they had been separated from the two men.
“I know that now is not really the best time to be asking you two to be doing duties but we have sent Meia and a recon team to sweep the battle field, and judging from the data they had been sending us from the scanners, there must have been a serious battle here. But since you were here before us, what can you tell us?”
The two looked at one another and the Master Chief nodded to Hibiki who got the message and gave his report, he had been trained not to use too many flowery words, but important ones and very much needed tactical and strategic data, no doubt from his training under the Spartan and he personally knew that the information could help them in the near future.
“The ships which are not following Harvester design belonged to the people of Melanos, they too were being targeted by the Harvesters for their skin.”
Both Buzam and Magno gave looks of utter disgust at the information and the thought that even the Harvesters were after the skin of humans made them all the more determined not to let them have their way with the human race. Despite their disgust, Buzam nodded for Hibiki to continue with his report…
“We were able to meet up with their commander after we….accidentally got shot at.”
“You were shot at?!”
“Yes, at the time they were rather jumpy being on the defensive all the time and we tripped their sensors at the wrong time. After we got the confusion fixed, we learned that they were betrayed by a certain traitor to the human race.”
Buzam frowned and Magno gave a slight snarl, they already knew just who Hibiki was talking about and that was when the Master Chief decided to get into the report and Hibiki moved to allow his mentor and guardian to speak.
“The ruined ship that you see there was a Harvester Battleship, no doubt one of their autonomous command ships and from what me and Hibiki saw it has a lot of fire power, at least four sections of this frame carry at least four Seed Ships per area of the section and there are at least a two hundred or more Seed Ships there on standby. The ship also boasts one single powerful main cannon as well as several smaller banks of energy based weapons, and also some torpedo tubes as well.”
The two women were shocked by that and wondered just how can the Nirvana defeat such a ship, a lot of the Melanos ship wreckage told them that the battle waged by the Melanos people with the Harvesters must have been very bloody and destructive. However they knew that the two men were not the kind to let others do the fighting, Hibiki's nature told them otherwise, while the Spartan was trained to fight battles and considering his successes, could pull victory out of overwhelming odds.
“So how exactly was a ship with that much power and weaponry defeated, or rather torn apart like a can filled with fire crackers? I take it you two had something to do with that?”
Hibiki gave a slight smile and John-117 merely replied.
“You could say that Ma'am.”
Magno gave a slight smile.
“All right youngsters, I'll bite, how did you two characters deal with this mess?”
**************
Flashback…
Hibiki and the Master Chief looked at the massive vessel and the Spartan could see that this ship was not going to be a pushover. It resembled a Covenant Carrier only in the sense that it was made by inhuman hands, but in the design it was different, it resembled a sea cucumber of sorts and he had seen that kind of aquatic animal before in his studies on Reach and from some of the private lessons Dr. Catherine had given them when they were not in training, just for the fun of it.
This was no sea creature however in the eyes of the Spartan and it was a deadly threat to all life and from what he could see of the support fleet it would prove to be a deadly mess for them to clean up. However the Master Chief didn't feel any fear a the sight of that thing, compared to the ships he had boarded before and had seen in action, this new ship was not that big a threat in his mind.
Hibiki could tell that the Spartan was not impressed by the sight of the Harvester battleship even though he was, there was no way that he could fight that thing head on but maybe the Chief had a plan, the Master Chief had always planned out some very hair raising missions and if there was one thing the Tarak teen could count on to be a constant, the master Chief's plans worked many times before. The young teen could see the fear in the eyes of the others however and the fight was well under way.
The Melanos fighters moved out and then the Spartan saw the Cube Fighters make off to fight the human pilots and the Spartan knew that Mikage was there and this fight was going to be the kind of fight that was going to really push the envelope. He then turned to the Captain and spoke.
“That's what you were trying to fight against Captain?”
“Yes Master Chief, that is but one of the Harvester force's Main Battle Ships, it houses a great deal of weaponry and has a massive fleet, we would pull back had this been different, but we can't, if we do, then our world is doomed and we will not be able to stop the Harvesters at all.”
Hibiki and the others looked on as the massive space battle began and it seemed that the Harvesters will have the upper hand in this battle not only in terms of numbers, but overwhelming fire power. The Melanos pilots did their best to pull a fighting chance and their much larger ships managed to down a number of Seed Ships and Urchin Ships as well as a large number of Cube Fighters, but while the Melanos ships had deadly firepower against the smaller Harvester forces, the fact remained that the Harvesters had numbers on their sides and with the harvester Battleship providing heavy power to the attacks and the numbers of the Harvester forces, the situation looked fairly grim. for the Melanos forces.
The captain and the crew of the ship that Hibiki and John were on did his best to coordinate the forces under his command and while they had a good effort, the Harvesters were still proving to be a problem indeed as they managed to begin ripping their way through the fighter screens of the Melanos forces and the Spartan knew that as soon as the harvester broke through, they would clear the way for the boarding craft to make their move, the fighters of the Melanos forces who were disabled were forced to kill themselves in any way possible as the harvester forces attempted to take them alive for Harvesting.
The boarding craft came into play and the Harvester Shock troopers began to get to their work of invading the ships and attacking the crews of the ships that they were onboard, the crews panicked as they tried to fight back and it was not long before some ships were forced to activate their self destruct modes to prevent being overwhelmed.
Hibiki clenched his hands in anger as he watched the carnage before him and he gripped his hands even tighter into fists and he wanted to do something to stop this slaughter but he knew that there was no way his Vanguard could fight that many all at once and the Master Chief's lessons in tactics taught him that meeting force with force was not the best way to defeat their foes. He knew that there was going to be a chance soon enough.
The Spartan had enough and quickly decided to deal with the Harvesters, he knew that the Melanos forces, despite their courage and their team work, they were going to need some way to deal with the Harvesters….and he already had a very good idea on just how to deal with the Harvesters in a way that what was considered the ultimate form of insanity. But he had done it before and he could very well do it again.
“Hibiki, let's go, I have a plan.”
Hibiki nodded and the two turned to the Captain and he spoke to the two of them.
“What are you planning?”
“We're going to give the Harvesters a good surprise. Have your best engineers meet us at the Hanger Bay under full escort Captain.”
The Captain had no idea what the Spartan had in mind, but having heard stories about the man in action, he decided to give the order and sent his best engineers to head for the Hanger Bay under full escort. The Harvesters deployed several boarding craft toward the ship and the Melanos pilots managed to destroy at least half a dozen of the boarding craft while the main guns of the ship eliminated ten more and it was not long before there were reports of Harvester Shock Troopers in the ship.
**************
The Harvester Shock Troopers fought with the Melanos security teams and while the people fought their best to hold off the incoming forces of the Harvesters, they were not able to do well as there were too many of them coming and attacking them for a concerted effort to be made to force the Harvester Shock Troopers to pull back and be forced to run and be destroyed. Several more Melanos people were taken out and some were tackled and being cut up by the Harvester Shock troopers, much to the fear of many other Melanos soldiers.
However, they were about to get some backup….one Harvester trooper turned to kill one survivor but was quickly torn to shreds by several well placed shots from a high powered rifle and the Harvester trooper bled all over the place and then fell down, the others turned and then to their surprise….there before them was the Spartan that they had been programmed to terminate.
The surviving Harvester Shock Troopers began to move to eliminate the Spartan, but the Master Chief was not deterred and charged at them and managed to scope up a discarded Melanos Blaster rifle and with amazing skill, strength, and control, the Spartan fired both weapons, the lasers being fired by the Melanos rifle mixed with 7.62x51mm rounds from the Spartan's MA5C ICWS Assault Rifle and cut down several more of the Harvester Shock Troopers and one tried to attack the Spartan, but the Spartan slammed the laser Rifle into the face of the Harvester Shock Trooper and then when it broke off….slammed the sharpened part through the Shock Trooper's neck.
Hibiki was there as well and through his training, conditioning and experience, the Tarak teen was able to get his first kill of a Harvester Shock Trooper as one was about to attack his mentor and he took aim and fired….normally someone like him in terms of body build and height would have had some difficulties, but since training with the Spartan for a long time since the Master Chief took over watching and training him, he had grown used to firing the weapon and had taken a kneeling stance to better his accuracy as he was nowhere near able to take the full load of the recoil like John-117 could.
His action proved helpful as his shots hit true and the Harvester Shock Trooper turned with several smoking holes in the chest and sides and as it turned to fire, the young man relaxed himself and pressed the trigger of his MA5C ICWS Assault Rifle, sending three more rounds right into the head and neck of his target….dropping the Harvester Shock Trooper quickly. The Spartan turned and gave Hibiki a nod of approval and the two moved on with Hibiki running to keep up with the Master Chief, the survivor was quickly able to recover and pick up his weapon, what he saw was amazing, that Spartan had taken down half a dozen of the aliens in a few minutes.
The Spartan then turned to the survivor and gave the man a spare laser rifle and spoke.
“Get up and fight, don't let them win.”
Hibiki and the Master Chief knew that they needed all the help they could get and decided to back track to get him and the man could see that since they came back for him, they were going to be his back up, and he felt courage hit him for the very first time since the fight, and from what he had seen, it showed to him that the Harvesters can be beaten after all. If the Spartan could do it and so could his Tarak teen comrade, why can't he?
“I won't sir!”
The man took the rifle and got up to join the Master Chief and the Spartan, Hibiki and the newly encouraged Melanos soldier moved out and quickly moved out to head to the Hanger Bay and then they encountered several more of Melanos soldiers being pinned down by a number of Harvester Shock Troopers and some were badly wounded by plasma fire, the Spartan quickly moved in forward and charged, firing several accurate bursts at the Harvester Shock Troopers and killing a number of them since they were so focused on the Melanos soldiers that they were unaware of the arrival of the Spartan.
The Harvester Shock Troopers turned and the Master Chief ran forward at high speed, something that was seen by the two men and the other Melanos soldiers as the Spartan moved quickly to gun down all the Harvester Shock Troopers, one tried to engage the Spartan in hand to hand combat by using it's blade, but the Spartan retaliated by knocking it into the wall with a single punch and then he fired several rounds into the creature and sent it to the ground dead. The Harvester Shock Troopers tried to fire at the Spartan, but he moved too fast for them to recover before he kicked on hard in the chest and sent that unit flying backwards and then he smashed the butt of his MA5C ICWS Assault Rifle into the head of another, splattering it's CPU `brain' all over the place and the other Harvester Shock Troopers were taken d own by the concerted fire of the newly rescued Melanos soldiers as well as Hibiki.
The Melanos were impressed by the combat skills of the Spartan and it was not long before they rallied under him and they led a counter attack with their destination being the Hanger Bay to help the Spartan with his plans to deal with the Harvesters. They all encountered great resistance from the Harvesters who were doing their best to destroy the Spartan as their forces moved to eliminate the Master Chief, knowing that he was a threat to them and their masters.
This allowed the Melanos forces to escort their engineers to the hanger Bay easily as the Spartan's presence lured away the Harvester Shock Troopers infesting the ship's area and that allowed them to move to the location under the Captain's orders. The Spartan was no mere lure however and proved to be more than able to kill the Harvester Shock Troopers as he and his currently assembled forces were moving through the ship and rescuing more survivors.
The way the Master Chief efficiently dispatched his foes was awe inspiring to the Melanos forces and they were reinvigorated and since the captain and the bridge crew were watching the whole thing and showing it to their comrades in the ships, it inspired them as well to fight ever harder and it was not long before the concerted efforts of the Melanos soldiers allowed them to face off the Harvesters and get their medics to heal their wounded.
Those Melanos soldiers who were with the Spartan and Hibiki pushed on and those who couldn't due to injuries were quickly rescued by their medics, this gave the Melanos people a fighting chance to secure their ships and hold the line
**************
In the Hanger Bay…
As soon as the strike team comprising of the rescued Melanos soldiers and both Hibiki and the Master Chief arrived, the rest of the forces arrived with full escort, with a good number of the Harvester Shock troopers focused on killing the Spartan, the Melanos forces were able to rally together and launch a counter attack and escorted the engineers, one of whom was engineer Sera herself and as soon as they made it to the Longsword and then hauled out a number of crates from the storage area of the Longsword he piloted.
As soon as the crates were on the ground, he gave an order for the security forces to form a defensive pattern around them and then spoke to Sera and the engineers as the security forces did just what he asked of them though they wondered just what he had in mind to save their bacons in this dark hour..
“Do you have any message pods or hollow missiles on this ship?”
Sera thought about that and nodded.
“We have a set of more powerful anti-ship torpedoes in storage here but they were never used since they had not been loaded with any form of explosive warheads. Why do you ask that?”
“I have an idea on how to kill that monstrosity out there.”
What are you going to do Chief?”
The Spartan pressed the punch code
“Hibiki, remember that time when we rescued Miss Gascogne from that wreck?”
Hibiki and the other Melanos soldiers, and engineers, including Seran were gasping as the Master Chief revealed just what was in the crates he had on the Longsword, as inside were at least twenty Fury TacNukes in the each of the crates. The Melanos people might not have recognized them Hibiki however was quick on the uptake and recognized the weapons. He grinned and then spoke to his mentor.
“With all due respect Chief, you're crazy.”
“I know. But we don't have any choice at this point.”
Seran spoke as she gulped at seeing a certain hazard symbol on the weapons.
“What are we going to do with all these weapons?”
The Spartan replied as he went to getting the weapons out and ready for use.
“Simple Engineer Sera….we are about to turn that Harvester battleship into the universe's largest Fragmentation Grenade ever recorded.”
“How?”
“These are Fury Tactical Nuclear Weapons or in simple terms, nuclear grenades. I need you to reconfigure these torpedoes to store these twenty TacNukes into themselves and have them contain a release system to release the TacNukes in a spreading pattern and also have them detonate at a span of at least thirty seconds through a delay system. Can you do that?”
Sera and the other engineers looked at one another and nodded to the Spartan, it was risky and was unheard of, but if that would give them the fighting chance they needed to win this coming fight they were more than ready to put their abilities to the test.
As the engineers worked on the design, the Spartan quickly set the Fury TacNukes and activated their set time delay systems for them to detonate at thirty seconds. As soon as the delivery system was set and ready the Spartan had the torpedoes loaded onto the hard points of his Longsword and he contacted the bridge and in detailed explained his plans to the Captain. As soon as he was finished, the Captain was very much in shock at what the Spartan had in mind.
“You want to do that?! It's crazy!”
“But we don't' have much in terms of options Captain, I need a flying wedge of ships that you can spare and some good pilots to clear the way for us to fire the missiles into the main ship after the ships fire a concentrated barrage onto the Harvester Battleship.”
“Will it work?”
“We're about to find out.”
The Captain knew that there was no time and they would have called it a last stand, but if the Spartan came up with a plan that could end this battle quickly and ensure that his people would survive the coming storm then he would chance it, he gave his permission and contacted a number of still functioning ships to punch a hole through the Battleship's defense fleet and several responded as well as a number of fighters.
The Spartan and Hibiki took to space and were now surrounded by a handful of Melanos cruisers and also a good number of Melanos Fighters, Mikage was also among them being one of the squadron leaders, Sera and the others wished them luck in this mission and both of them knew they were going to need it.
The Cruisers were now being hit hard, but they pushed on and the fighters fought off the Cube Fighters to cover both the Spartan and Hibiki as their strike team closed the gap with the ships providing ample cover, one badly damaged cruiser took several more hits before it peeled away from the strike team to hold off the Cube Fighters as well as the Seed Ships and the Urchin Ships while it's crew and fighters fought on until they were overwhelmed, the Spartan told them to hold steady and keep moving to the ship as the firestorm intensified and then, when they were close enough to do the damage that he knew they needed to punch through, he gave the order for all forces to unleash their firepower.
The cruisers did so and so did the fighters and their combined assault destroyed a large number of the Battleship's defense fleet and the cruisers fired their weapons full power and then hit the Battleship's hull, the ship was not fazed by the attacks, but the attacks alone had torn a big enough hole for the torpedoes to punch through into the ship. The Spartan tracked their distance and then ordered the cruisers to pull back. The fighters took over and both them and Hibiki escorted the Longsword into the maw as the Cube Fighters were still reeling from the attack. Hibiki cut down several more Cube Fighters and the Melanos Fighters destroyed several more of the Harvester's expendable fighter units while the cruisers were doing a fighting retreat and blasting away at the Cube Fighters and the rest of the Harvester Forces to both escape and lessen the number of forces before the strike team. The Battleship fired at the cruisers with it's weapons and two more were destroyed, but that was when the Spartan fired the missiles and called for everyone to evacuate as quickly as possible.
The fighters and both Longsword and Vanguard high tailed it out of the area as well as the cruisers, but the Longsword and Vanguard were left behind, but the Spartan had a plan and told the rest to keep moving as the Cube Fighters, Seed Ships and Urchin ships kept on coming towards them I their retreat. The other Melanos forces held on and supported the retreat from the Harvester Battleship
The Harvesters had no idea that the torpedoes that were fired into the Battleship were not the regular kind of torpedoes and were quickly showing that fact as their sides opened and then the foot ball sized nuclear grenades were quickly spread out all over the ship as the delivery mechanisms had small booster casings that were armed with small thrusters controlled by dumb AI and that was enough to evenly spread the TacNukes all over the ship's vast interior.
As soon as every TacNuke was deployed and their timers reached zero….the devastation started, because the release system gave the nukes enough time to be evenly spaced out to cause maximum damage, the Fury TacNuke would normally be used by UNSC forces to take out bases on the ground or when placed on the Gravity Lift of a shielded Covenant ship, to gut the ship from the inside out. This was because the ship would contain the blast but also cause a great deal of internal damage to the ship itself. As each TacNuke went boom, the energy they released first created a massive EMP pulse wave as all nuclear weapons were known to do and then the massive release of explosive energy and since the fact that despite looking like an overinflated football, the Fury Tactical Nuclear weapon had the explosive power of more or less a megaton yield, it was more than able to cause devastation despite it's blast range of being only 0.6 km.
The fact that there were forty of these nuclear grenades floating about inside the ship and going off all at once as soon as they timers were active, was more than enough to gut the Harvester Battleship like a can filled with dynamite. The blinding flashes of light followed by the massive heat and blast power made the ship bulge and crack as the nuclear blast energy was spreading out inside the Harvester Battleship and causing massive damage and it was not long before the Harvester Battleship began to thrash about like a wounded animal or a man who had just swallowed a dish so potent that he couldn't help but feel like he was about to barf big time. The Harvester Battleship began to bulge and grow even larger and it was not long before the ship was losing structural integrity and even though the ship was not going boom yet….the effects of the massive internal damage was evident as the Harvester forces were quickly being shut down and the Melanos forces pounced on this chance and devastated the deactivated Harvester forces.
The Harvester Battleship's frame and design could no longer hold the massive energy that was about to be unleashed as it followed the same pattern as the tulip like ship that Hibiki and Jura dealt with before back over on Anpathos….only in this case, the ship was being filled to the brim with nuclear energy and the damage to the ship reach critical and then went boom…
**************
In the Command Bridge of the Melanos Command ship…
“Incredible…”
The Captain and the rest of his crew gaped with amazement as the Harvester Battle Ship was literally blown to shreds in a massive fireball and blast of pure light and the level of destruction was unbelievable for the Harvesters, the Seed Ships and Cube Fighters there were torn apart by the massive explosions and the massive shockwave was enough to send the others that were not in the blast range flying. The Harvester forces were immediately deactivated and rendered powerless as their main source of command and control was destroyed.
In less than twelve minutes, the fierce fighting had quickly turned to the side of the human race, all through the efforts of two men who apparently had risked it all in order to win it for the human race in their darkest hour. He quickly ordered his crew to start scanning the area before them to find any trace of their new found allies.
“Is there any sign of them?!”
“Negative sir, the massive amount of debris and energy in the area is too thick for us to get a proper reading on what happened. There's a good chance that they might have been…”
The Captain dared not to believe it, the Spartan and his young protégé can't possibly be dead before his eyes!
“Scan again to be sure! We can't let it end like this!”
The crew agreed and tried as best they could to send out their fighters and scanners but they could find nothing, there was just too much debris out there for them to get any proper scanner readings and after several more fruitless searches, the Captain's hope to find the two heroes faded and he had no choice but to order his ships to pull out and regroup. However, he and the rest of the crew and the survivors of his people were not going to forget the actions of the two men who they had only met hours before. Their efforts had bought their people plenty of time to counter the Harvesters and severely weaken them, the loss of a Battle Ship would throw the Harvester forces in absolute disarray and give their people time to gather the resources and materials needed to mount a full scale counter attack and defense.
.He also vowed never to forget the men's sacrifice for their lives and vowed to tell the story far and wide about the noble actions of two brave young men who risked everything for the human race in this universe. He gave the order for all ships to pull back and regroup, as well as gather all salvageable ships, equipment, and fighters as well as any still intact harvester ships for salvage and study to look for weaknesses that their forces could exploit at the soonest possible time, with all that done, he then turned and he turned to his crew.
“We must never forget what happened her today, two men who were from other worlds have given their lives to fight the Harvesters and they had shown us that we should never give up, and fight no matter the odds. We will honor their names for as long as we live, and we will make the Harvesters pay not just their lives but the lives of all that have suffered because of them.”
The crew nodded and as they got to work, the Captain turned and gave a salute to the people who had sacrificed their lives to ensure the survival of his people and in effect, the human race from the Harvesters, and he recalled the advice of the Spartan to him.
<I will never forget what you have told me John-117, and I will never forget you or Hibiki Tokai for as long as I hold breathe and blood in my body, we will defend out people to the end.>
With that, the Melanos Fleet gathered their wounded forces and returned home, carrying bitter sweet news of their victory and the loss of many people as well as the deaths of two famous heroes in the war for the freedom and survival of the human race. Mikage and Sera who were back together and reunited after the vicious fighting much to their relief had the same sentiment in mind as well.
However, both Hibiki and John were alive, the Spartan had burned the engines of his Longsword to the limit and so did Hibiki in his Vanguard, but they were able to use the remains of the Harvester forces and the Melanos forces, using the debris to buffer the blast and also shield them from as much of the EMP blast as well. Their machines needed to recover and Hibiki was exhausted and asleep, leaving John to watch over them, the energy unleashed would lure the Nirvana here to them so all they could hope for was wait.
**************
End of Flashback…
Buzam was wide eyed at the Spartan and spoke out her amazement.
“You fired two missiles containing at least forty FURY TacNuke nukes in there?!”
The Spartan shrugged and replied.
“It was the only option we had at the time and the results were worthy it Commander, besides, there was no way that the FURY TacNukes would have worked had we fired them from the outside. The missile container system was the best way to distribute the TacNukes evenly into the ship to maximize full damage, plus the massive EMP blast would completely disable the ship's systems and cripple the rest of the Harvester force.”
“And you managed to escape using the debris of the Harvester Seed, Urchin and Cube ships?”
“Yes, we also had to power down all essential systems to preserve them to make sure we'd make it, thankfully we had no need to deactivate life support and communications and that was what saved our lives at that moment.”
Magno thought about all that she had been told and knew that this information could prove to be the key they needed to beat the Harvesters, the Spartan had been able to defeat the Harvesters and struck a major blow to the enemy and there was no doubt in her mind that the Harvester leadership would be fuming mad at this turn of events. She then faced the Master Chief and Hibiki, marveling at the two men and knew that now was the time to plan and prepare, they had little time and with Rabat telling the Harvesters of what had happened, there was no doubt that the Harvesters would be furious with them.
She then spoke to the Spartan.
“Do you think they'll be coming after us next?”
The Spartan nodded.
“That's a big possibility Ma'am, there is no doubt in my mind that once they hear of the loss of their Battle ship in the attempt to harvest the skins of the Melanos People, they will do everything in their power to avenge the loss, and they will target us for that. The Harvesters don't see us as a thorn to their side anymore Ma'am, they are no doubt going to do everything they possibly can in order to destroy us as quickly as possible before we become too much of an influence over the other human worlds, and I have no doubts that we have scored a major loss for them, losing a planet full of resources is one thing, and so is the defeat of a Harvesting force back on Talvern….but the destruction of an entire Battle Ship is something else entirely.”
Magno and Buzam nodded with the Spartan's assessment, they had a lot of planning to do from here on out.
**************
In the Harvester home world….
The news had arrived of the defeat of their battle ship and the overall losses in the operation and in line with the Spartan's thoughts on the matter, the Harvesters were Far from pleased.
“WHAT?!”
The Council shouted in absolute shock and in unison as well as the report from Rabat came in as well as the reports from the battle field, and to say that they were shocked by the news was an understatement of epic proportions. The underling that brought them the news cowered at their glares and replied in a very shaky voice.
“We have confirmed it Master, the Battleship we assigned to the Melanos Harvesting operation in that sector was utterly destroyed and is no longer salvageable for use, that and all the forces in it's support fleet have been annihilated.”
“The Melanos people destroyed ONE of our Battleships?!”
“No way, they do not have the numbers or the fire power for such a feat!”
“Master, we have gathered data from the Battleship before it was destroyed, it seemed that the operation was going as planned when the Melanos people launched a counter attack aimed right at the Battleship and then they deployed a number of their forces to launch a suicide attack on the battleship, the Battleship's defenses were able to beat them but not before a squadron of fighters were able to attack and then one of them fired a pair of large missiles into the ship which resulted in the destruction of the Battleship.”
“Impossible! Do you expect us to believe that TWO puny missiles destroyed ONE Battleship?!”
“They were not ordinary missiles Master, the last recording from the Battleship's internal scanners showed that they carried nuclear weapons in them, the weapons were spread out evenly through the ship and the resulting combined detonation ensured that the Battleship would be easily torn to shreds from the inside out.”
Nuclear weapons?! How can the Melanos people even have nuclear weapons?! Rabat's reports state that the Melanos people had no such weapons in their arsenals!”
“There was more Master….it seemed that the Melanos had support….in the shape of the Spartan. Rabat attempted to deal with him and the boy whose Vanguard created the VanDreads, but they were rescued by the Nirvana.”
The Council were shocked and enraged to know that the Spartan and his allies on the Nirvana had handed them yet another bloody defeat, the loss of their Harvesting forces on Talvern was bad enough, the loss of their ship over Anpathos was also bad enough as well as the loss of the ground strike team, and then the loss of one of their resource planets and the time needed to rebuild there had chaffed them. But this loss of a battleship and it's support fleet was too much!
“Have one of our battleships focus on destroying the Nirvana once and for all! Are the new counters to the Vanguards ready?!”
“Yes they are Master…”
“Then send them out to destroy the Nirvana, it is high time they were dealt with, we can no longer ignore them!!! THEY MUST DIE!!!!”
**************
Out in space, a new Harvester Battleship was awakened to accomplish the will of it's creators to annihilate the Nirvana once and for all, and in a hanger bay area inside of it, there were three new weapons ready to bring on the destruction.
**************
In the Nirvana…
The news that was delivered to them was very worrying for all the people on the Nirvana, the thought of having to face a Harvester Battleship, something that none of them had ever fought before was certainly troubling to all the people on the ship. They had no idea how deadly that ship was and seeing the destruction one Battleship and it's support fleet could accomplish made many of the crew uneasy with how to defeat such a monster of an enemy and it's forces, there was also a chance that the Harvesters would have developed new weapons in which to fight them, their experience with the Harvesters' ground forces told them that much, if they had such a varied army for ground battles, what was to stop the Harvesters from developing weapons for space combat.
But the fact that both Hibiki and the Master Chief as well as the Melanos people had made a highly risky yet successful concerted effort to defeat one ship, there were those on the Nirvana that felt that they can still win this if they planned something, but even they wondered how they could defeat this massive monster of a ship. So far there had been no sightings of the supposed Harvester Fleet, but they needed to do something in order to defeat the Harvesters when they showed up, they could do little if they stayed here for a long time.
They also had to deal with the fact that there was gas giant in the area as well and it was in the early stages of turning into a star and therefore it was releasing a great deal of gravity as well…
It was then that Hibiki had a stellar idea…it was risky,, it was insane, and it could only work if everything was done down to spec… but it was the only option they had at that moment. And they had a chance to make this work since all they needed to deal with the Harvesters was already there with them and all they had to do was lure them in.
**************
In the Planning Room of the Nirvana…
“That is insane!!!!”
One of the Dread pilots commented as Hibiki outlined his plan as the rest of the crew gathered together and all of them had to admit that Hibiki's plan was beyond crazy, it was borderline mad. The only ones who were not thinking that Hibiki had blown a gasket was his mentor and Cortana as the woman in her AI form looked on.
Hibiki however was confident of his plan, he had thought it over ever since he had stared at the gas giant that the Nirvana was close to and he recalled some things he had read about concerning celestial bodies such as a gas giant.
“Listen, this can work, it's risky, it's crazy, and it's mad, but the harvesters would never think we'd actually do it, that's our advantage. Besides, if we take advantage of the fact that the Harvesters would be eager to destroy us, we could hide in the gas giant force them all to gather in one place and then once the gas giant goes into turning into a star then we can destroy them all in one fell swoop, if we tried to fight them outside, we'd be overwhelmed, this way we can trap them all in one spot. We'll have the Dread squadrons and the Longswords as well as some AI controlled Vanguard teams engage the Harvesters as well as Cortana having fired several shots from her Archer Missiles…once that happens, we fight them for as long as we can manage and then make a full retreat into the gas giant.”
“Once we're inside, several Dreads including Dita's, Meia's, and Barnette's will fire up the core of the gas giant and feed it energy so we can make it collapse and transform itself into the core of a star. Then me and Jura will fly out of our machines with several Longswords armed to the teeth with all the fire power we can spare as well as upgraded with gravity shield generator parts from the Register, once we face them, Jura and I combine our forces and form VanDread Jura to create the outer shell to hold everything into play until the core reacts the way we need it too….once we're in the clear, all of us escape through the Harvester ranks
Magno turned to Cortana and John.
“Do you think it will work?”
Cortana replied.
“I'm not really all that sure Captain, but considering the sheer power of a star being born, we're definitely going to be skirting the edges of insanity. But so far this idea seems to be workable and it's a big risk, no doubts about that, but if we pull it off, it will be worth every moment.”
Magno nodded and Buzam nodded as well, the Commander of the pirates had to admit that this plan cooked up by the young Tarak teen was something that seemed to be borderline insane, no one as far as she knew had ever tried to create a star, let alone use it as weapon, but if it worked, it could very well be their salvation. The elderly leader of the pirates looked about and spoke.
“This plan is risky, and dangerous to the extreme, had things been different, I would never recommend it to be used for any reason. But we have no choice, none of us have ever seen the destruction
As the others got to work, both Cortana and the Master Chief looked at Hibiki and the former UNSC AI spoke to Hibiki.
“You are really starting to amaze me Hibiki, to actually suggest we turn this gas giant into a star so we can wipe the Harvesters out in one fell swoop, I think John here is having some of his personality rub off on you.”
Hibiki grinned and then faced his mentor and guardian.
“Do you think it'll work sir?”
The Spartan grinned a bit in his helmet and replied.
“It's a risky plan Hibiki, but if we do it right, it can work perfectly. This is by far your daring plan yet.”
Hibiki nodded and he got to work as the others got to work as well.
**************
The Nirvana's crews did their best to be prepared for the worst and to place Hibiki's plan into action, Parfait and her engineering teams worked nonstop to get the upgrades on the Vanguards and the Longswords as well. They installed special COM and control systems into the Vanguards, namely the regular ones and the modified Vanguards as well and the Longswords as well.
Cortana helped in the process and was able to test the systems of the Vanguards by studying the operation data and footage of the Vanguards in use and she tested her skills by running through several Vanguard training simulations for space warfare. She did all this while in her holo tank and when she finished, she said that while it was kind of weird to be doing those motions in the holo-tank to control the Vanguards, she was more than ready and eager to give them a go.
Bart was also told of the plan and he also thought it was crazy, but he was then told by Hibiki that he had an important part in this plan, he would have to handle the control of the ship's navigation systems and was needed to coordinate the escape, if was not at one hundred percent, they would not make it out in time, in effect, he realized that the lives of all the crew were in his hands and they needed him to be at his best. Bart was overwhelmed and decided to train as best he could and relax himself for the soon to come battle.
As soon as they were able to make the needed changes to their forces for Hibiki's risky and daring plan, they were informed that the Clarion Spy Drones had located the Harvester forces and the long range scans from the drones told them that there was indeed a Harvester Battleship with them and that told the pirates that it was game time.
**************
It was then that the bridge crew got a message from the Harvesters, and Magno nodded for them to play it. And it was not long before they were able to hear the Harvesters for the first time.
“LOWER YOUR SHIELDS AND SURRENDER YOURSELVES…RESISTANCE IS POINTLESS."
The ancient woman nodded, this was the chance to find out who or what these monsters really are. “Who are you?"
The voice answered.
“WE ARE FROM THE PLANET KNOWN AS EARTH."
“Earth?! The very same world that all our ancestors had come from? That's impossible! If you are from Earth, then why have you been hunting us?"
“WE ARE THE FUTURE OF THE HUMAN SPECIES. YOUR ORGANS WILL KEEP US ALL ALIVE FOR MANY YEARS TO COME AND WE THANK YOU FOR THEM. WHETHER YOU AGREE TO THIS OR NOT IS NO LONGER YOUR DECISION TO MAKE. YOU ALL SHALL BE HARVESTED TO ENSURE OUR EXISTENCE… PREPARE YOURSELVES."
**************
Throughout the whole ship and in space, the pirates and the men were shocked, to hear that the Harvesters were from Earth was terrifying, but The Master Chief and Hibiki were not convinced at all, and neither was Cortana. They knew humanity in many ways, Hibiki had learned that while humanity was not perfect but it was worth fighting for, he had learned that much from his time with everyone here and growing up under the Spartan's training and teachings.
The Spartan spoke then to the others.
“They may be from Earth, but they aren't human anymore, do humans willingly destroy other human worlds for their own survival, treat people like animals, there might have been people like that in the past but there had been just as many people who would never agree to this kind of madness.”
Hibiki also spoke.
That's right! What right do they have to say that we have no say in the matter, we're human beings as well, we have the right to be alive, we have the right to survive and the right to exist! Who are they to judge us?! We are here and we are free, I won't let these monsters judge me and dictate my life for me!”
Cortana agreed, no human being would willingly subject others to the horrors that the Harvesters had done, they may be from Earth, but what they had done was obvious to her, they had become mindless beasts concerned with their own survival and not caring for the future, at least with the pirates she had seen that humanity could still pull through. The people of Earth were no longer human, they were now the enemy.
The same sentiment filled the pirates and while it had shocked them they were not going to follow the orders of the Harvesters, they would stand and fight!!!
**************
As the Dreads got ready for the battle, the Longswords came out to aid them and these fighters were fully loaded with as much fire power as could be spared at the moment and were even modified to carry laser weapons to augment their fire power. The Dread squadron pilots knew that what they were going to do was very risky and they had to be ready for anything at this moment.
Meia checked her teams and gave the orders to them all.
“All right, we're going to follow Hibiki's plan to the letter girls, we fight the Harvesters and draw them closer to us and then when we reach the point o f action, we are to pull back and initiate a fighting retreat back to the Nirvana, no heroics, we have to make the Harvesters follow us and then get to surround the gas giant for the second phase of the plan to work. Teams A and B will handle the engagement while Teams C and D will handle defense of the Nirvana under Jura, everyone got that?”
“Yes Meia!”
Meia then got a communiqué from Jura as the blonde spoke to her comrade. They had reconfigured the COM systems of their Dreads to make sure that there was little chance the Harvesters could hack them, it was a bit more tedious, but it paid in spades and that was what counted in this mission
“I hope Hibiki's plan works, this reminds me of the time he had used our Dreads' shield to redirect his shots to free us from that ambush in the asteroid belt a few months ago….but whoever thought we'd use a plan to turn a gas giant into a star and use it to defeat the Harvesters? That's got be a first.”
Meia nodded.
“He's certainly a free thinker that much is for sure…he's become VERY interesting ever since the Master Chief took him in for training, right Meia?”
Meia agreed, Hibiki had changed a great deal.
“He has indeed.”
Dita then joined in and spoke.
“Mr. Alien is so amazing, we can do this!”
Both women couldn't help but chuckle at Dita's enthusiasm and they all nodded…
It was go time…
Cortana and Bart got ready on their stations as the master Chief ordered all those of his Fire Teams and the Talvernians to get ready to be treating the wounded, they needed to heal as many of the soon to come injuries as well as repelling the possible Harvester Boarding parties which would he heading straight for them.
As soon as everyone was ready, the harvesters showed up and sure enough, they brought a Battleship with them and the pirates gasped as they saw the thing before them, Jura recoiled at the sight of the ugly sea cucumber like ship and Dita spoke.
“They have something like that?! Those are really BAD aliens!!!”
Hibiki however snorted and spoke as he was in the bridge.
“That thing is not invincible, and neither are the Harvesters, we've beaten them before and we can do so again.”
As soon as those words came from Hibiki, the Dread pilots were warned by their scanners that the Harvester forces were attacking them and the battle was on. Missile vapor trails were seen as well as energy bolts were sent out and were colliding on either side as the battle proved to be a very serious one. The pirates knew that they had to lure the Harvesters closer to the gas giant, but they also knew that they had to do as much damage as they could in order to thin down the numbers before them, the plan would be of little use if they didn't hurl the Harvesters enough.
And hurt them they did as they poured on all that they had, the Longswords opened up their own weaponry as their missiles and auto cannon rounds were unleashed on the Harvesters and they revealed that they were now armed with plasma cannons and laser canons, courtesy of Parfait and her crew as well as larger missile pods….ensuring that the Longswords carried more than enough firepower for this fight.
The battle grew more intense as Cortana unleashed a massive barrage of Archer Missiles from the pods and also fired out the rounds from the 50mm Point Defense Guns when the Cube Fighters got too close to the ship when they were able to break through the lines of the Dread squadrons under Jura's command, The Boarding Craft were able to make it through despite heavy casualties on their forces, but they were quickly greeted by the Talvernians and the Nirvana Fire Teams and the fighting was getting from bad to worse….at least for the Harvesters at this moment as the Nirvana crews knew that they would have to move back and let themselves get within range of the gravity well of the gas giant.
Cortana then unleashed two MAC rounds that slammed hard into the Harvester Battleship and that was something the Harvester Battleship didn't expect as it was hit by the explosive force of the shots and the Harvester forces in the path of the two Mac rounds were easily destroyed in a heart beat. Cortana was an accurate shooter with the Mac round and since she was in her Smart AI form, she was more than able to do these shots easily.
In the Nirvana itself, the Master Chief was now armed with a M90A Shotgun and his trusty MA5C ICWS Assault Rifle and led his forces to launch counter attacks against the Harvester Shock Troopers who had made their way into the Nirvana, they were defend as much of the Nirvana as they could and while there were injuries, some near fatal, the Fire teams and their allies held on and the Spartan had racked up yet another large number of kills, while the ones who had been wounded were quickly evacuated for medical treatment. The hallways were covered the magenta `blood' of the Harvester Shock Troopers and the Fire Teams did their best as the Master Chief blasted a close range blast that literally tore the Harvester Shock Trooper charging him in half with one blast, spilling even more of the magenta fluid all over the place.
It was not long in the battle that the Nirvana crew and their Talvernian allies were greeted by the sight of the three new weapons of the Harvesters.
The machines were like the VanDreads, but radiated an evil corrupted aura around them. The copy of VanDread Dita looked more insidious and menacing than the original and had a massively powerful laser cannon mounted on one shoulder. It was also equipped with massive energy blade/claws on the forearms.
The copy of VanDread Meia resembled a crimson beast and looked more avian than dragon. It flapped it's wings like it was a living thing and to the left of the Copy GunDread Dita. On the right, a twisted grotesque version of Jura's VanDread showed it's visage. It seemed to be a cross between Jura's Dread and it's crab form, but it had huge pincer limbs in front, which were filled with massive teeth, giving this latest horror the look of a giant beetle.
“How ugly they are!"
“They're all copies!"
“Ewww! I don't like the looks of this!"
In a moment the Copy VanDreads attacked their Nirvana counterparts who were not transformed, and the fight became even more intense. Meia found that despite her own non-transformed Dread's exceptional speed, the Copy VanDread Meia was running rings around her fighter, and took multiple potshots at her with every pass. Jura tried desperately, but had no success in busting through her own clone's shielding, even when she fired in point blank range. As for Dita, her Dread was totally no match for her Copy's overall firepower. The other Dreads and Longswords were too embroiled in battle with the other Harvester forces to lend a hand to their besieged comrades. However they knew that this was a sign that the Harvesters were getting desperate to destroy them, they were not going to back down and be defeated just yet, and the same could be said for the three Dread pilots as they fought on Gascogne used the Dreki and she was escorted by Longsword to recover the downed Dread pilots, preventing their capture by the Harvesters.
It was not long before Meia was hurt in a fight with her foe and her Dread was badly damaged but still able to be fixed as well.
“MEIA!!!”
Meia managed to bit through the pain of her shoulder wound and spoke.
“I'm all right! Move back quickly!!!”
It was then that Hibiki nodded to Magno and Magno and Buzam gave the order.
“All forces prepare for the next phase of the operation!”
That was the signal and Meia, despite her injury ordered a full retreat for all forces while the Longsword divided themselves into two groups, one t escort the Dreads and the other to hold off the Harvesters for the retreat action.
Magno nodded and called it out.
“Bart! Get ready to move!!!”
“Roger!!!”
The blonde navigator wasted no time as the Dreads and supporting Longswords made it back to the Nirvana and Cortana fired several more salvos of fire and another MAC round before she gave the all clear for him to floor it. Bart wasted no time and dived towards the gas giant and that would give them time to do as many repairs as they could spare and treat the wounded before setting in motion Hibiki's next plan as the Longswords outside were obliterated and the Harvesters were in full pursuit. Gascogne's ship made it through with all the pilots including Meia's Dread that was rescued.
The Harvesters made the mistake of moving in after the Nirvana and several Seed, Cube Fighters and some Urchins were crushed and Harvester Copy of VanDread Meia was crushed as it thrashed like a bird in a cage, the Copy of Jura's VanDread used it's shields and escaped with the others. The Harvesters then stayed there, waiting for the pirates, if they moved out, they would be destroyed and if they remained there, they would die from the radiation and gravity…
Victory would be theirs at last…
Or was it?
**************
In the gas giant…
The Nirvana was trying to endure the massive pressures of the gravity well of the gas giant as well as boost it's shields to prevent radiation from filtering into the ship. Most people would have panicked and lost themselves to despair, but the Nirvana crew had planed ahead and they were already on the move, Parfait and her crew deployed a Vanguard with the shield systems installed as well as one Longsword with the same upgrades and once the two machines showed that they could handle it, the rest of the modified Vanguards and Longswords took to the battle field and were now ready to even up the odds.
Meia was healed and was ready for the next step of the plan Hibiki had cooked up and with her Dread fully repaired and ready, it was game time.
The Master Chief checked on his teams and the Talvernians and gave the thumbs up that they were ready and the wounded were not in danger at this moment and time. That was enough for Magno to give the order and Buzam had the crew get ready for what was going to be one hell of a ride, they knew that if Bart was too slow on his movements, the Nirvana would be caught in the storm of fire from the newly created star and that was something they were all not in the mood to happen anytime soon.
Hibiki was also getting ready as he powered up his vanguard and touched the cockpit and knew that this was going to be a very difficult part of the mission, he and Jura would have to pray that the shield they had with their VanDread would hold itself steady, but as he got ready, he got a communiqué from a certain red haired Dread pilot.
“Dita? What's wrong? I thought I explained the …”
“It's not that Mr. Alien, I'm just worried….about you….I…”
Hibiki sighed and replied.
“I'll be fine okay, you don't have to worry about me….”
“But I do….I want you to promise me something.”
Hibiki wondered what this was all about and spoke.
“All right, what do you want me to promise you Dita?”
“I want you to come to my room.”
Hibiki's eyes widened at that and he couldn't help but feel very confused by what Dita had requested of him, not only was that request highly unexpected for him to hear but somehow, the request seemed to stir feelings in him that confused him a good deal, and he had no idea how to deal with them at the moment and they had far more serious concerns to deal with than this.
“Can't this wait for a better…?”
“No it can't Mr. Alien! Please….you have to promise me now!”
Hibiki could see that Dita wanted to hear it and decided to just do it now.
“All right, I promise.”
Dita smiled brightly and wished him luck as she got to doing her own task for the rest of the plan that he had cooked up for this situation. He relaxed himself and got word that Jura was ready and that was enough to spur him into action as the place was now underway.
**************
As Jura and Hibiki moved out, they were escorted by a wing of Longswords and Vanguards and those were first to break through the gas giant and then engaged the Harvesters, surprising the AI controlled forces as they were expecting the Nirvana pirates and their allies to try and fight their way out in what would appear to be a defiant last stand for them to crush them utterly.
However, they only saw the Dread of Jura and Hibiki's Vanguard and both of them fused as one and created the VanDread that had a powerful shield system, the Longswords and the Vanguards formed a defensive patter around the VanDread and that told the Harvesters that something was going on, but their orders were clear, hunt down and destroy the pirates and their allies as well as the Spartan, these people had been a threat for too long….it was here and now in this sector of space that their threat to the plans of their masters was going to end with their absolute destruction.
Unknown to the Harvesters, the Nirvana had dispatched three more Dreads instead of just Jura's Dread. Meia, Dita, and Barnette were already moving to the core of the gas giant and fired their beams into it to begin feeding it energy, Barnette was surprised by the request for her to be part of the team, but since Hibiki said that they all needed her help, she agreed, after seeing Hibiki become who he was now and the Spartan proving to be a great leader, as well as Duero being a skilled doctor made her more tolerant of them, which was why she agreed, and she knew that it was needed as well.
All three Dreads had their shields at full power and then they were in position and they fed the energy to the core, bringing it to the point needed to turn it into the core of a new star. As they went to work, Dita hoped and prayed that Hibiki would be all right.
**************
Outside…
The battle was getting even more tense but the Tarak youth held his own while the Longsword and Vanguards under Cortana's command was doing their best to hold off the Harvesters. The Vanguards, being built for close combat as well as long range combat with the right weaponry were more than able to hold their own with the Harvesters with Cortana handling them and it was not long before the final phase of the battle would be under way.
Jura did her best to remain cool but Hibiki could tell that she was worried and he placed his hand on her shoulder and she saw him smile.
“We can do this Jura!”
Jura couldn't help but smile back and nod.
“Right!”
**************
The Nirvana…
“Estimated time to core chain-reaction is now at seven minutes and fifty three seconds.” Ezra called out.
Buzam kept her cool as best she could and knew that she had to trust both Hibiki and Jura at this moment and hour. Magno thought the same as she and everyone on the Nirvana waited for the right moment to make their move, Bart was eager and ready to spring, Cortana was also ready to come out swinging and had her MAC Canons loaded.
**************
Hibiki checked the timer as Jura and him sent more power to hold the shield, many of the Harvesters were destroyed by the arsenals of both the modified Vanguards and Longswords while they suffered losses, Cortana assured them she would be fine and that was enough for everyone as the Vanguards proved their worth as close combat was what they were made to do as the unleashed blades, missiles, heavy bullets, Gauss Rounds, flames and lasers, while the Longswords unleashed missiles , auto-cannon rounds and lasers as well as modified MORAY Space Mines that were sent around like grenades that further added to the destruction.
**************
The Nirvana's bridge…
“Estimated time for planet core chain-reaction is now at four minutes and ten seconds.”
Ezra called out.
“VanDread Jura is taking heavy damage. Longsword and Vanguard forces are reduced by 20% numbers
Celtic called out through her sensors.
<Hang in there Hibiki…you too Jura.>
Buzam silently prayed.
**************
At the planet's core…
“We're almost there, keep on feeding the power to the core!” Meia commanded.
It was then that Dita made a mistake and Meia corrected her and then gave a reprimand
Dita! Don't lose focus here! Don't get carried away and focus on your job!” Meia scolded.
“Sorry!”
Dita gulped a bit at her leader's stern expression and reprimand, but then Barnette called in with a smile on her face over her other monitor.
“Dita…just do your best, all right?”
Dita perked up and nodded.
“Right!”
**************
Outside…
“This place is getting dicey!”
Jura spoke as the blonde saw that their escorts were running out of weaponry and some Vanguards used their close combat blades to fight with while some Longswords just plowed through them and exploded, unleashing powerful blasts that further damaged the Cube Fighters and Seed Ships.
It was then that the two spotted the two Copy VanDreads coming at them and Jura gasped.
“Not now!!!”
Hibiki gritted his teeth and wished there was some way to get rid of the pests and then Cortana contacted him.
“Hibiki! Feed me the coordinate data on where those Copy VanDreads are! And when you do lower the shield a bit so I can fire a MAC round at them!”Hibiki did so and Cortana had a number of Longswords and Vanguards engage the two VanDread Copies, while some were lost, the others were able to weaken the two for as long as possible and when she got the coordinates, she opened up and called him to lower the section of the shields.
Cortana took aim and spoke.
“Time to get rid of the copies!”
The Nirvana's middle MAC Cannon fired and moved right past the shield without harming VanDread Jura at all and the two Copies had mere nano-seconds before they were smashed by the MAC round, the VanDread Dita Copy was blown to shreds and the copy of VanDread Jura was unable to shield itself in time and was torn apart by the impact, the MAC round also tore apart even more Cube Fighters and Seed Ships as well as Urchin Ships for they were all over the place and the round smashed right into the Harvester Battleship with great force.
Hibiki and Jura whooped and Jura spoke to Cortana.
“Now THAT was an awesome shot!”
Cortana smiled and replied.
“Thank you Jura.”
“Thanks Cortana! Now we can get back to working without anymore disturbances!”
“No problem!”
**************
“T-minus two minutes and counting…” Ezra announced.
It was then that the news they all had been waiting for had finally come true.
“They did it!” Belvedere declared as the energy readings of the planet's core went off the scale.
Magno wasted no time in barking out commands,
“Barnette, head back to the Nirvana now! Meia, Dita, execute the next stage of the operation! Bart, Get us out of here now! Cortana, clear the deck!!
“ROGER!”
Everyone said as the pirate vessel moved away from the core. Cortana got ready and as soon as Hibiki opened away the shields, the Nirvana moved through and Cortana opened up once more, unleashing 50mm rounds and Archer missiles as the Nirvana moved through the gas giant at stop speed.
**************
Hibiki nodded to Jura and she nodded back with a smile and spoke to him.
“You be careful Hibiki.”
“Always!”
The two broke their VanDread and Hibiki moved his Vanguard to fuse with Meia's Dread and formed VanDread Meia. Jura flew off to rendezvous to the Nirvana and then VanDread Meia took center stage and used it's claws to latch on to Dita's Dread and went at top speed. Behind them was a massive solar flare from the newly made star. Kyo and Meia had planned to use the power of the solar prominence to wipe out the enemy battleship with one shot. By manipulating the energy output of the chain-reaction, they were able to control one of the flares towards their intended target.
The Nirvana was clear, but things were not going to be easy.
**************
“We're heading towards an asteroid belt!” Amarone called out as the Nirvana sped through space with Harvester ships in fast pursuit despite the killing Cortana made with the 50mm Point defense Guns and the Archer Missiles.
Behind them was one massive solar flare as the star spewed them all out like a volcano in various directions, theirs' included! A massive majority of the enemy fleet was turned into molten slag and the flames were singing the ship's stern, placing Bart literally in the proverbial hot seat.
“YOW! YOW! HOT! HOT! HOT!”
Buzam wasted no time as she took one of the navigation stations and ordered all maneuvering thrusters switched to manual. She began directing the Nirvana through the relation to Bart's movements. With a little luck and some real good piloting they were able to avoid colliding with any more incoming chunks of ice and rock, and any other solar flares.
Cortana turned to Bart and replied.
“Not bad there Bart, I recommend you don't sit down for a bit though.”
“No kidding, we are NOT going to do that again are we?”
**************
Hibiki was tired but was not giving up, he sucked up his exhaustion and both he and Meia were heading towards the Harvester battleship and with all the harvester forces around them reduced into slag, there was little stopping them at this moment. The VanDread glowed as it accelerated at full speed and sliced through the opposition easily and was now ready to fight with the main Harvester ship. Hibiki then spoke to Dita.
“Dita! Get Ready! It's our turn next!”
“Right Mr. Alien!”
Meia knew that now was the time for them to move away, but she spoke to Hibiki first.
“Don't die yet Hibiki, come back alive.”
“I don't plan on dying today or any other day for that matter, I'll be all right.”
Meia nodded at that and made her move, in moments the two separated and meia made her way to join with the others and then both Hibiki and Dita formed their VanDread and then hade the two cannons be unlatched and fused into a double bladed lance and then they got ready and with a mighty heave, tossed the weapon right at the Harvester battleship that tried to fire back with it's main canon, but as the lance was hit, it was boosted by the energy of the solar flare and overpowered the weapon system of the Harvester Battleship. Hibiki and Dita got out of the way of the flare and watched as it smashed the Harvester ship dead center
The hit was explosive in both visual effect and actual effect. The projectile rocketed forward and slammed right into the centre of the Earth battleship, piercing it like a piece of paper. The energy of the solar flare leaped through the hole and made total havoc on the insides, literally cooking the ship from the inside. Suddenly the whole vessel was caught in one massive explosion.
**************
Onboard the Nirvana, there was a resonating cheer as the enemy was engulfed in the explosion and what appeared to be their grandest victory. Magno and Buzam congratulated one another for a job well done…however, before the celebrations can begin, something massive came out of the explosion in the centre.
“No! It can't be!”
“Those Earth bastards are really tenacious.” Magno said as she watched and felt her blood run cold.
**************
Hibiki glared at them and knew that something like this might happen, but he had an idea, and that involved a risky move that required him to use the solar wave coming at them from behind.
**************
“Dita, Hibiki, get out of there now!”
Magno cried out, but it was too late. The energy wave overtook the VanDread causing the mecha to disappear from the monitors on the bridge.
In the navigation well, Bart moaned in despair.
“Stupid. None of this will mean anything if you die.”
However, the communications began receiving a message in static.
“Who…(bzzzt)….said anything about…(squark!)… me dying?”
“Huh?”
Cortana looked at her scanners and smiled.
“I'll be damned…”
**************
The VanDread rocketed out, coated in powerful solar energy, Hibiki had reconfigured the systems of the VanDread to take in pure solar energy into itself and converted itself into the spear point of yet ANOTHER solar flare and as soon as Hibiki and Dita' rocketed through the maw of the Harvester Battleship that took on the form of a massive slug with teeth, the energy incinerated it once more and in that moment, it exploded like a fire cracker and this time…
It was dead…for sure as well.
The Nirvana crew and everyone cheered as they had done yet another set of impossible things, they had created a new star by themselves, and they had destroyed ANOTHER Harvester Battleship.
Inside the cockpit, Kyo gave into exhaustion and battle fatigue. The VanDread powered down as it lowered it's arms.
“Finally…it's over.”
He promptly went to sleep. Dita looked at him and smiled, letting Hibiki sleep for the time being, he had done so much for them and he deserved to get some much needed rest and relaxation, and then he could visit her room.
**************
In the Nirvana Hanger Bay…
Hibiki woke up and found himself inside his Vanguard's cockpit and still wearing his Marine Body Armor, wondering how he was still in his partner's cockpit. The sensors told him that he was in the main hanger and he decided to get out and meet up with the crew. However as soon as Hibiki got out of the cockpit, he was warmly greeted by Dita and Jura…
 
“WELCOME BACK!” Both girls exclaimed.
 
“Huh?”
 
Behind them was a crowd of females that also chorused the greeting.
 
“WELCOME BACK!”
 
The Talvernians were also there and they too were also in high spirits and in the front were both Cortana and the Master Chief.
 
Hibiki went forward and nearly stumbled as Jura caught him in her arms and began kissing him vigorously.
 
“YOU WERE SO INCREDIBLE! I SIMPLY CAN'T BELIEVE THAT YOU SAVED ALL OF US!”
 
She then tried to kiss Hibiki even more. Immediately, Hibiki was taken away from Jura's arms by Dita.
 
“Hey! Keep your hands off Mr. Alien!”
 
That made Jura rather annoyed. “What are you so worked up for Dita? I was thanking him for saving us all!”
  
Dita shook her head and held Hibiki even tighter.
 
“YOU CAN THANK MR. ALIEN LATER! HE HAS A PROMISE HE HAS TO KEEP TO ME!”
 
“What promise is that?!” Jura asked.
 
At that moment, Pyoro began leaping out warnings. “IT'S NOT OVER YET!”
 
Hibiki managed to gently and yet firmly removing himself from Dita's grip as he got to the robot.
 
“What are you getting at now?”
 
The little Navi-robot began displaying images.
 
“I've intercepted some of the enemy communications! Earth has learned that we've defeated another of their flagships and their rerouting the others to make their way to Tarak and Megele!”
 
Jura gasped. “MY GOD! There are five more of those behemoths?!”
 
This made the entire crew very apprehensive; they had barely succeeded in defeating one of the ships. How could they battle five more?
 
Hibiki snorted his indifference with the matter, which got everyone's attention.
 
“What's with all the glum and sad faces? So we have to deal with five more of them, that's just a detail we'll find a way of working out! Every one of us knew that this trip wasn't without danger, we've already taken the first few steps on this path, and I don't see why we should try to walk back. We have chosen this path whether by fate or circumstance, but whatever the case, we're committed to this path until the very end and we're reaching the end soon, so we might as well go all the way to the end, right?”
 
Hibiki said as he grinned at Dita
 
The redhead girl nodded and smiled.
 
“Right!”
 
The Spartan shook his head at that and so did Cortana as she spoke to the Master Chief.
“You really are rubbing off on him John.”
It was then that Parfait called in.
“We've got a situation down here!!”
The Spartan turned and spoke, readying his MA5C ICWS Assault Rifle.
“What is it Parfait?”
“Some sort of portal just appeared in the Paeksis Reactor Room! I don't know what's going on here, but we got the portal when the Paeksis unleashed some sort of powerful energy spike which was off the charts!”
“Understood, All Fire Teams assemble into the Reactor Room!”
**************
In the Paeksis Reactor Room…
The Nirvana Fire Teams got ready to fight as they were dressed in their UNSC Marine Body Armor while others were dressed in their Megele Space suits and all of them were well armed, there was also the Master Chief armed with his trade mark MA5C ICWS Assault Rifle and they all faced the large portal of energy, ready for a possible attack, though they were very curious as to how this portal opened in the Paeksis reactor room of all places.
It was then that they spotted something or someone moving through the portal and the Spartan got ready as well as the rest of them for a very possible fight with whatever or whoever would come out of the portal. And soon, something or someone came out….but it was certainly no Harvester Shock Trooper, quite the opposite!
The Nirvana pirates were shocked as the person before them wore a very similar form of the Master Chief's own MJOLNIR Mark VI Armor and carrying a weapon that was similar to the Master Chief's own MA5C ICWS Assault Rifle!!! It was as if they were looking at a mirror of their Spartan before them.
Everyone on either side was standing still….until John spoke as he quickly recognized the new arrival.
“It's good to see you again….Kelly-087.”
“Squad Leader….is that really you?”
John nodded and in that moment, Kelly-087 placed aside her weapon and walked up to the Spartan and gave a salute and then used the Spartan smile on John's helmet and visor and she then she turned and whistled the same tone that the crew heard and only both Cortana and John knew…
It was not long for more figures came on the scene, two of them were wearing the same armor as the one named Kelly-087, John recognized them immediately to be Fredric-104, and Linda-058, both were well armed with Fredric carrying his Combat Knife and his MA5B ICWS Assault Rifle, while Linda carried her BR55-HB SR Battle Rifle on her back and her SRS99C-S2 AM Sniper Rifle.
Both Fred and Linda then spoke.
“Good to see you Squad Leader.”
“Nice to see a friendly face.”
He was surprised indeed to see three of his fellow Spartans appear out of nowhere and in this dimension no less, the last he had seen them was when they were back on Earth and before he and Commander Miranda Keyes, Sergeant Johnson, and Cortana had gone to face the still united Covenant over Delta Halo. Of course, Will-044 was with them, he was about to asked where was Will-044 when several more figures came through, and these were shorter people but dressed in some sort of armor that had very vague similarities to the MJOLNIR series.
They were carrying several weapons that he recognized as MA5K Carbine, a stripped down version of the MA5B ICWS Assault Rifle, making it lighter and easier to carry, despite the fact this weapon was never used in the front lines due to lack of stopping power, this weapon was a cross between a MA5B ICWS Assault Rifle and a BR 55, and was used by Special Operations Teams such as the ODSTs, though one of the new arrivals was carrying a SRS99D-s2 AM Sniper Rifle with him. The others who came through carried a mixture of weapons, MA5K Carbines, M90A CAWS Shotguns, M7/Caseless Submachine Guns, and BR55-HB SR Battle rifles
The armor was not the same as the ones worn by either him, Kelly, Fred, or Linda and had a much slimmer profile but he could tell that it had none of the shielding systems that the MJONIR Mark V and Mark VI series had on and had thinner armor plating as well, but he recognized the photo-reactive panels on it the armor and quickly realized that. Photo-Reactive panels were armed with highly advanced software systems to mimic all areas of the visual and electromagnetic spectrum, and thus was the system used by the UNSC as their version of active camouflage, but the problem was the panels were erratic and had a tendency to shift irregularly so the Covenant Stealth systems had the one up on the Photo-Reactive Panels, plus if hit by a Flash Bang grenade or by a plasma shot.
The Master Chief then realized he was looking at the Semi Powered Infiltration Armor or the SPI Armor, a less advanced version of power armor which was outmatched by his and the other Spartan IIs MJOLNIR Power Armor but was cheaper to produce, though these seemed to be a lot more advanced than the previous models, it was better than the Body Suits used by the ODSTs in the sense of it's abilities at active camouflage but not much else.
“Who are they?”
It was then that a gruff voice came from another figure coming from the portal.
“They are Spartans John-117, just like you and, the others, and me.”
The Spartans turned and in walked a tall but not that tall and muscular, but not that muscular either, there were a set of scars coming from the brow to the chin on his face, giving the new arrival the look of a battle hardened veteran, and he moved like it as well. He had silver hair and carried both a Combat Knife and an older version of the M6 pistol series and he wore the uniform of a UNSC Marine Officer, and on his rank tab was the title rank Senior Chief Petty Officer. The others of the Nirvana had no idea who this man was….but John and the other Spartans did and John saluted the older man.
“Chief Mendez, it's good to see you sir!”
Franklin Mendez saluted the Spartan who he himself had trained when John was young and while he rarely showed emotion, he was happy to see one his star pupils still alive and kicking. He replied to the salute and replied.
“It's good to see you too John.”
It was then that another person walked through the portal as it began to close, and John recognized her right away, she was tall and wore a lab coat with a data pad in the breast pocket, she wore grey a pleated skirt and dark grey long sleeved top shirt and she had a faint bifocal set of black rimmed glasses with her black/grey hair in a bun and blue grey eyes. He recognized the face easily and knew who it was…
Dr. Catherine Elizabeth Halsey, member of ONI Section III and one of the most famed scientists in the UNSC High Command, and the founder of both the MJOLNIR Series, Third Generation Smart AIs and most of all, head of the Spartan II Program. While she was a civilian, she commanded great respect from both the public and high military officials, she also had great respect from him and his fellow Spartans and she was the only UNSC civilian they would take orders from, she also had a way of embarrassing them as she was able to tell them apart from their posture despite the MJOLNIR Armor they wore. The woman gave a smile towards him and spoke.
“It's good to see you John, it's been a while.”
Dr. Catherine turned and was a bit surprised as she gazed at Cortana and so did Cortana as well, and the rest of the pirate crew were shocked as well, as Dr. Catherine looked like an older version of Cortana. Catherine spoke first in this case as she wondered who this person was.
“Who are you?”
Cortana then replied to Dr. Catherine's question.
“It's me Dr. Halsey, I'm Cortana.”
Dr. Catherine was quite surprised at this and then turned to the pirates as she and the others gazed around and they turned as the portal behind them closed. They looked at the Paeksis and the pirate crew before them and the female founder of the Spartans spoke to both John and Cortana.
“I take it there's a lot of explaining to do?”
“Yes Ma'am.”
**************
Magno and Buzam were very much surprised by the news of their new arrivals, the elderly woman had seen a star born and then saw the defeat of a monstrous fleet of the Harvesters. She then gave the order for the ship to move on, hoping that the message pods had been read by the men and women of both Tarak and Megele, it was a long shot, but it was better than nothing.
Now they had to deal with the fact that they now have new guests to bring into the crew, if there was one thing the two senior pirate officers could agree on at this moment, it was that this day had been full of surprises.
**************
The planet Megele…
“Lady Grand Ma, we have received a data recording from the missing pirates.”
A female aide slides a container with a data disk inside. However a withered hand loomed over it and waved it away, the supreme leader of the females deemed the contents to be of little interest and unimportant.
**************
The planet Tarak…
“Lord Grand Pa, we have received a data recording from the female pirates.”
The images in the data disk were being reviewed by the supreme leader of the men, and with one old finger he pressed the button to delete all the disk's contents.
It became clear the both the supreme leaders of both planets have deemed that the data from a band of renegades to be of little importance.
How wrong they were…all of them…they had no idea what was about to befall them all.
 
**************
To be continued…
**************
Author's notes:
God…
It has been a while now hasn't it, but this officially places the end of VanDread Halo in sight, but as we all know, this is only the beginning, with the introduction Linda-058, Kelly-087, Fredric-104, Dr. Catherine Elizabeth Halsey, Chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez, Spartan III Team Saber's Ash, Mark, Olivia, Tom and Lucy from Spartan III Beta Company, as well as the newly recovered and revived Spartan III Team Katana, you can bet that things in the Nirvana will get very hectic from here on out.
How will the others react when John-117 tells them that the UNSC-Covenant War is over, as well as the fact that the Covenant Separatists and the UNSC were allies against both the Covenant Loyalists and the Flood?
Not to mention what could they say and do when he and Cortana get to telling them that they had been brought to another dimension where the UNSC does not exist and neither does the Covenant but there is a new enemy to fight and this enemy are the Harvesters and who are also the insane remnants of mankind who think that they deserve to be the only human species in the universe?
It's going to be very interesting indeed. As to how they got there in the VanDread universe…well, that will be revealed in the next series. I hope you all can wait that long as we get ready for the arrival of
VanDread Halo the Second Stage!!!
Things are going to get very action packed in the second installment so I hope you readers are ready for one hell of a ride!!!
And to also show how much VanDread Halo The Second Stage will be different is the introduction on a new OC or Original Character.
***************
The Spartan looked at the female UNSC Marine Sergeant who was aiming her SRS99D S2-AM Sniper Rifle at him, and she quickly placed it down and spoke.
“I'll be damned…a Spartan?”
John-117 couldn't help but feel that there was something familiar about this female UNSC Marine. He had been tracking the distress beacon after being told that there were survivors on this planet. And he had found them…
The woman had dark skin, showing that she was African American and had the same battle hardened look of a skilled Marine and the way she carried her weapon told the Master Chief she knew how to use it with skill, considering the fact she had gunned down three Harvester Mortar Troopers with it.
It was then that the woman spoke.
“You ARE the Spartan I would always seem my dad with, he never stopped talking about you…in his holo-letters to me and mom, called you the Chief every chance he got.”
“Your father?”
“You know him sir, you fought with him before…and you were with him in his final moments…back in the Ark.”
The Spartan was shocked and he couldn't help but ask.
“Who are you?”
“My name's Jessica al-Cygni Johnson. My father is Avery J. Johnson.”
**************
How's that for an attention grabber?
See you there!