CHAPTER

VI

Jello was one of the first to take out nearly five hundred soldiers by one soldier and created quite the reputation. The Demolition Brothers' reputation went downhill and everyone in the battle was quite scared to be against him again if it were to happen. Although the five hundred soldiers were fine, the stun effects didn't wear off till a few hours later but sickbay was much too full to hold everyone so many were put into their quarters until they achieve consciousness.

"So Jello, how did you beat four and a half hundred soldiers?" Melissa asked.

"I knew you were going to ask, many have," Jello chuckled as they walked into the bridge. Everyone stood and saluted the somewhat hero and sat back down. "Okay, so before the match began, I placed Dee, my Dark Eye droid in my secondary locker and started off ten meters from that armoury. When Lee said 'Go', I headed straight to the armoury, activated Dee and got as many weapons as I could. I then went to the last hangar that carried an AT-TE by the bow doors and stashed my weapons under deck plates and in the ceiling of the AT-TE. I left the AT-TE and targeted 38 and his comrades the Demolition Brothers and decided to go back to the walker for my PLX-1." Jello explained, creating quite an audience. "When I came out everything was cold and the three thermal signatures disappeared. I was grabbed from behind moments later and thrust up on to my knees and the Demo Brothers entered the AT-TE. However what they didn't expect is I place two stun charges in the walker, one for the first people to walk in and the second is for 38 after he walked in. I suppose you saw the large light emissions?" he asked the tactical officer.

"Sure did."

"Well anyway, 38 did shoot me in the neck but I was able to inject my blood system with an antidote before he shot me. I was weak, but I managed. After that, I removed the bodies, went back to the armoury got a hover trolley, weapons, clone suits, and other materials and set up a diversion. I also removed the walker so it would be facing you and calibrated the weapons to counter attack incoming targets… Melissa," Jello nudged, "And everyone knows the rest."

"That is, well quite the story. How'd you come up with the plan," Lee said.

"Made it up as I went." Jello smiled, got up and walked away back to his quarters. Once there, he picked up his PADD and strolled to his hangar where Dee was recharging.

Once he got there, Taun We, Lama Su, and Melissa were all standing around Dee, giving it comfort. "What are doing?" Jello demanded.

"We are here to give you a few things," replied Lama Su. "We have an Artificial Intelligence chip with female or male voice options, a language pack, a new reactor for Dee, and a couple new upgrades."

"Thank you very much, I'll start repairs as soon as possible. On question though. Does the language pack include Galactic Basic, Shyriiwook, Ewokese, Kaminoan, Old Gungan and Gunganese, Togruti, Droidspeak, and Jawaese?"

"Yes Commander, why do you ask?" Taun We asked.

"Those are common species we'll probably pass by," Jello responded.

"Okay, well it has nearly two hundred languages. Also, although it has both male and female personality systems, you are able to change it from time to time if you wish," Taun We explained.

"Okay, well I have to get to work. I'm also going to retrofit my N-3 and work in the shop. I might pass by the clone facility later," Jello ended as he waved the Kaminoans off, but Melissa managed to stay behind.

"Commander, where can I get one of those?"

"One of what," he asked ducking under the N-3.

"Both your N-3 and a Dark Eye?"

"First, the armoury carries a few Dark Eyes and you can't get my N-3. I was a nearly unaltered clone, like Boba, no growth acceleration. But I do have some advancement like decreased reaction and recovery time, boosted muscle density and strength, and a carbide ceramic ossification catalyst to make skeletons virtually unbreakable."

"That isn't what I asked Sir."

"Oh yah, well I had a lot of time on my hands so I got special permission to tinker with a N-1 Naboo starfighter and I built this. Although this is one and a half times larger, it's faster, stronger, more powerful, and advanced," he said under the N-3.

"What are you getting at?" she demanded.

"You need time to do this, we can't replicate it out of thin air. Why don't you tinker with your V-19 or an ARC-170?"

"I guess," she thought aloud.

"I'll help you out and so will Dee once I fix her up," Jello said getting up from under his craft.

"So you decided on the personality? Female huh… Sounds good."

"Yes, but give me an hour and transfer your new ship to the hangar and start designing concepts for it and I'll be ready to help soon," Jello ended. Melissa accessed the turbolift controls and she shot upwards to the main hangar.

"Commander Jello and Captain Melissa, drop what you are doing and get to the bridge now!" yelled Lee in the COM. Melissa quickly redirected the multi-directional turbolift to the bridge and Jello also shot up to the bridge.

"What is it Lee?" Melissa questioned.

"Something is wrong, power is going out all over the ship. The reactor is down and there seems to be a second wave front heading our way, we can move," Lee worried.

"What if we got the shields to work?" she suggested.

"It won't help, we are already too late." The wave hit the Legacy just as Jello entered the bridge and everything stood still. For hours, they didn't realise what had happened.

"Navigation, where are we? The wave is gone," Melissa demanded the answer.

"I… I don't know. The stars have shifted position and our sensors don't understand the space we are in. I'm going to calculate our co-ordinates."

"Good, how is everyone on the ship?"

"Good," replied the Kallidahin Chief Medical Officer into the translator interface in the Sickbay. "Only a few bumps and bruises."

"Captain, we aren't even in our own galaxy, but we are at our achieved co-ordinates. There seems to be a solar system here. It is the same as the one in our galaxy," said the navigation ensign.

"Okay, change of plans, head to the mass populated planet," Jello ordered.

"Sorry Sir, reactor is still offline," said the helmsmen. "However there are a few incoming ships."

"Show them on-screen," ordered Jello. The Holoscreen flickered to life and two massive ships appeared with a lot of smaller ones that had enormous wingspans and sharp vertical stabilisers out the back. Some others are smaller with narrow fuselages and long wings and a gold canopy.

"Sir, one of the larger ships is hailing us," said the COM officer.

"Alright, accept and show them on-screen," Jello said.

"This is Commander Miranda Keyes of the UNSC Prowler Athens. Stand down all weapons and state name, organisation, classification, and reason for entering UNSC space," Miranda ordered.

"Okay, I am Commander Jello, to my immediate left is Captain Melissa of this vessel and to her left is Sub-Commander Lee Yang. We are part of the Fists, an army of soldiers against the Galactic Empire and Order 66. This vessel's classification is Legacy-class Star Destroyer and Kaminoan High Command to ordered us to come to a peaceful interaction with the peoples of this planet," Jello explained.

"Alright, I am Commander Miranda Keyes of the United Nations Space Command Navy, and my starfighters are going to inspect your vessel. Do not try anything as we have twenty Super Magnetic Accelerator Cannons locked onto your vessel and are prepared to fire at any given moment. My sister ship and I will tow your vessel into protected space and you will be ordered to allow us to come aboard and discuss our situation. Prepare for a slight tug."

"Yes ma'am," Jello responded. The holoscreen flicked off and two grappling cables ejected from each prowler and attached to the Legacy. The Legacy was tugged for hours until it reached a massive planet with one natural satellite. "Tactical, scan the planet and our surroundings."

"Yes Sir." The tactical ensign tapped the keyboard with his fingers and statistics and a massive information database popped up on the main holoscreen. "Sir, the planet seventy percent water, thirty percent landmass, and has a standard nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere. It is covered in life and the planet seems to be protected by hundreds of these so-called Super MAC's."

"Do you think these MAC's are the same as the ones we have?" Melissa asked Jello.

"Possibly, I just can't wait to speak to these UNSC officers and find out what is going on."

"Commander, a ship is asking permission to board, orders?" asked the COM officer.

"Tell them to head straight down the dorsal flight deck and get a couple soldiers armed and bring the guests to the conference room," he ordered.

"Yes Commander, executing order." The COM officer turned on the Fists main frequency and ordered four soldiers to gear up with DC-15s's and their katanas and to meet the guests in the main hangar at the received dropship. "Fists 01, 40, 101, and 34, make your way to the dorsal hangar and bring the guests to the main conference room. They are boarding now."

Once aboard, Miranda said, "Look at this Lord Hood, it's enormous."

"Yes, it is quite large. Miranda, I think that some soldiers are motioning us to meet them over there," Lord Hood pointed to four soldiers at the turbolift lobby.

"Yes Sir. Pilots, stay with the Pelican," Miranda ordered.

"Yes ma'am."

"Hello Sir, my name is 01, my fellow comrades and I will take you to Commander Jello and Captain Melissa. If you follow me this way, we will be up shortly," 01 greeted the guests.

"If I may ask, what are the Fists?" Lord Hood asked.

"Sorry, but Commander Jello will answer all your questions, I have been ordered to take you to him," 01 responded. Once they reached the top of the shaft, the soldiers brought them through a doorway in the conference room. The room was engulfed in shadows and the only light they saw were buttons around a circular table.

Lord Hood and Commander Miranda stood there as the soldiers left the room and closed the door. The table in front of the couple ignited a hologram showing a detail visual of the Earth and moon along with the battle stations. Lord Hood immediately saw Captain Melissa off to the right sitting in a chair wearing a battle suit without a helmet and she stood up. "Greetings Lord Hood and Commander Miranda. I am Captain Melissa of the Legacy, the vessel you are on," she said as she went up to each and gestures a handshake. They responded with the handshake and took a seat. The room was still dark and then a golden glare slightly emerged from the darkness.

"Is that a MJOLNIR combat helmet Miranda?" Lord Hood said rubbing his eyes.

"It seems so."

The figure came into full view and the UNSC visitors couldn't believe it. "Melissa, what do you call that suit he is wearing?" Miranda asked.

"It is Shock Armour… why?" she replied.

"Our super soldiers called Spartans wear extremely similar outfits. Take this and insert it into your computer and you'll see what I mean." Lord Hood passed Melissa a data crystal and she inserted it into the holo-projector.

"Hello Captain, where am I?" spoke a purple figure.

"Turn around Deja II," Miranda told. "We are on the Legacy."

"Oh, hello, I am Deja II, an upgrade from my counterpart Deja. I am a smart AI while Deja was 'dumb', used to train the Spartan-II's."

"Nice to meet you. We don't have holographic AI's from where we come from. We have droids. May we see the MJOLNIR armour," asked Jello.

"One moment… processing," she replied and a Deja II shrunk from a meter in height to five centimetres. Multiple figures appeared representing many styles of this armour.

"We have different styles of this armour and our newest armour is Mark VI-C+V variants. Your armour resembles Mark IV armour," explained Deja II.

"So it does. But not all of my soldiers have this armour. The rest of them have a different type. It's black that has camouflage and a V-shape visor," said Jello.

"Wait a minute, Commander those look like our Orbital Drop Shock Troopers. Much of your equipment looks like ours. When we first scanned your vessel, even your Bumblebee escape pods and HEV's look like ours. How did you come up with this?" Lord Hood asked.

"We didn't. Our creators and their manufacturers did. I'll call them up." Jello said and over the COM, he continued, "Lama Su and Taun We, come to the conference room, our guests need questions answered."

"We are on our way," replied a soft, calm voice.

"We don't know if you've seen aliens before so brace yourself," said Melissa.

"Don't worry, we are in the middle of a longing war against the Covenant. A small fraction of the Covenant broke away and is currently allied with us, so we've seen quite a handful of ugly aliens.

"Okay." As Melissa responded, Lama Su and Taun We walked through the door and sat down beside Jello. "So Lama Su, our guests have a couple questions."

"Continue," replied Lama Su.

"I am Lord Hood and this is Commander Miranda, and we have a few questions. Where did you achieve your designs for you HEV's, Bumblebee's, and the Fists' armour?"

"We designed them with our Hidden Forces Concepts, Designs, and Rothana Heavy Engineering (HFCDRHE) team on our homeworld. We came up with the idea of a rectangular and V-shape visors as well as new designs for this team. We operate with a small part of Rothana Heavy Engineering and they construct all of our vehicles, most of our equipment and weapons, and this vessel. We don't know how or why our designs are similar, perhaps it is coincidence," Lama Su explained.

"Perhaps."

"We do have a manufacturing section on our port-aft sector and on our starboard-aft sector, we have a cloning facility. However I have a question."

"Go on," Lord Hood motioned.

"It seems that you are in possession of MAC technology. We as well have that technology on two outer spherical cannons," Lama Su explained.

"We see that, Our cannons are the closest things we have to Covenant technology," Miranda told.

"Well our cannons are powerful and besides the use of ordnance, they are our only physical means of weaponry. Our other weapon systems are plasma based in both a phase and pulse form," Jello continued.

"Perhaps we could do a trade… Your help and plasma technology for a couple hundred ODSTs and new vehicles?" Lord Hood asked.

"Maybe, we are also dealing with a larger threat in our own galaxy and we need a way back," Jello argued.

"We are working on one of the most top secret and largest projects that only a few know about. It is called an Ultra MAC capable of launching a projectile to one-quarter slipspace. We haven't thought of a body, but it will be large enough to hold your vessel and more. We'll trade that for designs on your vehicles and vessels, and your plasma technology," Deja II and Lord Hood discuss with Jello and Melissa.

"Well I like the idea of it, how fast would the station travel?" Melissa concerned.

"A bit faster than the Legacy if the Legacy's power system is coupled into the station, but slower if not. The firepower output is also massive. One shot from the Ultra will have enough kinetic energy to not only put a clean hole through a medium moon but the wake behind it would the core and eventually the surface. The barrel has a system that lets anything between a one-meter diameter to a twenty-five meter diameter to be fired and the firing system is built around levels to a hundred percent and the largest round. We have calculated that if you modified a bumblebee, it could be fired but only if the passenger capacity was reduced to four." Explained Lord Hood, "Deja II, why don't you continue."

"The cannon as far as we know is the most powerful weapon we know of. If the plans allow it, the station will also be able to hold one extra Super MAC and a few standard MAC's. It can also be coated with your quad-barrelled heavy pulse cannons and hold over a thousand of your retractable phase and pulse cannons."

"Whoa!" Jello spoke softly. "That is unbelievable. Let's say I had a reasonable idea on a station? Then what?"

"What is it? The fact is, we need something that is large enough to hold the cannons, a weapons reactor and an engine reactor," Deja II said.

Jello sat there scratching his head deep in thought. "We just finished destroying a fleet of these battles stations that I believe could work but with modifications… but before we discuss matters. How about we got to your home ship or station?"

"Alright, but bring what you need because our MAC platforms aren't custom to your docking ports," replied Lord Hood as he got up and walked out of the room waiting for Jello and Melissa.

"Lord Hood, you go ahead with Captain Melissa and I'll meet you at your shuttle," Jello said running to a different turbolift.

Once the trio got to the hangar, Lord Hood, Miranda, and Melissa climbed aboard the Pelican and started the pre-flight check.

"So what is this Lord Hood?" asked Melissa curiously.

"It is a Pelican. It usually holds ten soldiers plus a few others including pilots, commanders, and can hold an extra eight in emergencies. The large aft overhang provides an attachment point for additional cargo and ordnance. Possible payloads include an M-779 troop carrier, a Scorpion tank, a Warthog, weapon re-supply drop pods, or fuel pods allowing for in-flight refuelling with other aircraft. Once we reach Cairo Station, you'll see that we have much more than these," he explained.

Soon after, Jello arrived with the newly upgraded and updated Dee. "I thought I'd better bring my droid along for the ride. She has quite the memory and could be of some use of help."

"Alright," Lord Hood responded then told the pilots to take-off.

"Flight Control, open bow doors," ordered Melissa over her COM in her helmet. The Pelican sped out of the hangar and into the vacuum of space. The passengers weren't sucked out of the craft because of a retractable door that slides down from the sealing and seals airtight. "So, this Cairo Station, what is it?"

"It is base of command and I am the Fleet Admiral. I am in charge of the UNSC and Cairo was the staging place for the ceremony for Master Chief-117, Sergeant A. Johnson, and Commander Miranda. Due to recent events, her father wasn't able to accept the award so she took it in his name. Captain Keyes was probably one of the finest captains this military has ever seen," Lord Hood said zoning out.

"I'm sure he was. Before we come aboard, is there anything I need to know?" Jello asked.

"No, it'll be like on your vessel. But it would be nice if you remove your helmets."

"No problem. Just a precaution in case that seal breaks," Jello said winking at Miranda and taking his helmet off."

"Lord Hood, we are beginning docking procedures," said the co-pilot ahead. The Pelican drifted close to the docking bay and hovered in. The landing gear retracted, the Pelican landed, and the engines were cut.

The door unsealed and a tall black man stood there with a cigar in his mouth and a rifle in his right hand. "It's alright Johnson, they aren't going to bite," Miranda said stepping out of the Pelican. "This is Commander Jello of the Fists and this is Captain Melissa of the Legacy."

"Nice to meet you," Johnson said shaking their hands.

"Come this way," said Lord Hood as he pointed to an exit. Along the way to the bridge of the massive station, the group was quiet but Jello and Melissa were in awe. The largest MAC they ever saw had a barrel over a kilometre high and the planet had hundreds of them.

"Commander, sensors show that if this cannon fired a full level shot at the Legacy, it would put a clean hole through and through the Legacy," said Dee. Moments later, the group entered an enormous center that had a full view of cannon and had at least forty personnel at work.

"Well we will have to make sure that never happens," Jello whispered.

"This is the center of the UNSC right now. We are still cleaning up remnants of the Covenant warships and our original base was destroyed on Earth so everything was immediately transferred here," Lord Hood spoke and walked to the view screen. "Where do you have your information and data?"

"In Dee. She'll show it on her holo-projector she has and we'll discuss things from there," Jello exclaimed. Dee hovered and made a slight humming sound as the hologram appeared above the hall. A giant spherical object appeared with two separate mandibles connected through the rear of the sphere. The sphere had a diameter of four kilometres and with the mandibles included, the diameter was seven kilometres. The mandibles connected the sphere by a large rectangular junction and three large drive engines protruding outward on both junctions. A bridge very similar to that of the Legacy popped out of the front of the sphere just above the equator. The Ultra MAC stood high with a Super MAC underneath the bridge smack dab in the center of the equator. The extra barrel length sticking out of the bottom like the Super MAC Orbital Defense Platforms orbiting Earth was removed. Around the mandibles were six MAC's in total and additional HPC's were around the entire station. Although the Super MAC's barrel was for the most part within the sphere, the Ultra MAC barrel was able to retract up to three-quarters its height.

"So what do you think Lord Hood?" Jello said crossing his arms.

"It is exactly what we have been looking for, great work Commander," Lord Hood smiled. A tall seven-foot high figure entered the bridge and walked up to Jello.

"Hello Commander, I am Spartan-117 Master Chief," said Master Chief in correct military form.

"Sorry, this is Captain Melissa. We are discussing the design for the Ultra MAC and I believe we found it," said Lord Hood.

"If it isn't too much trouble, what is your first name Lord Hood?" Melissa asked.

"Terrence."

"Sorry it's just that on the Legacy, we don't speak in formal military language. We act more if we are friends and family so we barely often speak like you do," she smirked.

"That's alright. Shall we begin construction right away?" he asked

"Yes Sir, how long will it take though?" Jello continued.

"Well, with the ex-Covenant's, the Legacy's, and all of our manufacturing systems helping… a couple months."

"Good, I'll bring the Legacy to one of your stations and it'll dock with an extendable deck," Jello finished.

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