Chapter 7: Life as a Soldier.
The first month on The Salvation of Man passed by in a blur. They had entered what the crew called slipstream and were heading towards earth. The first week had been spent in the medical bay, resting up from their injuries.
Ryu had been christened by the troops as "Metal hand Ryu" and was still getting use to the fact that his hand was now super strong but he could never feel the softness of a beautiful woman's skin. He still had his other hand for that though so he soon got over himself.
The second week, the shamans had been left to do as they pleased. This time was spent gathering information on the Covenant and the future in general as well as the usual shaman training.
Things had gotten more serious for the last two weeks. They had been told that if they wanted to survive they would have to learn how to use the various gun that were at the ships disposal.
They had been down at the firing range for several hours each day. To start with they used simple pistols, battle rifles and assault rifles. Only Horrohorro had any problem with his aim. Hao was hitting the top scores from the start while Ren trained constantly until he could match the fire shaman's aim.
Next came the more specialised weapons. For obvious reasons they couldn't use the rocket launchers but sniper rifles were still available. It was clear from the start that Ren had a knack for sniping, beating the current high score on his first try.
The soldiers had replaced the groups melee weapons with energy swords and gravity hammers. The troops watched in amazement at the skill shown by the shamans. They had found out the hard way that they couldn't cast an oversoul on either without dramatic explosions.
"We're about three days from earth now." Johnson told them as they rested in their improvised barracks.
"Cool-" started Yoh when the ship gave a shudder. "What's going on?" on finished.
"No idea. C'mon to the bridge and we'll find out." replied Johnson. They rushed to the command bridge as the ship continued to shake occasionally. "I'd guess we're under attack." shouted the Sergeant.
The titanium doors to the bridge slid open to reveal all the crew sitting tensely at their stations.
"What's going on Capt'n?" Johnson asked.
The Captain frowned at the shamans then turned to Johnson with a distasteful look on his face. "We appear to be under attack from a fleet of pirates. Jackals by the look of it. I'd guess they have no connection to the Covenant so we are just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Our ships still damaged from our last contact with the Covenant so they think they can rob us when we're down."
"Some Jackal pirates are no threat to us" huffed Johnson.
"You still have a lot to learn kid." said the Captain. He motioned to the largest monitor. "They have five ships, we have enough ammunition to take down three at the most."
A man with the insignia of a full sergeant stepped forwards to address the captain. "Sir, may I propose we split the marines into two forces, one half to invade and destroy one of the ships, the other half to stay here and destroy their boarding parties."
The Captain considered this for a moment. "That sounds good to me, Sergeant Cutter. Prepare the two groups then the attack group will take the ship at the far left, we'll take care of the rest."
"Sir, yes Sir." Sergeant Cutter confirmed then turned to Johnson. "R.J. You stay here and protect the ship, I'll take the attack force."
Johnson nodded then Sgt Cutter swiftly exited the bridge.
Within ten minutes all the soldiers had been gathered, grouped and sent to their positions. The shamans had been forced to stay on the ship as they were civilians, much to their distaste. Luckily, they didn't need to find the action, it found them.
No sooner had the group of pelicans left the docking bay, the Jackals ships latched onto the much larger human vassal and began releasing their troops.
"They're all over the ship, sir." shouted a nervous looking soldier.
"To your positions." bellowed Johnson. "Terminate all hostile contacts, seal of their entrances and show them not to mess with humanity."
The marines sprinted to their assigned locations. Johnson beckoned for the shamans to follow him as he too sprinted with a group of marines to where the Jackals were pouring in thickest.
Two sniper beams met them as the group neared the aliens, felling a single marine. The pirates weren't as well equipped as the covenant, nor did they have the vast numbers. What they did have was a well defended area with plenty of cover while the humans had next to non.
An intense fire fight began and looked to be in the aliens favour until Hao created an inferno that decimated the aliens side of the corridor.
"Kinda puts our flamethrowers and fire bomb grenades to shame." muttered a marine in awe.
Suddenly several Jackals with heavy weapons leapt out from behind them, causing the humans to retreat backwards towards the still raging flames. Hao stopped the fires and the group fled into a near by room and sealed its door.
Twelve marines had died, mostly by the heavy weapons which appeared to be a new form of weaponry non of them had seen before. "Wish I'd gotten a better look at those things." sighed Johnson.
The sound of those heavy weapons started up again, this time a lot closer. The plasma rounds smashed into the titanium doors again and again. It wouldn't hold for even another minute.
To make matters worse a message was received by Johnson's comm device. "This is ensign Tong. The bridge is under attack, repeat the bridge is under attack. They seem to have a new heavy weapon, they'll break through any second- Oh God- Argggh…" The device went silent.
"We've got to get up there and save the Captain." shouted Johnson.
"We need to get out of here alive first." sneered Ren.
"Open the door." ordered Hao. No one made any move to open it. "Open it I said." he repeated. Johnson nodded to the marine by the controls. The soldier pressed a button and the doors slid open.
Flames shot out and engulfed the corridor. Hao raised an eyebrow when the fire had faded and the Jackals still stood. They had activated a bubble shield at the last second. The shield collapsed then the plasma once again rained down upon them.
Horrohorro stepped forwards and gathered his Furyoku. The Jackals dropped a second bubble shield as ice began to shoot towards them. The shield stopped them from freezing, instead creating an ice dome around the energy bubble. Their was a muffled explosion then the firing started again.
"That should hold them for a few seconds." said the Inuit.
Another door behind them burst open and more Jackals began shooting into the room.
"Get to the bridge!" Johnson roared to the shamans. "We'll take care of these guys."
The shamans sped past the ice dome just as it began to crack. Chocolove went on ahead to scout out the best way to the bridge without enemy contact. Distant gun shots could still be heard but they didn't pass any living marines or Jackals.
Chocolove raced back to them, a section of his afro burnt away. "They've set up turrets outside the bridge and there's a pair of Hunters waiting for us." he reported, no sign of humour in his voice.
"Time to test out our new weapons." said Ryu, flexing his new hand.
"To the armoury."
Ten minutes later the shamans returned and boldly stepped out into the view of the Turrets and Hunters.
"Bye bye." smiled Chocolove. All nine of the shaman group pulled out a rocket launcher and fired. The corridor exploded. The dust cleared and all that remained was an orange splatter across the blackened walls and twisted metal littering the floor.
"We'll have to leave these here. We cant go firing them while on the bridge." stated Lyserg as he dropped the launcher. The others sighed then they to dropped their launches.
There was a muffled scream from behind the battered door that led to the bridge. Ren stabbed at the controls and the door jerked open.
The Captain and the other bridge crew, along with a few marines, had fortified the back corner of the large room. All the consoles and screens were destroyed and plasma and blood coated the walls and floor.
Seven Jackals sprayed the defences with their strange heavy plasma weapons. Another five lay dead on the ground, riddled with bullets. At either side of the door stood a huge Hunter.
Lyserg, Horrohorro, Faust and Chocolove all targeted the Jackals that had now turned their powerful guns on the shamans. Yoh, Ren, Hao and Ryu turned to face the Hunters.
The four fighting the Jackals rolled across the room, dodging the boiling bullets that flew at them. Horrohorro tried to freeze them but he couldn't concentrate long enough to summon enough power. Chocolove leapt around the room but couldn't get close enough to deal any damage.
Meanwhile Yoh and Hao barraged their Hunter with hundreds of bullets while easily swaying away from the monster's clumsy attacks. The bullets merely pinged off of the thick armour, hardly even scratching the metal.
The second Hunter had its gun arm wrestled by Ryu as Ren repeatedly shot it in it's face with his sniper rifle. Ryu was thrown against a smashed screen then the Hunter shot its ion cannon at Ren. He side stepped it but his sniper was caught in the blast and melted.
Chocolove leapt in close to the Jackals, drawing their full attention to him. Lyserg shot out his dowsing crystal to wrap around the whole group of aliens. With the enemies unable to move Horrohorro had enough time to summon up his powers and turn the creatures into popsicles.
They moved to help out the others with the Hunters when the door slid open and another five Jackals ran in. They seemed more scared than angry, running blindly forwards away from some unseen foe.
A hail of machine gun bullets cut them down as though they were butter. A woman walked through the door holding one of the large turrets that was suppose to be a stationary gun.
"Ah, that's where you were, my sweet Eliza." cooed Faust.
The first Hunter fired, taking Hao by surprise. Fire shot out from around the shaman in an attempt to stop the undo gable attack. Hellfire battled with plasma but after a second the green energy won out and hit Hao's side. The fire had blocked most of the damage but the force still knocked him from his feet.
Yoh threw his gun to the side and drew his sword and the antiquity while summoning Amidamaru to his side. "Time to do this the old fashioned way. Double spirit medium!"
There was a flash of blue light closely followed by the blue blade lopping off the Hunter's cannon arm. It swung around just in time for it's shield to block Yoh's second slash.
A red flash lit the room. The Hunter's shield arm dropped to the floor. Hao was stood behind him with his own double spirit medium held in his hands.
The beast looked rather pathetic now with now arms. It tried to charge into Yoh but was unbalanced and fell face first to the ground. With a click of his fingers, Hao created an inferno that consumed the Hunter's body. Hundreds of small orange worms slithered out of the fire, writhing as the flames slowly killed them all.
Ren grabbed an energy sword from his belt and activated it. As Ryu distracted the monster, Ren jumped onto its back and stabbed repeatedly at the soft orange worms. With bone shattering force, the hunter smashed the shaman into the wall behind him.
There was a tap on the Hunter's shoulder and it turned. Ryu smiled at it before punching it with all of his force in its face. The metal hand caused heavy damage, dinting its helmet into its soft head. The next second ryu's metal hand had wrapped around the Hunter's throat and began to squeeze.
Ren ran it through on his energy sword from behind, almost skewering Ryu in the process.
The bridge crew cautiously stepped out of the safety of their fortifications once they were sure there was no more enemies nearby. The Captain grudgingly thanked them unlike the rest of the crew who swarmed around them singing their praise.
On one of the still working screens they witnessed one of the Jackal pirate ships blow up. There was a great cheer before everyone was busy at their stations trying to survive the remaining enemy ships.
An additional alarm began to tone, alerting the men of the two new ships that had entered this section of space.
Yoh nearly cursed until he realised that they were human ships.
A voice crackled to life over the communication desk. "We'd been told that there was a damsel in distress in this quadrant. I don't see any though so I suppose we'll just have to help you lot instead."
Everyone cheered as they watched the Jackals being blown to space scrap.
"Next stop, Earth." called the Captain.
A.N. - sorry again about the long gap between updates. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, please, please review.
Important. Please read. this story is going to be put on hold for a while so I might not update for a long time. I promise I will continue writing but I have three reasons it must wait.
1. I have another project that I am working on that is far more important than a fan fiction and may change my life. I need all of my attention on that.
2. I rushed into writing this story because I thought a Shaman King/Halo crossover would be cool- which it is. I didn't think up a real story though. I also feel that the quality of the story isn't as good as it could be. For these reasons I want some time to actually plan how I want the story to go.
3. To avoid other long update times after I start to write again I'm going to write a few chapters ahead so I can update weekly when the time comes.
Hope you understand. Thank you for reading. Speak with you all again someday lol. Till then, bye.
