Wavelengths
A DCAU Plus fanfiction project
Hal Jordan
High Orbit over the planet Biot
As Hal Jordan floated in the void his eyes swept over the forces under his command. He didn't have nearly as many Lanterns as he would have liked, as the Green Lantern Corps had too many obligations across the known universe that were too important to take their respective Lantern away from. Only a hundred Lanterns had been available to bolster Biot's defenses, which Hal and Guy had divided into five squadrons. The twenty lanterns of Sword squadron were joining Hal in the right wing of the defensive formation.
Fortunately Lanterns were not the only fighting force the Corps' core planets had at their disposal. A Lantern was considered overkill for many different situations, so over the eons the Guardians had designed many different starships to fill every need imaginable. Over a thousand such ships were at Sword squadron's back, ranging from small picket craft to mighty battleships and carriers. Some had been pulled from mothball, others had just been completed in Biot's shipyards only hours before. Most were from the sector's standing fleet, with their veteran crews mixed in with the fresh naval academy graduates insuring that every newly activated ship was properly crewed.
It was an impressive force, but it was still an outnumbered force. And even with technological superiority and superior institutional experience a force could have its' moral shaken by a numerically superior enemy. Hoping to steel moral Hal began a broadcast to Biot's defenders on a channel he knew was absolutely secure.
"When the war with the Yellow Lanterns began I told you stories of my home nation's involvement in my homeworld's second world war," Hal started. "I want you to remember the story of the Battle off Samar, how a lone task force fought with such ferocity that they turned back the entirety of the Japanese 2nd fleet. The Japanese thought that the only reason such a small group would fight so bravely was that reinforcements had to be close by. Fear cost the Japanese that battle. Our enemy clings to the yellow light of fear, and while they think they control that light it still whispers in the back of their minds. If we stand strong enough against them their own fears will undermine them, and we will win this day."
Hal then raised his hands into the Green Lantern salute and shouted, "We are the Green Lantern Corps! We Have The Ability To Overcome Great Fear! FOR JUSTICE AND THE CORPS!"
"FOR JUSTICE AND THE CORPS!" Thousands of voices called back over the coms. Satisfied that moral would hold Hal turned his gaze to where he knew the enemy would emerge from hyperspace and waited.
It wasn't a long wait. Warships of Thanagarian, Qwardian, Apokoliptian and other designs began to appear, filling enough of the once empty space that it was becoming difficult to see the small moon behind them. Soon ships stopped exiting hyperspace and the various vessels began to organize themselves into a proper battle line.
No point in letting them finish.
Hal's ring blazed with emerald light as he shot forward, the other Lanterns of Sword squadron following his lead while the ships of the defensive fleet opened fire. As he gained speed Hal flexed his willpower and the green light of the ring responded, forming a cockpit around him. From that cockpit grew the body of a F-15 Eagle that let loose an expansive payload of missiles and a hail of bullets from its' rotary cannon. Every missile struck true, blowing holes in the enemy fleet's fighter screen that let Hal, the other Lanterns and the corps fighters following him to slip through and attack the enemy warships directly.
The the first wave of corps fighters and the Lanterns of Sword squadron split up to attack different targets, and soon Hal was completely alone amongst the enemy. It did not take long for an entire squadron of Thanagarian interceptors to get on Hal's tail, firing their laser weaponry in a pattern that was becoming increasingly difficult for Hal to doge. He needed a dedicated starfighter.
Once again Hal pushed his will through his power ring and his hard light construct shifted into a SA-23E Aurora Starfury. Now able to flip around without changing the overall direction of his momentum Hal turned and faced his pursuers. In a few brief moments Hal disposed of the Thanagarian starfighters with precision fire from the Starfury's pulse cannons. He continued in the Starfury for several moments, strafing enemy capital ships and dogfighting with enemy fighters when the perfect opportunity presented itself.
He was in the center of an Apokoliptian battleship formation with no enemy fighters in sight. Hal grinned as he willed a new construct into being: an AC-130. The gunship opened fire with all of its' cannons and guns, gutting every alien vessel within sight. Soon all Hal could see was wreckage, and from that wreckage emerged Hal's first true opponent in the battle: a Yellow Lantern.
The Yellow Lantern was a strange looking alien. Its' main body was a humped ball that would have stood on three hoofed legs were it not flying through the void, and protruding from its' body just below the hump were two long necks with heads on the end that looked too small to house a proper brain. Both heads were dominated by a singular massive eye, and had mouths who's lips were covered in interlocking nubs that apparently worked like fingers if the power ring being worn on one of them meant anything.
"BEWARE THE HINDMOST!" The strange Yellow Lantern shouted as an energy construct took shape around it. The swirling yellow energy formed into what looked like a manta ray with three moray eels growing out of where its' mouth should have been. The monstrous construct charged, and Hal quickly came to the conclusion that it was time to trade raw firepower for speed and maneuverability.
Hal ejected himself from his old construct, allowing the Yellow Lantern who Hal presumed was called Hindmost to tear into the AC-130. With his foe thus distracted Hal created a new fighter jet around himself. A fighter jet that was like the Starfury in that while human minds had designed it human hands had not yet built it. With a burst of supersonic speed Hal flew his new fighter away from Hindmost who had just noticed the dissipating AC-130 had no pilot, and in a feat of maneuverability one would not expect of a jet fighter Hal disappeared into a particularly large collection of rubble.
Hindmost followed, reducing the size of their monstrous construct in order to better navigate the jagged metallic flotsam. With a grace befitting a creature of the sea the three headed construct ducked and weaved through the shattered corps of the Apokoliptian battleship. The fluidity and skill of the Yellow Lantern's movement was a breathtaking sight to behold, until the glowing green fist of a VF-1 Valkyrie shot out from behind a particularly large piece of debris and punched the yellow construct creature into a busted up reactor.
The jagged edges of the destroyed reactor impaled Hindmost's construct, causing the Yellow Lantern to lose their focus on maintaining their beast. In that brief moment of disorientation Hal grabbed the mostly spherical alien with his VF-1's right hand like they were a tennis ball, and then slammed the VF-1's left fist into them like he was trying to smash a tomato. Hal then tossed the Hindmost 'downwards' into a large mass of wreckage as if he was spiking a ball. The hapless alien smashed through debris and wreckage until they came to a relative stop, and then they drifted there unmoving.
Hal shifted his VF-1 from battroid mode back into fighter mode and shot out of the Apokoliptian wreckage back into the battle proper. Things looked like they were starting to turn in the favor of the Green Lantern Corps. Hal's wing of the defenders had successfully pinned the invader's force in place long enough for Guy's wing to swing around and hit them from behind. The Yellow Lantern's larger but more primitive force was being successfully squeezed out of existence by the determination of the Green Lantern's less numerous yet more advance force.
Then boom tubes started to appear across the battlefield, pouring a massive number of enemy vessels and soldiers into the fray.
"We've force the enemy to commit their reinforcements!" Guy called out on the secure channel, "Keep up the attack!"
Guy's assessment wasn't wrong, but the sheer volume of enemy reinforcements combined with where those reinforcements were appearing would make it difficult to keep the battle going their way. There was no doubt in Hal's mind that the Green Lantern Corps would prevail, the question was how costly victory would be.
Hal remained in his VF-1 construct as he pushed towards where the enemy was at their strongest; dogfighting with enemy squadrons in fighter mode, switching to GERWALK mode to run along the hulls of enemy battleships while shooting out their weapon emplacements, and switching to battriod mode whenever an enemy Yellow Lantern was foolish enough to enter grappling range.
Eventually Hal found himself dogfighting with another squadron of Thanagarian fighters, only these pilots were much better then the first group he had faced in this battle. In the span of time it had taken Hal to destroy all twenty fighters of that initial group he had only managed to destroy three of this new group. Hal dodged, weaved, rolled and spun through their fire until he picked off a fourth of their number. At that point another difference occurred to Hal, these Thanagarians weren't trying to shoot him down... They were trying to box him in!
In the singular direction their fire wasn't preventing him from going was a Qwardian dreadnaught, and he was staring down the barrel of its' spinal mounted antimatter beam cannon. Hal poured more willpower into his power ring, thickening the armor of the energy construct surrounding him. As the possibility of doom loomed time seemed to slow and regrets whispered in the back of his mind. Missing Tom and Tegra's wedding, humiliating Jillian during the last major round of test flights before the Lexcorp acquisition, the things he hadn't said to his niece and nephew. Carol.
The last time he heard the sound of her laughter. The last kiss they shared the first time he left Earth for Oa. The strained smile she gave him during his fifth visit home. His sixth visit, when he saw the horrid thing her loneliness and longing had drawn to her. The day after when she almost killed Jillian thanks to an incredibly twisted and insane sounding line of logic. The resulting fight that stretched from New Mexico to Antartica. The collapsing ice cavern and her screams of pain. His inability to find her in the crushing darkness of the Antarctic seas. The horrible mixture of relief and dread when a month later she ambushed him in his brother's home and took his niece hostage. His silent vow to not return home until the danger had passed.
The ominous yellow glow of the Qwardian antimatter weapon was only a few lumens below what it was when it fired, Hal had no idea if he had added enough armor to his VF-1 construct to survive the blast and he didn't have enough time to get out of the way and-
A massive beam of Violet-pink energy bisected the Qwardian dreadnaught from prow to stern. The resulting explosions were almost blinding, but they could not hide the violet streak that moved through them and came to a stop in the void 'over' the space where the Qwardian vessel used to be. When the violet streak came to a stop the being who was inside it became visible for all to see. A black and violet uniform. A massive 'V' shaped mask that allowed long black hair to flow freely. A purple-pink gemstone resting the the crux of the 'V' above the forehead. It was Carol, the Star Sapphire.
Star Sapphire turned her baleful gaze towards the Thanagarian starfighters harassing Hal and snarled. Her gemstone glowed and a violet energy construct took shape around her, resembling a western dragon that spewed a torrent of fire towards the Thanagarians. Most of them were incinerated, the rest were scattered.
The dragon construct dissipated and Star Sapphire slowly drifted to Hal's level. Hal allowed his own construct to fade, letting him look at her without simulated glass obstructing his view. For a tense moment the two of them gazed into each other's eyes, both of their expressions unreadable. Eventually Star Sapphire inclined her head towards the rest of the battlefield. Hal nodded.
The two of them shot off together, tearing into the nearest group of warships affiliated with the Yellow Lanterns. Green swords the size of skyscrapers sliced through battleships. Violet harpoons on energy ropes speared destroyers and pulled them into collision courses with cruisers. Green and Violet bear traps, fly zappers and spider-webs cleared the void of fighters and bombers. A hurricane of willpower and twisted love swirled through the void consuming all that was foolish enough to get in the way.
This rampage would not go unnoticed.
Lyssa
In a dark room of a massive ship calculating eyes kept close watch over a hologram of the battle. These eyes belonged to a woman with long black hair and bluish-grey skin. Her black and yellow garb bore the emblem of the Sinestro Corps, though the clothing looked more like the dress of an exotic dancer than a proper uniform. All across her exposed skin (of which there was a lot) yellow writing could be seen glowing in a language spoken only in the most secretive temples of Qward. An unbreakable chain was connected to her left wrist, and wound through the air to a floating tome that emanated the yellow light of fear. This was the Book of Parallax, and its' bearer Lyssa Drak.
"Fatality," Lyssa spoke across a secure channel, "Have you spotted Hal Jordan or Guy Gardner?"
"I have not commander," Fatality answered. "I have come across seven different Green Lantern's in this melee, and none of them have been your targets."
"Did you kill them?" Lyssa asked with genuine curiosity in her voice.
"Didn't bother," you could practically hear Fatality shrug. "Any Greenie less skilled than Hal or Guy would be a waste of my talents and energy in a fight like this. I can clear those weaklings out at my leisure once the top dogs are gone. Best to start with them and... Hello there handsome. You'd look great on my wall. Talk later Drak." The com line cut.
Lyssa sighed in exasperation. So many members of the new Yellow Lantern Corps were frustrating to deal with. So many egos, so many chips on the shoulder, so little institutional inertia to help determine who was worth respect.
It didn't matter. She was bound to the Book of Parallax. As long as the fledgling Sinestro Corps survived its' trial by fire she would receive the reverence that had been denied her on Talok.
Returning her attention to the holographic display one portion of the battle caught her attention. Two Lanterns were tearing through the pawn's ranks so quickly they could only be Lanterns on Jordan and Gardner's skill level. A dark grin grew across Lyssa's face as she opened a boom tube to that location and tossed an antimatter explosive through it. She counted to ten, and then moved through the boom tube herself.
As she had planned the antimatter explosive had stopped the two Lanterns in their tracks and left them dazed but otherwise unharmed. One of them was a woman Lyssa didn't recognize, but the other one was Hal Jordan! Perhaps this would be a good day after all.
"Hal Jordan," Lyssa's voice sizzled, "I've looked forward to our meeting since the first day Sinestro spoke about you." It had taken her a lot of practice to learn how to make her flight look as if she was walking in the air, but the way she could sway her hips while doing so made it worth it. "He spoke of your gallantry, your ingenuity, your charisma," Lyssa purred. "I must admit that my imagination ran wild trying to picture the man who Sinestro held in such high regard. I simply had to measure you against the man who haunted my dreams. Now that I see you in the flesh I must say you do not disappoint. It would truly be a shame to mar your visage in battle when there are so many more pleasurable ways to do so, so why don't you..." Lyssa found herself trailing off as she finally noticed something off about the female Lantern who was with Jordan.
Language can have an interesting affect on how an individual perceives color. If a language lacks a proper word for a color the individual can have difficulty differentiating that color from other colors they do have words for, even in cases that would seem obvious like red and blue. The sun of the Talok system was unusually weak, meaning the plants of its' inhabitable worlds needed to be black to absorb enough light to photosynthesize. The herbivores were black in order to camouflage themselves from predators, and predators were black to better ambush prey. Tree sap was black, blood was black. The only things not consistently black were the marble rocks of the sacred mountain ranges. As a result the languages of the Talok system had words for black, white, and fifty different words describing shades of grey. Lyssa had had no conception of colors like green or yellow before her power ring had found her.
In short it had taken Lyssa the entirety of her speech to Hal Jordan before she had realized that the woman who was with him was not a Green Lantern. Her mind struggled to place the unusual color. What was the word Amon Sur had used to describe it? Pink? Purple? Maroon? Violet? Violet would do for now. In any case the woman's gaze had grown more and more spiteful the longer Lyssa had talked, and now her eyes promised a thousand interesting ways to die.
The forehead mounted gemstone the Violet Lantern was using as her power ring glowed, and an energy construct resembling a sharpened pencil appeared in her right hand. With a wordless scream the Violet Lantern charged Lyssa at speeds the Yellow Lantern had not been prepared for, her left hand grasping Lyssa's throat while her right hand drove the pencil into Lyssa's navel with all the strength she could muster.
It was a minor miracle that Lyssa's personal forcefield did not fail at that moment, giving the Yellow Lantern the chance to blast her enraged opponent back with her yellow ring. This did not push the Violet Lantern as far away as Lyssa had hoped, and a Violet fist smashed into Lyssa's face as soon as she stopped firing. The struggle that ensued less resembled the typical battles between wielders of the emotional lights and more resembled a confrontation between high-school rivals who ran into one another in the bathroom. Punches were thrown. Hair was pulled. Knees found sensitive areas as they tried to grapple their foe down to a floor that simply did not exist in the vacuum of space.
Eventually one of them pushed while the other wasn't grabbing and a great deal of distance suddenly existed between them. Lyssa snarled and prepared to charge her foe once again, only for a green ball to hit her with enough force to send her spinning. Hal Jordan had created a baseball throwing machine and had opened fire the instant his ally was out of the kill zone. As if seeing Hal do this reminded his companion that she had more at her disposal then her own physicality the Violet Lantern conjured up her own weaponry, a belt of grenades that she started tossing with a deranged glee.
Lyssa created a shield with her power ring that successfully blocked the worst of her foes' attacks. Channeling her fear of defeat and death through her ring made the shield quite large and strong, giving her the breathing room she needed to think. She was grateful for her bond with the Book of Parallax for a number of reasons, one of which was her ability to use the book as if it was a second power ring.
The book opened with pages flipping as fast as thought, the nightmares that stalked the dreams of every Yellow Lantern spilling out of them. These yellow constructs charged towards Lyssa's foes with the intent to rip them to shreds, yet Hal Jordan and the Violet Lantern stood their ground undaunted. Green and Violet swords, shields, spears, axes, armor, guns, arrows, clubs and whips all flashed into existence in rapid succession as the two fought back to back cutting down the menagerie of horrors that would have cowed lesser souls.
A frown grew across Lyssa's face as dynamic of power became clear to her. While she could possibly overwhelm Hal Jordan or this Violet Lantern in a one on one duel together they could hold back anything she was willing to conjure up. This called for a tactical withdrawal to rethink her strategy. Activating another boom tube Lyssa returned to her ship somewhat worse for wear.
"Fatality, report!" Lyssa barked out the instant the boom tube closed behind her.
"He got away," Fatality sighed into the secure channel. "And I had the perfect spot picked out for him between three females of his species. It would have made that diorama complete."
Lyssa rolled her eyes at the deranged bounty hunter turned Yellow Lantern's rambling. "I found out where Hal Jordan is, but I experienced a complication when I tried to collect him."
"You, running into a complication you couldn't solve right away? I guess the galaxy still has its' wonders." Fatality jested.
Electing to ignore that jab Lyssa pressed on, "You've visited every corner of the galaxy in your hunts, have you ever encountered a Violet Lantern?"
"A Violet Lantern?" Fatality asked in a tone Lyssa couldn't place because she had never heard her fellow Yellow use it before.
"Yes, a Violet Lantern," Lyssa explained, "She was wielding violet light and channeling it through a gemstone on her head."
"That sounds like a Star... Sapphire..." Fatality's tone was now one Lyssa recognized; dread. "You ran into a Star Sapphire? There's A STAR SAPPHIRE? HERE!? NO NO NO NO NO!" The sound of a boom tube opening in the hallway outside of Lyssa's room cut off Fatality's transmission, and as soon as the boom tube closed Fatality's voice could be heard running away down the hall; "WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE! WE NEED TO LEAVE RIGHT NOW!"
Lyssa felt the Book of Parallax shift, a new nightmare being added to its' chapters. Apparently gathering up some of the more skilled Yellow Lanterns currently under her command and having a second go at Hal Jordan and his companion wasn't going to cut it. This operation's primary objective was officially a bust. A quick glance at the overall state of the battle on the holoprojector showed that achieving their secondary objective of destroying Biot's factories would require a higher cost than she was willing to pay.
There was only one sensible corse of action. "Contact all our assets," Lyssa said over the comms, "Give the order for a general retreat."
The Battle of Biot was over.
Also by Sift Green. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.