Vandrwad:War God

by ThatGuy666

kratos has succeded in throwing the world into chaos, now sent to a new world and thrown into a new fight, he will finish what he started by personally ripping Athenas head off, but will the power of a fallen god be enough to stop the harvesters.Godofwar

5. Chapter 5

you know the drill by now,own n

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In the Bridge of the newly named ship, the Nirvana…

All of the crew members of the ship Nirvana were very much busy with the day to day operations of maintaining the ship, but since there seemed no evident element of danger nor the outside threat of impending death hanging over their heads, they were very much taking it easy for a change for now at least.

The ship found itself parked just outside the orbit of a desert like planet, That seemed entirely vacant of any and all time from the first general overview of the planet. With further investigation, all water sources were found miles under hundreds of feet of solid bedrock under the dessert surface. Making the possibility of finding any life on the planet surface slim to none.

As of right now, most of the bridge crew were busy getting whatever information they could manage to acquire on the desert world.

Right now, the two top officers of the pirates were getting ready to discuss the crew's recent findings on the planet.

BC and Magno found themselves looking at the over view of the planet's surface, an endless sea of sand was the only thing their eyes met, as the desert seemed to stretch as far as the eye could see, the only other thing of interest being the locations of several ruins, that seemed be left by some ancient civilization before its society were swallowed up by the harsh sands.

"This planet…" Buzam began as she and the elderly woman looked at the images being shown to them.

"I know BC…it looks as if it's dead…something happened here all right."

"You're right, but something that could cause a world to be like this? It's very strange indeed…with your permission Captain, I would like us to find out what happened here, there just might be some sort of valuable information that we can get once we're on the surface."

Magno sighed and looked at the planet and then towards her second in command, who happened to be the most efficient officer she had on her roster to date.

"BC, I'm not entirely worried about you going down there, I just can't shack the feeling that this might be a bit more tricky then what we're used to.

Buzam nodded at the Captain, fully aware that her worries were with merit as the two of them looked at the barren world, something had happened here and though it was strange, the second in command had a feeling that they were going to find out just what that thing was one way or the other.

In the Hanger Bay…

As the three Paeksis enhanced Dreads were in their berths and on standby, one of the occupied Vanguard Hanger Bay's was currently occupied by the young Vanguard pilot and his partner. The teen looked a bit different from before…no doubt from his time under the Spartan's training and supervision. He was a bit taller and had more muscular definition, though not that much at this point and time, though he was still wearing his normal clothes from his home-world. With him was his handy tool bag and mechanic's supplies as despite having systems flooded by the Paeksis, the Vanguard still needed regular Vanguard maintenance to fix any bugs and Hibiki was the kind of guy who wanted everything to work just fine. He also wanted to fix any leftover damage from the time that alien Space Urchin ship had fired on them both.

Still, the young man was still very tired, still reeling from the battle as well as his time under Gascogne's Register. Since he was a Third Class Citizen on Tarak, he and others belonging to his social class received barely any medical care if any when they were sick or injured, as they could not afford to pay for it with the pittance they were paid for their labor. So it became unspoken rule on Turok that Medical care of any kind was reserve primarily for the upper class citizen and other higher ups on the food chain.

"They really know how to work a guy to the ground around here, don't they buddy?"Hibiki spoke to his mecha as he continued his daily upkeep of his partner. Whipping the sweet from his brow as he took a swig of water to cool himself down. He had started his maintenance as soon as he had gotten up, and had gone on for four hours without incident, he was just about to call it day and go and grab a bite when he was done with this last panel.

Unknown to him, while he was busy giving off some complaints about how tired he was and how all of the women were all not appreciative of his efforts even after the times he helped save their lives, a certain redhead was about to ambush him. Dita did her best to climb up the ladder to surprise her Mr. Alien and since Hibiki had his mind set solely on his machine as well as his growing hunger, she did just that as she fired a floating heart right at him. As soon as the floating heart hit Hibiki, was very much startled, being taken aback by the shear shock of the "attack", he hit his head on top of the panel he was working on and feel backwards and landed down on his back.

Hibiki sighed and spoke carefully. More to himself then to anyone else as he stared upwards at the ceiling

"Maybe I'm just not eating properly again." he said now finding him in the unfavorable position of not even having enough energy to bring himself back to his feet

It was then that he spotted Dita looking down at him as she walked closer to him to get closer to him to see what was wrong, She stood tall with the tips of her toes mere inches away from his prone head.

"Are you okay?" confusion dripping from her voice as she seems both worried and confused by Hibiki actions

Hibiki didn't say anything as he tried to make sense of his exhaustion, unaware of the fact that he was very much looking up Data's skirt, he felt this sudden feeling of embarrassment as other feeling bombarded his sensors as he suddenly managed to get up to his feet with an explosion of unknown energy. Dita looked straight at him, concerned somewhat as Hibiki seemed very much exhausted, and the two of them heard a loud sound coming from Hibiki's stomach.

In the Medical Bay…

Hibiki was now sitting cross legged on the examination naked as the day he was born save his loin-cloth underwear. As Duero began to read his vital signs on the heart monitor, Hibiki couldn't help but think about just what the young doctor and more importantly his fellow man would tell him.

an unknown but powerful poison that the women had slipped him in his food or water?, Female germs that threatened to devour his flesh?, his body as well as his mind being affected due to a parasite occurring naturally within the female species? Hibikis mind wondered to all the dangerous and evil and pain ways the women could have affected him, he bravely braced himself for the worst as Duello showed him his scans.

"Your heart rate is normal and your vitals seem to be normal as well, the x-rays came back with nothing out of the ordinary, so in all intense purposes your fine"

Hibiki sighed in relief when the doctor's words meet his ears. He wasn't worried about death…. Nope not in the slightest. Dying by way of poison or dieses just seemed so…unmanly, he would much rather die in the heat of a battle if he was given the option anyway, if not he'd just stick to staying alive

Hibiki then took at the screens Duello was showing him that showed that while he was exhausted, he was still in good health, well as good as health as a third class citizen could be.

Before Hibiki could say his thanks to the doctor he was cut off as said Doctor placed his next sensor right on Hibiki's forehead and the next one on the right side of his face.

The Tarak teen suddenly reacted as one would expect when Duero placed his hands on his leg and began to run them up and down the length of his leg. Clearly not aware that the young doctor was simply checking to see if there were any growths or lacerations that the x-rays might have missed that could be a sign of something being physically wrong with him.

"Hey? What are you doing?" Hibiki said trying to get as far away from Duello as he possibly could, clearly not comfortable with that particular line of touching.

Duero looked somewhat surprised at Hibiki's reaction and naturally replied.

"I'm examining you." He said as if it were the most simplest thing in the world. Confused about how anyone would mis-interupt

Hibiki glared a bit and replied still in a very wary tone.

"just Keep those hands to yourself!"

"You know there might actually be something wrong with you, you've been acting really tense lately Hibiki, not to mention that you appear to be extremely exhausted, care to elaborate?"

"You might say that, working with those women is just so tiring, not to mention protecting them. Fighting side by side with them is no picnic at all Duero."

Duero looked a bit surprised by the answer, but smirked at the very same time as he absorbed Hibikis words.

"So you're protecting the women, kind of an odd twist for a man of Tarak to take, don't you think?"

"Well…I am stronger than them, I mean with my Vanguard and all…and they…are well, weaker than I am, though not all of them are… I mean, they are good pilots…but still, it kind of feels, right to be protecting them…somehow…"

Duero smirked a bit more and noted the slight elevation in Hibiki's pulse rate, along with his twiddling of his fingers, and realized that maybe talking about women right now was not a good idea for the still exhausted Tarak teen.

"Maybe we should not talk about the women for the time being, all you really need to do is get some more food into you and get some more rest"

"Good idea Doc and thanks." Hibiki said with a sigh, as he released a large breath he didn't even relies he was holding.

It was then that Paiway showed up in a fashion only she could, in a flash she seemed to jumped onto the tall doctors back and covered his eyes with both hands with her legs wrapped around Duellos waist to hold her up keeping her from falling to the ground and keeping her in place.

"Guess who" she said in a voice usually reserved for her frog puppet, as she smiled obviously enjoying herself in her current position. Hibiki looked on emotion barley showing on his face due to morbid exhaustion, but still feeling somewhat uncomfortable watching the little exchange.

Weal let's see who the only female on the ship who talks in that little voice? Paiway perhaps?" Duello said, no emotion coming off his words, but obviously playing along with the girl.

With a pout that said he wasn't any fun, she hopped off of the tall male with a huff

She had been watching the two men for some time now in the infirmary, and by those two, she really meant the doctor. Since meeting him and becoming his apprentice of sorts she has grown leaps and bounds in regards to her medical knowledge, but if she said that was the only reason she was viewing him she would be lying.

Since this journey began the male doctor, now the leading medical officer on the ship has become very popular amongst the female pirates, after only a few weeks of interaction with the men from Tarok, almost the entire ship was in agreement on three things about the men. One: it was best not to upset Kratos, Two. Despite what they had all grown up being taught about men, Dita treated Hibiki like her lover (no one could think of any reason why) and three. Everyone on the entire ship wanted to play doctor with the doctor. one would think that the third and second one were similar in many ways, the only differences were even though 99% were in on it no one would admit it to anyone else and also that fact that the good doctor hadn't seemed to have caught on to his admirers shows of affection either that or he seems to be fine with them which seemed to make him even more popular.

Paiway seemed to be no different; over the course of the voyage he had seemed to evoke more and more of her pai checks with each coming day. The ones when he was not alone became her most heated ones. Whenever she would take a snap shot of Duello talking to, examining, or simply walking past the female members he would invoke the same reaction from them, and she hated that

Every time she saw the faces of the girls she would see nothing but red and feel nothing but anger and jealousy towards her fellow crew

Anger because she spent the most time with him, being the only medical staff besides him, and she hated the idea of others trying to "steal" him away.

Jealousy because, being the youngest member of the pirate crew she lacked the "physical" features of some of the older women, and felt that it was easier for the others to take the doctors attention because of that.

As she turned to look at the man her attention seemed to be solely on the pulse monitor that the Tarak medic was using to check on his fellow man's current medical condition.

"What's this thing? A video game?' she asked, wondering when Duello was going to ask her to play with him, if it was in fact a game

Duero was somewhat surprised by that question as he knew that before he had been assigned to the Medical Bay, Paiway was the chief medical officer on the pirate group and thus was knowledgeable on most if not all medical equipment and devices used in medical treatment, and the most basic of those devices was naturally the pulse monitor he was using. He wondered why then was she not familiar with basic equipment.

"You mean you don't know that it's a pulse monitor?"

Paiway then gave the young doctor a slightly panicked look, and replied back at his question.

"What's it to you if I haven't seen one? Anyway, all health problems can be fixed in the Jacuzzi!" disappointed in herself embarrassing herself in front of the doctor

Luckily for her both men looked at one another with some note of confusion as to what sort of place or location on the Nirvana was Paiway talking about, of all the places on the ship, they had never heard of this placed called Jacuzzi.

"Jacuzzi?"

"What the heck is that?"Hibiki thought out load, imagining some sort of machine straight out of Dr sues that seemed to be capable of fixing any and all medical problems.

In said room…

"Ah, space battles always damages my hair."

The buxom blonde Dread pilot, Jura Basil Elden said adoringly as she lounged on a salon chair with a silk towel wrapped tightly around her head keeping her long blonde hair from flowing out. As another silk towel draped over her body effectively covering her so she would not technically be naked but doing little else.

She sat on the cautioned chair without a care in the world as she continued to relax as several attendants surrounded her while massaging her legs and shoulders as others were stationed at her hands and feet giving her a prim and proper manicure and pedicure.

"Don't worry Jura. We're here to revive your beauty; you have nothing to worry about." One of the attendants assured the blonde Dread pilot, as she applied a second coat of paint to her toes.

"I appreciate it. I don't feel like going into battle unless my hair is set just right."

Pyro had been floating around the room viewing all the women in it as they enjoyed some of the finer things in life when he found himself beside Jura.

Being a machine the little automaton was allowed into the recreation center where the women relaxed and took the time to clean themselves, unlike the men were. As he observed them he floated around them all the while viewing footage and taking electronic notes about their actions, all the while becoming more and more confused by the actions of the women.

"Sometimes I just don't understand humans at all, they make no sense." The little robot said as he view Juras treatment not fully seeing the reason behind everything she was doing to sustain her image.

Jura sighed as she felt her body tension melt away from the massage she was getting, she moved her head to the side and saw a hot tub where Meia soaking in it.

"Meia, are you trying to lose more weight again?"

"Excess fat gets in the way of combat."

The blue-haired girl replied to her blonde comrade's inquiry in a simple and honest way. Why risk injury during the course of a battle when she have fixed the problem areas beforehand.

"But you won't have any breasts left at that rate." Jura pointed out to her leader. Clearly the only one of the two who was worried about meia assets at the moment.

"Heh. Don't worry too much about me. I can take care of myself Jura." Meia laughed at the comment Meia wasn't as interested with maintaining her feminine appearance was her blonde comrade was. He never was probably never will, she was a strong believer in actions speaking loader then words, and in this case breasts meaning nothing in a combat situation.

Male section of the ship

The room was bare and almost completely empty, it was along the outer most section of the men's section separated from the rest of the ship secluding its two lone inhabitants from the entire crew.

Kratos was laying on the ground in a straight rigid position with his toes pointed towards the ground and one of his hand open in a similar manner. With a grunt Kratos hefted his massive body off the ground, his massive frame suspended off the floor due to the sole efforts of his single tree trunk thick arm, fully extended while his other was held firmly held behind his back.

With a slight discharge of breath, kratos bent his arm, bringing his body back down towards the ground, his chest stopping its decent the moment his torso just barely touched the ground. His movements soon had become a repetition of one other, his mind and thoughts on a continuous loop.

The rooms other sole inhabitant, The young Dita sat still, legs crossed with her knees pointed to either sides across kratos back. enjoying the warmth generated from his body as well as enjoying the little ride his movements caused, remembering fondly of memories of swing sets and play grounds she had as a little girl on majelr.

She had come to him in complete distress, wanting his opinion on a matter of what she described as being of great importance.

She was dismayed slightly to find nothing in the vacant room to sit on, to discuss her problem with kratos. She was originally content to sitting on the cold floor directly in front of kratos when she was hit with inspiration. Kratos, for his part, did not throw the young girl, nor did he have any strong urge to do so, which surprised kratos and delighted Dita to great length. Like some kind of cat, Dita shifted around on top until she found a comfortable spot on the massive mans back. She was looking for a spot where his movements didn't jolt her or threaten her to lose her balance and cause her to fall. Once she did, she let out a happy sigh and began her tale.

She went on to great length to describe her concerns over Hibiki, or who kratos assumed was Hibiki considering she used the term Mr. alien, which she had been known to use interchangeably between the four men on the ship

Apparently Hibiki was feeling less then healthy and Dita wanted to find a way to make him feel better and she just couldn't think of anything to do, So she came to kratos thinking he knew of all the "secret Alien" things all the men seemed to talk about.

As Dita talked about Hibiki , Kratos continued on with his work out, If he was ignoring her, Dita didn't seem to notice. As time went on her speech mannerism became much more fast paced an entire sentences began to flow out her mouth in such a way she didn't stop to pause or to even catch her breath.

Noticing this Kratos called out to her, effectively cutting off her rambling before she hyper ventilated or blacked out due to lack of oxygen, all the while not stopping his repetition of pushups.

When she was sufiently calmed down, Dita looked down towards kratos with a smile plastered on her face with a pleading look emitting from her eyes, or what kratos assumed was a pleading look on her face, mainly because he could see it.

Kratos seemed to be a loss with words at the moment for the first times in a long time. He hadn't expected this girl, let alone any of the women on the ship to come to him for this sort of thing.

If he were to be truthful with himself, Kratos would admit that the only reasons he ever got married were due to the sole efforts of the woman would become his future wife.

Kratos, knowing full well this was not in his area of expertise, was a second away from shooing the young girl off of him and sending her off to someone more suited for the role of relationship advisor. fortunately for Dita, kratos relished he must have been the only person on the entire ship who had any experience in a co-ed society.

he growled slightly at the thought, low enough so that Dita assumed it was another grunt of excretion. With a powerful push, kratos bucked Dita upwards towards the ceiling like a bull at a rodeo. Ditas surprise was evident by the "EPP" sound she made as she rocketed up in the air.

Kratos jumped to a standing position within the next second and raised his arm out forward in front of him with his hand opened. Moments later his hand closed around Ditas ankle, effectively stooping her freefall before she hit the ground.

Dita stopped herself from begging for kratos to do that to her again as he placed her back standing on her two legs. she smiled brightly up at kratos in a way that made kratos question if she knew any other emotion other then happiness, the look in her eyes gave him flashes of his daughter and of Pandora, but kratos shook those thoughts out of his mind.

"I can't say I'm the best person to talk to about this sort of thing.."Dita was still looking at him with that pleading look that seemed to clawing at his mind

"But…" If possible Dita seemed to brighten even more then she was before

"There was a saying where I was from which was the easiest way to a man's heart was through his stomach"

Dita nearly squealed as the worlds left his mouth, a sure fire way to help Hibiki feel better and to get her into his good graces at the same time.

"That's a great idea Mr. Kratos, Mr. alien love my lunch box I'll make him something even better and he'll be back to being his old self again and he'll only combine with me for now one." she said nearly exploding with excitement.

She grabbed his hand intent on dragging him along for the ride, but found him not even being close to budging from his spot.

Girl what are you doing" kratos said looking on as Dita continued to struggle to make the man follow her

"We're going…"Pull" …to the Galley…"Pull"…to get food…"pull"… and then …"pull" …I'm going to…"pull" …to make something for…"Pull" Mr. alien" She said between several attempts at moving the Spartan, looking almost like a small child trying to pull open a door that clearly says push over it.

After hearing the girl out kratos let out a sigh and began walking towards the direction of the cafeteria almost causing Dita to fall on the floor in the process while half heartily dragging her a few feet.

With a happy laugh to herself, Dita grabbed hold of one of kratos large hands with one of her small delicate ones and began walking side by side with the large man, with her ever present smile shining brightly at him.

"This is going to be along day" kratos said to himself as they made their way down to the galley

In the galley…several minutes later

The Food gallery was busy, nearly filled to the brim with the beginning of the lunch rush, as well as those who had missed breakfast. Many of the women were sitting with their meals and seemed to be enjoying both the food as well as the friendly conversation going on around them.

The light conversing and jovial mood of the meal time was dampened slightly by the other inhabitant of the cafeteria.

Kratos sat alone at one of the tables in the corner, isolating himself from the rest as he ate his meal in solitude. The women tried not to look, but couldn't help themselves as they looked on as the Spartan consumed what they thought would be enough food and calories to last a person for an entire week. He paid them no mind as he focused on eating his first true meal, in he didn't know how long.

When he became the new god of war, Kratos chose to cast away all that made him human, everything he viewed as a weakness. He ignored his hunger and his thirst, believing such worldly needs were below someone such as he.

The never ending feasts of Olympus did little to satisfy his hunger for revenge, the limitless goblets of wine could never quench his thirst of battle, and no sleep could ever put his body or his mind at rest. During this time Kratos contemplated if the "gift" of immortality as well as the thrown of the god of war was the worst torture the gods could have ever bestrode upon him for his crimes.

Since his fall from grace, he had no time to rest; there was simply the mission at hand, from battling the sisters and changing his fate, to over throwing the gods themselves. His true dream in years he saw his family, it was that moment he began to berate himself for forsaking sleep.

In front of him laid a feast, the smell of which reminded him of his wife's cooking which only seemed to magnify the tastes he was experiencing. This was the first time he had eaten anything but those food pellets that Bart had bribed him with so he could sleep with reassurance he would wake up the next day. The second he bit into his food he decided that being dragged off by Dita may have been the best thing that could have happened, if he had to eat another one of those pills he was going to throw someone, probably Bart, into the airlock.

As he was busy devouring his meal he then spotted Dita as the redhead stared intently at the nearby food conveyer belt that ran from the kitchens to the galley and back, allowing the women to easily get their dishes by merely picking them up from the belt and taking them to the tables. It seemed that Dita was looking for a particular meal of some sort.

It was then that her comrade Barnette was arriving to get one of the dishes for her own meal, and the emerald haired woman then selected a dish that had sliced fillet mignon, with baked potatoes and some basil on it with a tag of 789 calories. Naturally Barnette was surprised to find her intended meal in the hands of the bubbly Dread pilot.

"I think I'll take this one!" Dita said cheerfully as she held the meal in her hands.

Barnette was not very happy with what had just happened and made Dita aware of her displeasure as she glared at Dita.

"Dita! That's loaded with calories, why would you want that?"

"That's all right Barnette, he told me he wasn't eating right."

Dita said with a smile as she headed off with the meal, leaving Barnette confused to who she was referring to.

Kratos chuckled slightly at the scene and returned to his meal soon after, intent to eat his fill before leaving for the next part of his work-out when he noticed a visitor.

She was in her late teens, maybe even younger than that, kratos couldn't be too sure. She was small and delicate looking, like a porcelain stature, she had brown hair tied in a bun behind her head with big expressive eyes in the matching color. From her cloths kratos could tell she was a part of goscos register and from the way she held herself was rather new to the whole pirating thing.

For a moment she looked at him like a deer caught in the headlights, not saying a thing, her eyes looking in every direction except directly in his eyes.

She turned to look behind her at some other girl sitting at a table, kratos noticed that everyone in the room had stopped eating and began to watch the two. Staring intently as if every single one of them were waiting for something to happen.

The girl made her move right then and there.

"Uh m-Mr. k-kratos?" she spoke, her voice soft, almost frightened of his answer or upset with herself for even talking with him.

He didn't say anything right away; he simply took a swig of his beverage and motioned for her to continue with her question

I-I'm ve-very s-sorry to interrupt y-you but…" her voice drifted out as she couldn't help but to divert her eyes to the side away from him. A deep red blush covered her entire face, as she began twirling her fingers together, a nervous trait she picked up as a child.

After a few moments of awkward silence the young girl erupted with a sudden rush of courage, a mild surprise to say the least for people who knew her.

"I' STORYYOUSTARTEDPLEASE" she nearly shouted at the man, her eyes wide and puffy as she took a large inhale of air to catch her breath.

She said nothing as she intently watched kratos finish his drink waiting on bated breath for his answer, the only sound in the entire room at the present time seemed to come from kratos as he gulped down his drink.

With a soft clang kratos set the glass back onto the table as he stared straight ahead at the girl, who at this point looked nearly as pale as he was as she stared back at him with her mouth hanging slightly and her eyes black at if shocked herself with her sudden outburst.

Kratos couldn't help but smirk at the sight.

"What part were we up to again?" he said looking straight at the girl noticing how she seemed to hang on every word he spoke

Instead of answer from said girl, kratos heard an immense squeal emitting from behind said girl, as well as a near stamped as every member of the crew situated in the room left their individual tables and ran towards him. In an instant the chairs of his table as well as the chairs of the surrounding tables and the space between the tables on the floor were filled.

Kratos seemed to be at a loss of words for a moment until he noticed the small girl who requested the whole thing situated on his lap all the while looking up at him with stars in her eyes.

"Odysseus was just about to rescue his crew from the goddess Circe after, they became ship wretched"

It brought back Kratos the memories that he had just finished Homers Iliad, about the Trojan War and the fall of Achilles, and had just began retelling the Odyssey to some of the girls earlier in the week.

"Long day indeed"

On the bridge…

"Heat signatures have been confirmed."

Ezra then looked over on her own scanners and made her own report on her findings.

"There's a very large sandstorm in the area so I can't be entirely sure Captain, but there appears to be signs of habitation on the area we are currently in and several large structures as well, they don't seem to be natural either."

The bridge crew was very much busy with their duties on monitoring the planet that they were currently orbiting. As they were getting ready to start a ground operation, Buzam then began to tell the Elderly women that they would have to make ready a ground team, they however had to use Vanguards for this operation.

For their advanced weapons, armor, systems, and more, the Megele built Dreads had one fatal design flaw; they were never designed for planetary operations. The Dreads were meant only for space borne operations and were not able to handle land operations.

"I think that it is best that we do investigate the surface Captain, we might find some supplies along with some Intel"

"Hmm…the kitchen is running a bit dry" the captain said to herself, then continued on with "suppose there's no sense in not stocking up on some fresh supplies when we have the chance. All right then, guess we'll be doing this like old fashioned pirates."

"Thank you captain," B.C saluted to the old woman and seamlessly turned on the specking system to announce the plans to the crew.

"attention all crew members, we are about to begin a surface operation, begin monitoring weather conditions and also begin calculating the best location for a landing zone to be where our forces shall be deployed, along with the right time to send them down there." Her voice carried throughout the ship and heard by all members of the crew

As soon as Buzam made that announcement, she made another one that really got the attention of all the people on the ship. But most of all, the men, she decided to inform the ground team that would be sent down of their new form of transportation.

Dita currently had an arm load of food with her as she tried to hide from the nearby galley staff, but as she was now sure that she could escape, the communications system throughout the ship came to life and Buzam's voice came on.

"Attention all crew members, we are going to being a landing operation to the surface of the planet below us…All dread crew members are to report for simulation training for Vanguard operations."

The massive Spartan smirked at that little bit of the announcements, already hearing Hibikis mouth complaining about the whole thing. He was still in the galley, but this time he was accumpied by the good doctor, as he joined kratos table for lunch, discovering also how the women's food was vastly superior then the pills he grew up on.

"They're going to use the Vanguards? Well…this will be interesting."Duello said off hand, curious on what the reactions of his fellow men would be on the subject

"Interesting you can already hear the brat screaming his lungs out." Kratos remarked, as he considered Hibiki's love for the Vanguards and his still lingering distrust with women.

And the Spartan was right, since Hibiki was in his current bunk and heard the announcement, and he naturally reacted in the expected pattern.

"WHAT? WOMEN ARE ACTUALLY GOING TO USE THE VANGUARDS?"

In the Hanger Bay where the Vanguards were being stored…

Ever since the incident that had flung them half way to this side of the universe and into the aliens' back-yard. The Vanguards were there on the newly named Nirvana, but unlike the Dreads, the Vanguards were not used in most of the battles, and were naturally beginning to show signs of neglect and disuse, no doubt due to the women not finding a need for them…so much so that the pirates have even cannibalized them for spare parts. Now however, since this mission was going to be on the ground, they were about to get into gear and be used for their maiden purpose…combat. Thus they were put more into working condition to get them all back to operational condition.

The women however were not impressed with the Vanguards, however their dislike did not stream from a design flaw or one of function but seemed to be a cosmetic problem .Namely in their current color scheme of gun-metal grey and metallic silver. As such, the women began to paint them and place colorful patterns on them, in order for them to look more…presentable, and by presentable what they really meant was to spray paint them bright and pretty colors and call it a day.

Barnette sighed as she, Jura, and Meia, along with a handful of female Dread pilots looked at the Vanguards that were still being colored up by the engineering teams.

"Geez, I know that the Dreads were never meant for atmospheric operations on a planet, but that certainly doesn't mean I have to like using the Vanguards."

Barnette disliked the mecha and she was very much opposed to them as weapons in general, they lacked the flare the excitement a dread gave, to her they were useless and inefficient glorified dolls that the men liked to play with. Jura on the other hand was not concerned with that as much as her fellow pilots. For once she was not concerned with outside appearances of her machine as she had her sights on something else entirely, something she said was of "greater importance" then some dumb hunk of metal, as she looked in the direction of her own mecha, since she had in her favorite shade of crimson, after her Dread, and it was armed with a sword.

"I really don't care much if it's a Dread or Vanguard, just as long as I can combine to make something beautiful." she said dreamingly imaging just what she'd make when it was her turn to transform with hibiki.

At this point, seemingly out of nowhere Bart came skidding past them, flashing the group of women a flashy smile as he seemed to take the chance to begin boasting about his "Accomplishments "as well as his "Skill" with the vanguards.

"Hey there! If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask me! During my long years in the academy, I have endured hundreds of training missions. You could then say…"

He didn't have the time to finish his boasting when he noticed the eyes of the women seemed to follow to the left, he followed their sights and found his eyes landing directly on the images of both Kratos and the doctor as they both watched in silence as another of the vanguards began to be spray painted.

The handsome doctor and the massive man seemed to be conversing slightly with each other about the need for the paints and cosmetic aspects the women seemed to need for combat. Bart turned to notice that one of the Vanguards seemed to model itself off of kratos himself, the mech was pure white along its entire body, with the only using off color being a copy of kratos red tattoo covering its arm half of it chest and ending at its single eye.

Bart was about to make his way towards his fellow men to discuss with them a plan to gain the trust of the women by teaching them about their advances in technology when suddenly…

KLONK!

Bart stopped in his tracks as he was floored by an anti-gravity lift came down right on top of him. The technician who was on the lift gave a look down and scolded the young boastful cadet, "What are you doing standing under the lift? We're busy here so try to stay out of the way!"

"Okay." Bart moaned as he rubbed his sore head. He felt as if his entire ego deflated as he retreated back to the male section of the ship to recuperate from his head injury. As he walked towards the entrance he was nearly tackled it the ground by none other than Hibiki who ran through the doors into the room as fast as he could.

As Hibiki ran into the Hanger Bay and was stunned to not only find what the women had done to the Vanguards but to find his fellow men standing there letting them get away with it. He was just about to give them a piece of his mind (well, To Bart and the doctor at least. He was going to ignore that fact that kratos was there because hey, he wasn't from Tarak and didn't understand their logic and way of life (also that fact that he Knew yelling at Kratos was a very STUPID thing to do) when he gasped as he spotted Dita on the ramp leading to his partner, and she was brandishing what looked to be some sort of paint sprayer. He didn't need to look around him to know what the girl was thinking but it sure helped a lot.

"HOLD IT! DON'T YOU DARE!" Hibiki cried as he immediately rushed to his mecha. The mere thought of having his partner decked out in cute colors made him feel very uneasy and uncomfortable.

On the ramp, Dita readied and aimed her instrument at the mecha. "I'll make Mr. Alien's partner all clean and pretty! I'm sure that Mr. Alien will really like it!"

Just as Dita fired off a stream of pink paint, Hibiki arrived and jumped in front of his Vanguard to protect it from getting a new paint job. This action however caused the liquid to smash right into the young Tarak teens face and upper torso. As a result of being doused in the liquid, he was now half covered with the bright pink paint, causing him to have an appearance of something out of a children's cartoon.

As soon as he got the paint out of his eyes, Hibiki directed a rather angry glare at the young Dread pilot.

"WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING THIS TIME?" he screamed, his anger rising slightly noticing the red heads ever present smile shinning at him, oblivious to his red hot anger.

"WOW! A PINK ALIEN! HOW CUTE!" he gushed at the sight of him nearly dropping the paint to glomp the poor boy in front of her but luckily managed to keep that urge at bay for the time being.

Hibiki continued to glare at Dita, her smile and attitude making hibiki less angry despite his best efforts to stay mad at her

"She's really crazy!"hibiki said to himself, exasperated at the situation unfolding in front of him

In the bridge…

"Well, I must say I'm surprised I was the first person you choose to supervise this operation "duello said to himself slightly confused at his current predicament but intended to make sure no one else knew it. Hr was called up to the bridge by the captain for reasons he wasn't practically sure about, once there she explained to him how he, the ship's doctor, would be placed in command of the ground forces of this particular mission..

To say he was unnerved by the whole thing was a bit of a understatement. It came out of the blue, and duello couldn't help but feel as if the elder pirate was hiding something from him, his suspicions growing with each passing moment his mind was allowed to wonder.

Between the fact that my usual squad leader is completely green when it comes to land combat, and the one with most vanguard combat experience is a brat with an ego the size of said vanguard, you seemed like the best option" the captain answered honestly enough, but duello feared there was something the aged captain wasn't telling him

I'm just a doctor, I don't know how well I'll be able to handle myself in this field but I will try my best to see it through" duello said voicing his concerns for the new responsibilities in regard to this particular job. He wasn't looking forward of seeing or hearing the reactions of the dread squads when they found out, they already gave him strange looks and glances whenever he walked by and he feared that this decision by the captain would in fact create an explosive environment.

"I'm sure you'll do just fine, besides I have a feeling you have someone in mind that can help you" the captain said with a smirk, almost like she was able to read his thoughts and knew just what was going on in his inquisitive mind of his.

It was true, in fact the second she had told him her decision he began thinking of ways to partner up with kratos for this particular job. the massive man definitely came off as the type of person who knew his way around a war zone and duello definitely needed that particular expertise if he had any hope of getting the ground crew ready in time.

"I'll pass that information to the rest of the ground team, though it will take us a bit before we can send them down as we still need to find the best candidates for piloting the Vanguards from the crew that we have here right now." B.C chimed in her two cents beginning typing into a console, to relay the information to the crew.

The doctor nodded as he recalled seeing the Vanguards when the women were busy painting them, he didn't say anything at first but he found their ways of coloring up the Vanguards to be better looking was down-right foolish and stupid from a very strict military stand-point, doing that announced you as a target to the enemy. It went against some of the only things he felt were right about what the academy thought him and his fellow requites.

Kratos seemed to agree with his opinion, finding no strategic point in what they were doing. Kratos deceiver that this mission was not a combat oriented mission but a recognizance one. In and out, was all that mattered in a mission of this type and keeping a low profile was the key to its success. He held the opinion that the whole point was for a scout to keep from getting noticed and the whole painting the giant machines bright colors when moving through a desert lacked any intelligence what so ever.

Putting his thoughts aside for the time, the doctor asked for permission to leave so he could see the performance of the women who were going to be part of the landing group. he had no doubt that since Hibiki was the only qualified Vanguard operator in the entire ship, then he was no doubt going to be part of the team for this mission. His thoughts drifted towards kratos, and how he would be able to add to their collective think tank in regards to the mission.

The four bridge bunnies worked on the scanners, but after a while they began to get suspicious as they were not picking up any life signs on any of their respective scanners

"Odd…" Ezra said reviewing the information on her screen for the third time, originally thinking she had misread the information

Both the women turned to look at the most veteran of the four bridge bunts as she began to scan again.

"What's wrong Ezra?"

"I don't get it…there's nothing on any communication frequencies, no replies… nothing, either something's gumming up my sensors or no one's on this planet."

Belvedere then looked through her scanners and so did Amarone and they found out that their pregnant comrade was right, they picked up plenty of heat sources scattered throughout the world, but absolutely nothing on their life scanners.

it was as if this entire planet was deserted or abandoned, by its settlers, these answers brought nothing but more questions such as what could have made this world barren in the first place and what sent its inhabitants away it in such a haste?

"Ezra's right…there's plenty of heat sources to suggest possible habitation, but nothing shows up on life scanners, something's not right."

"Do you think that those aliens we fought with have something do with all this? Could this be part of some plan of theirs?"

Buzam looked at the two of them and replied as she looked at Ezra's own scanners as the pregnant woman did her own work.

"Keep your eyes on the monitors, once the storm clears and the results are in, we can send in the landing party to get some answers."

"Roger."

In the simulation room…

As the Spartan observed the training runs of the women, he made a quick guess that since the women were trained for long range warfare with their Dreads for a very long time, and because of that there became something of a culture shock to those who stepped into the vanguards for the first time.

While the Vanguards did not have the armor, fire-power, and technological advantage of the Dreads, they made due with versatility, close combat mastery, and adaptation. This was proven true as the Vanguards were made by the men of Tarak to fit their psychological profile of close combat preference, and while the Vanguards were not as well armed as the Dreads, they were able to be equipped with more weapon types and systems than the Vanguards, that and their ability to function on planetary surfaces and in space made these units very well suited for the operation, but the pilots were not.

Kratos stood, simply watching the exchange between the women in the simulator, silently evaluating their interactions with each other, a picture slowly forming within in his head. The doctor had asked him to sit in on the crews testing. The doctor's obvious reasoning being that Kratos being the veteran Warrior was used to testing the skills and processing the emotions and physical reactions of soldiers placed in situations of extreme stress. He agreed, and even though he had no earthly idea how any of these "Vanguards" worked he saw the reasoning with the doctor's train of thought. The women were new to these machines, and were bound to make mistakes and become stressed out due to the sheer difference between the sleek Dreads they were all used too.

Their attacks were slow, their reactions were off, and their Movements were delayed and awkward. The expert dread pilots went from being top dogs to complete amateurs, and it was frustrating for all of them. Several of the dread pilots left the simulator room in a huff, complaining about how it was the machines fault they failed and not because of their inherent skills. Those few would obviously not be chosen to be on the mission; they seemed to liabilities and would endanger not only the mission but also the others on the mission.

A Surprise too many of the crew, the usually clumsy Dita showed herself as being the most skilled with the humanoid mechas. Despite or maybe even because of this preserved reputation she had with the other members of the dread teams, young Dita scored the highest by a large margin during the simulation. Even then the good doctor, who graduated top of his class, stated the numbers Dita was putting out broke most of if not all of the militaries records that he knew of.

The other major surprise it seemed was due to the strange behavior of the squad leader, Meia Gibson before and during the simulation started. she seemed skittish and somewhat nervous when she saw the vanguard simulator for the first time and her expression seemed to get even worse when she found out that it was a perfect scale model of what a vanguards cockpit looked like. To her credit, she at least seemed to shack off her uncertainties and entered the simulators intent to master it.

Kratos knew of the girl, he had meet with her on different occasions during the course of his stay. From his recollection she seemed to both calm and efficient, bordering on stoic, she wore a mask to hide her emotions from the other crew members. The crew saw her as indestructible and that was how she licked it, it was easy for anyone to see. But kratos had seen, like he always has, the fear in her eyes as she view her life flash before her eyes as she prepared herself to face her death, No warrior is truly fearless as he faces down death, No matter what they say.

It was that same fear that caused kratos to call out to Ares, and that allowed the Spartan to forsake what was left of his humanity for his life without a second thought. The same fear that drove Cronos to devour his own children, It was the same Fear that caused the Olympians to forsake his Brother Deimos and to imprison him for all eternity, And it was that same Fear that drove Zeus to the brink of madness in his hatred of kratos that led to the destruction of the gods and of the world.

Kratos seemed to consider that particular factor into his mental notes, this woman has face death a number of times since he came on this ship, many more times before even that. The concept of her just now becoming uncontrollable due to her shot nerves didn't seem to be an option to the big man.

It was then that both him and Duero noted something else that demanded attention…Meia's life support readings coming from the simulator's sensors, Hibiki noted that as well, and instead of saying anything looked on as to what the other two were looking at, he also noted that meia seemed to be breathing much harder than before and seemed to be unfocused on what she was doing. The Tarak teen then looked at his mentor and saw the stillness of the Spartan that told him enough that the Spartan was concerned with what he was looking at.

"What's wrong kratos?"

"I think we have a problem with Meia…I'm surprised neither of us noticed the symptoms sooner "Duero nodded as he recalled his medical classes and lectures concerning the symptoms and readings he was looking at.

"So do I…but let's be certain first…"

In the simulator…

Meia pounded the side of the cockpit with deep frustration as she saw that she had failed her simulated mission dismally and was considered killed in action by the computer. She tried to calm herself down and keep her focus, her heart beating a mile a minute from the adrenaline coursing through her veins. It was then that the comm.-link came online and she heard Duero's voice.

"Are there Medical overrides on Megele?"Duello said, more of a statement that he knew something was wrong then an actual question.

"What are you talking about?" she said, voice filled with intensity as she still tried to regain her composure

Duero's face became even graver as he spoke once more.

"On Tarak, doctors like myself are given full authority to ground pilots who find themselves in situations such as the one you happen to be in right now. Do you want that to happen?" duello said, both his face and voice blank despite the concern he felt for the pilot in front of him.

Meia glared and snapped back with her emerald eyes blazing red.

"Of course not!"

"All right then, I suggest you switch you're video monitor settings to wide screen, that should make the strain your mind and body a lot less difficult and keep you focused."

"Keep your opinions and advice to yourself! I don't need help from anyone, least of all you! I'll be just fine, thank you very much!" she said, finally calming down and shut the monitor off, ending the conversation between the two. This however did not stop her from changing her screens setting.

Elsewhere…

"Hmmm…. How to use the ten-in-one knife shield… following the will of the pilot…ah, simultaneously with the electron pulse beam! I can do this!" Bart said to himself and smiled as he went back to reading the Vanguard instruction manual confident that he would soon be proficient in the machines usage.

"Whatever Bart, just keep doing whatever it is you're doing." hibiki said as he went to leave them room, bored with the whole situation he was in, the previous anger he felt towards the women for using the vanguards gone with the assumption that none of them were quite at his level of skill.

Hibiki was tired and decided to stretch a bit and move out of the room. However his attempt to leave the room was stopped, as his vision was blocked by a very ample amount of cleavage and added the fact was that he was pressed between them instantly stopped him in his tracks as he gazed up and found himself being looked down at by a certain blonde Dread pilot as he felt himself suddenly become rather uncomfortable an slight hot under his color.

"Hello there." Jura said in a seductive tone of voice as she smiled her best smile at the short Vanguard pilot.

"In the next battle, you will be combining with me! I hope you remember that." Jura said, sounding almost as if she was talking to an animal rather than a person. Afterwards she and Barnette left the training center, leaving Hibiki confused by her actions and for some odd reason he felt a lot more uncomfortable once that was over and done with.

"What the heck was that all about?"Hibiki said in disbelief, confused by both her actions as well as the feelings and reactions she caused him to experience because of said actions.

Back at the simulation room…

The lone activated simulation unit opened, showing Meia, panting for breath and covered in sweat lying on the consoles. Her breathing was haggard and strained, sounding as if her lungs were on fire as she gasped for air.

"I'm very concerned about her Doctor." The little navi robot said as it floated behind the doctor

Duero nodded at Pyoro's words as he and the Navi-robot looked at the young Dread squadron leader. Meia's state was another indication to the Tarak medic that she was indeed suffering from a very serious medical condition that had something to do with very tight spaces, namely that of a Vanguard unit.

"Meia…I was looking over the medical readouts and the symptoms you have appear to be psychosomatic in nature, and that tells me that there is something that happened to you that got you with this condition, do you have any clue as t what had caused this?"

Meia looked at him, a bit calmer now, but still nowhere near as composed as she's usually seen.

"Hmph, you're diagnosis couldn't be any more wrong. It's nothing more than fatigue Doctor." she said dismissing the man's concern as she tried to sooth her beating heart.

Duero sighed slightly, not dismayed in the slightest about her rebutting his concerns for her

"An adamant denial I see…well, this tells me that this case is far more serious that I thought it was." he said as he took a step closer towards the woman and the machine she seemed to be having problems exiting.

"I am not denying anything, it's just fatigue, nothing more. "she said her voice weaker then she would have liked due to the now close proximity between the two. His entire presence sending volts of electricity up and down her spine as her heart beat even faster than before when she was in the simulation.

Her mind was hazy as her limbs felt as if they were made of stone, heavy and immobile, but at the same time she felt as if she was walking on air, as if she was as light as a feather being blown by a gentle breeze. She felt as if she was high on drugs, her thoughts and feelings were alien to her as if they weren't hers. she felt as if the man so close to her was a drug she found herself become slowly addicted to.

With that thought imbedded in her mind, Meia managed the strength to get out of the cockpit as both the doctor and robot moved out of the way to let her pass. However, after only a few steps she nearly collapsed to the ground due to the remaining stress her body was going through due to the training exercise.

Duello luckily managed to catch her before she hit the ground preventing her from injuring herself further, he was however taken aback at the feeling of the women going stiff in his arms, her eyes were glassy and foggy as her face once pale complexion was now crimson and warm to his touch.

While the doctor was overlooking her physical reactions meia was experiencing a fever dream of heat and passion. her limbs were numb and refused to move her away from her current position. Her nerves shot signals of heat and electricity all over her body sending her body into light convulsions that did not go unnoticed by the good doctor.

Her skin was sensitive and hot as it strained against the fabric of her jump suit as she almost melted against the doctors arms, he grabbed her with both arms and held her against his chest. The heat generating from his body along with the rhythm of his heart beat both soothed her and excited her in ways she hadn't experienced before in her 18 years of life.

She felt his hot breath against her neck making the hair on her neck stand up and Goosebumps form all over her skin. Her mind was hazy, she didn't hear or understand what the doctor was saying to her, but she really didn't seem to care at the moment. All that seemed to matter to her was this moment and the fact that she was here alone with him

He lowered his face closer to her and held her face in his hands as he examined her, worry plastered onto his face looking for any signs of what was causing her sudden and seemingly serious condition.

Her eyes widened slightly as she stared deeply into the doctors lone visible eye through her daze, his callused hands sending comfortable tingles of pleasure run through her skin, the look of his lips as the curved and moved when he talked was now her main concern, her mind was racing at the thoughts of how his lips felt seemed to the only thing running through her mind when suddenly

"I do believe that the infirmary would in fact be the best place to conduct a physical doctor" kratos voice boomed from the monitoring room via the load speakers. He had been watching the entire event unfold since the start, and he really did not want to see the doctor get himself molested by an overly emotional Meia, so he choose to stop the little hug fest they seemed to be having before the squad leader did something she would regret about later on and what would cause a crew riot if anyone else found out.

As soon as the worlds registered in her mind, Meia shot up so fast she nearly collided heads with the doctor who was still in the midst of examining her.

As she stood she couldn't look at the doctor in the eye, content with staring anywhere but him as she collected her thought about what had just happened .

she quickly back peddled towards the door not even bothering turning around as she took one shaky step backwards after another. As she turned to leave through the door she took a passing glance at kratos through the clear window of the observation room.

"There's nothing I hate more than nosey people." she said low and clearly, more to herself then to the Spartan. her words however were heard clear as day through the thick glass.

With that, she left the room…leaving a confused Duero and Pyoro to discuss the uniqueness of human nature. However, the two were not aware of the fact that the Spartan was watching the whole thing and while Duero said that although he was a highly skilled and knowledgeable medic, he was a man on an all female ship and his opinions no matter how valid they were would not carry enough weight on the Nirvana, thus despite his better judgment, he would hold his peace.

In the bridge…

"Hey old lady! You there?" hibiki shouted over the monitor, annoyance evident in his voice over the days past events.

Both B.C and the captain turned to see none other than Hibiki looking very irate and seriously concerned about something. The elderly woman knew that for whatever reason he was looking specifically for her and would not speak to anybody else about his concerns, since there was not much for her to do at this point, she then decided to take the call and find out just what was the problem for the load youngster.

"There's an old lady right here little one, what is it you want little one?" she said, voice cherry despite the boys annoyance which seemed to annoy the young vanguard pilot even more.

"First off, tell you're women to stop messing up the Vanguards! Geez, all that coloring, we're on a mission for Grand Pa's sake, not some parade" he said in huff, his patience was running thin and he wanted anyone who would listen to know how he felt.

"anyway" Hibiki's next line of words were suddenly cut short when he heard another voice coming from off screen and spotted a certain someone that the captain or anyone else on the bridge could see coming right at him…forcing to cut communications with the bridge.

"Augh, she's here again!" he screamed as the screen went black leaving the captain and the commander silent as their minds processed what theirs just saw.

The captain was the first of the two women to react towards the strange scene that unfolded on screen. The captain could contain herself as laughter overtook her, tears welled in the corners of her eyes as she still looked at the spot the holo monitor was, while Buzam looked on, totally confused with what she had just witnessed.

"It's really ironic now that I look at it, the ship's gotten a whole lot livelier ever since we brought the men onboard."

"Yeah." Buzam said as she still was confused by all that had just happened.

At one part of the ship…

"Ahhh! What do you want this time huh? Don't tell me you're going to douse me with paint again!" hibiki said back against the wall, she had cornered him in the hallway at dead-end. Hibiki kept going through his head that he was not going to show fear in front of the girl and was failing miserably in said department.

Dita however smiled with her big eyes shining nothing but love and admiration at the young man and presented hibiki with a new clothe wrapped lunch box.

"I'm not going to douse you with paint Mr. Alien, here, I brought you another one, and I heard you were still hungry so I made some more food for you in case that doesn't fill you up."

Hibiki looked down at the box that was presented to him with a blank expression, not quite sure about what to say to the girl in front of him. It was at the moment this particular moment in time when his stomach once again made that little sound cue that told him he was rather hungry again. With that in mind, he wasted little time and took the box and ran, with Dita happily following him.

In the Bio-Park…

Hibiki once again found himself alone with dita whilst eating the food she prepared especially for him at a rapid fire pace as he and his red headed companion sat on the large picnic clothe along. Dita was smiling the whole while, as she watched Hibiki eat every last bite of her home cooked meal she made for him and she found she liked it when she knew that Mr. Alien loved the food she was giving him. The feeling of giving him joy seemed to bring her joy in ways she could barely understand herself.

After engrossing himself in his meal for nearly five minutes Hibiki finally looked up from his boxed meal and noticed the young woman stares directed at him and he quickly reacted. Instead of shouted at her and running away He simply turned around and went to eating his meal, it seemed as if he was getting more and more accustomed to her presence and his hostility towards her decreased as an after effect.

however his illusion of mild acceptance disappeared when Dita seeing his reaction as chance to get closer to him he moved to follow him and stare at him once more…he had no idea what the redhead was doing, why she was doing it, and why was she always smiling at him, with those questions in his mind, he looked at the redhead and glared a bit.

"Why the heck are you staring at me like that?" he asked, intending to despite her strange behavior towards him

"It's nothing; it just makes me feel happy watching you eat." She said honestly as her smile grew, seemingly brightening up the entire area they were in

"Hmmm…" Hibiki sighed and focused back on eating once more, not knowing the right words to say at the moment but not wanting her to think less of hi for some strange reason he decided that stuffing his mouth will give the illusion that he did in fact have something to say to her he just didn't have the time.

The food really helped him with getting his lost strength back and if he didn't have to eat any of those bland pill ever again it would be too soon. Even if it was a bit confusing as to why this young woman was always looking at him.

"Seeing you eat like that makes me feel so happy." Dita said in a happy sigh, she felt perfectly content with just being with the boy and knowing full well that he took some enjoyment from being with her was enough for her to be happy as well.

Unknown to the two of them, they had an unexpected guest watching the whole proceedings. Paiway watched Dita and Hibiki during their picnic intently through the bushes and then took several pictures and smiled secretively at what she managed to gather.

"Heheheh…I got you…Pai Check!"

In one of the showers of the women…

Paiway was now inside of another chamber on the other side of the ship as she gave her latest news to her comrade Jura, not minding the fact she was covered in dirt, twigs and leaves because of an unfortunate misstep she took to get a particular for a shot of dita and hibiki together.

The voluptuous blonde in question was currently in one of the shower stalls taking a shower, after what she considered a long and hard day.

" … And there they were, having a nice little picnic. The thing I noticed is that he was completely under Dita's control. And that was all because of one little boxed lunch." Paiway finished her report with a smirk, knowing full well she did good on her mission.

Jura smiled as she heard Paiway's report. A plan already unfolding in her mind about the information she just received.

"Hmmm, I see. That is one good bit of information I can use."

She then began to plan her newest attempt to convince Hibiki to combine his Vanguard with her Dread, now with this little tidbit of data, she just might have an edge now, that coupled with the help of her friend Barnette was going to give her in her mission, She was confident in her success.

At the kitchen…

"That's the reason why I'm doing all this cooking?" Barnette asked, as she was quite irritated as soon as she learned the reason why her partner and best friend Jura had requested her to cook one of her special meals, a fillet mignon, which Barnette was famous for amongst the rest of the crew.

"It's so I can combine." Jura explained; as she was rather busy admiring the polish of her nails. "You do love me when I'm beautiful, don't you Barnette?"

Barnette sighed in irritation, as she knew that once her comrade had an idea in her mind she intended to follow it through despite what anyone told her. In her frustration she gazed around her cooking area to add a little extra pepper to the dish when she spotted something she didn't remember taking out and smiled evilly when she read the extra hot hot sauce label on the bottle. Without letting Jura notice, she began to pour forcibly and jerked the bottle powerfully as the bottle's entire content was emptied into the pan as well as other choice spices to the mix as well to the fillet mignon she was preparing.

"All right, I'm done."

"That's why I love you Barnette. Let's go find him. I can't wait to see the looks on his face!"

"Neither can I." Barnette thought evilly, face mirroring what one would describe as being akin to the cat that ate the cannery

Unknown to the two pirates, another person was in the kitchen watching them intently as they cooked. Bart snuck into the place to find out just what exactly was it about the food made by women that Hibiki seemed to be more interested in that Tarak food rations, as soon as the women were out of sight, he went straight for the table and he looked at the pots, woks, and everything else Barnette had been using to create the meal. He was surprised at the mess and couldn't help but frown a bit at the sight.

"What is this stuff? Is this really the food women eat?"He looked incredulous at the food in front of him. The thick substance marinating in some brown looking liquid defiantly didn't look that appetizing to the former cadet, but if the other men seemed to enjoy it….

With that, he grabbed one of the leftover bits from the pan and ate it, unaware of the liberal contents of tobacco sauce, and spices that Barnette had put into the mix.

He was soon to find out as he got up from his seated position and fired out a plum of flames out of his mouth like a dragon. The after effects of which left his lips puffy and enlarged to Grotesque purportions and left them as red as the literal fire she spat out.

In the Bio Park…

Hibiki had no idea just what was going on, he had just managed to get away from Dita and was heading off to his vanguard to prepare for the coming mission, when he was suddenly stopped by Barnette and Jura.

before he could even ask what they were doing blocking his path and what they wanted with him they sprung into action and proceeded to hog tie and kidnap the young teen and take him back to the same place he had just ate his food with dita a little while ago.

"Hey! What are you two doing to me? What's the big idea?"he screamed while he struggled against the pair. Truth be told hibiki was neither the biggest nor the strongest man he's ever know, but even he was disappointed at himself by being manhandled so easily.

His next barrage of questions died before they even left his mouth when he spotted the tray table on wheels in front of him which had several containers on them. After only a few moments of pondering, hibikis mind began to wonder what was under these particular containers. He didn't have to wait long as Barnette took off the cover of one of the dishes and revealed the very first dish, the fillet mignon that Barnette had secretly doctored. He was stunned at the sight of the dish ,smiling the foods aroma instantly .

Jura took his stunned silence and the sight of his salivation at the sight of the food as her chance and whispered into her target's ear in the most seductive voice she could manage at that particular point and time.

"If you agree to combine with me, then you can eat this one." she nearly purred into the boys ear as she rested her right hand on his back, rubbing it up and down suggestively.

Hibiki frowned, he should have known there as a price attached to the meal, and despite his suddenly returning hunger for food, he stubbornly refused to be bribed in such a fashion.

"Fine then, I don't want it." He said defiantly, stead fast, at least he thought, in his decision

Jura smirked, she was not the shallow blonde most would mistake her for as she could tell that Hibiki was affected by the food, and she was closing in for the kill as she smiled.

"Too bad…it's so tasty it's to die for."

In the kitchen…

Women eat stuff like that? And Hibiki's eating those things there's no tomorrow, that guy's really tough! He should be in the military to be able to tolerate that stuff! Bart thought to himself as he downed what had to be his forth glass of water in the last few minutes , in vain attempt to cool down his badly burned tongue and lips after eating the super spicy bit that he had taken from the still unwashed cooking skillet that Barnette had been using.

He then took another long sip of his fifth glass of water and felt some measure of relief as the water cooled his ailing tongue. However ,at that moment the door to the kitchen opened and in walked a certain young red-haired Dread pilot.

"Mr. Alien, where are you?"

Bart quickly turned and spotted Dita, and after managing to cool his tongue, he began to speak.

"Oh…it's you…" he said in slight fear as he almost dropped his glass in surprise as he tried to think of an excuse as to why he was there in the first place on the spot.

"Oh, hello Mr. Pilot, are you all right? You're face seems kind of weird." Dita tried her hardest not to stare at his lips, she really did they were just so… distracting.

Bart realized that despite all his best efforts he still had the swollen and puffy lips. he placed down the glass quickly and then covered them with his hands, as to keep them from being seen more than they already have been. Hopefully for his sakes anyway, the red head didn't blab this to any of the other crew members, the last thing he wanted was for the news of what happened to spread all over the ship.

"Oh…it's nothing really!" he said in a vain attempt at hiding his face, as he slowly made a move towards the exit all the while muttering about his responsibilities on the bridge he had to take care of.

Dita looked on at him in confusion, her thoughts preoccupied in the humorous scene unfolding in front of her. Her train of thought was broken however when she noticed that the ice cream cones she was carrying for herself and Hibiki was already starting to melt, and that was not a good sign.

"Uh oh, that's not good, you want some?" she said clearly intent on letting someone enjoy the delicious treat, as she couldn't find hibiki anywhere on the ship.

Dita offered the ice cream to Bart…who naturally screamed out as loud as he could as he fearfully recalled what had just happened to him when he tried a bit of women food, and seeing such a large pile of white fluffy "death" before him, nearly caused him to faint on the spot. he was NOT going to risk killing himself to save face in front of a woman.

"No…No thanks! Maybe some other time! See you!" he said again, still trying to keep his cool but failing miserably as he began sweating and stuttering his words, mind encased in the fear of what the ice cream would do to him.

With that, Bart left the kitchen in a hurry, making Dita very confused as to what had just happened before her. It was then that she spotted Ezra walking into the kitchen, with a large collection of sour dough bread in her hands and she was currently munching on one right now.

"Men certainly do strange things, I saw him sneaking in here and getting some food from the pots." The mother to be said in between chewing her food.

Dita looked at her friend with some considerable confusion and asked.

"Ezra, why are you eating all that sour dough bread?"

Ezra blushed a bit as she took another bite from the one she had on hand already, and gave a sheepish smile.

"I just had this strange craving for something sour today."

Dita smiled as she said that, she was so happy for Ezra and equally excited the future child that would soon become a part of their crew and family.

At that exact moment on the bridge…

Amarone scanned the surface and got confirmation that the sandstorm had just died and the weather conditions were good enough for them to send down the landing party, but she knew that they had to send out the advanced recon unit first to make sure that things on the surface were good enough for the teams to land in ahead.

"The planet's surface is stabilized Commander, we have good conditions to send in the ground teams!"

In the Bio Park…

Hibiki, in a moment of weakness, had given in to the temptation of Jura's offer and had tentatively taken a piece of the fillet mignon and was about to eat it. The aroma making him drool as the food neared his open mouth, his hands shaking in anticipation. Jura was eager to see this and when it worked, she would have Hibiki wrapped around her finger, if he would just hurry up and eat that bite already. Hibiki seemed to be taking his time with the eating of his meal, almost as if he was waiting for his mind to get him to stop before he could devour the meat in front of him

Barnette on the other hand was eager as a child on Christmas morning to see the young man in front of her to panic and scream in pain as he ate the meat and ingested the spices. they were not enough to kill, she made sure of that, no need to go around killing any of the crew but it was enough to seriously cause pain that she was sure about.

However, as soon as he was about to take his first bite the alarms went off and Hibiki turned towards the sound, food instantly forgotten, realizing that the mission was now underway and despite his own reluctance to leave the seemingly irresistible meal behind him, the drive to finish the mission outweighed his hunger.

"Ah damn it…this is no time to be eating, hurry up and get to the vanguards!"

Barnette was able to avoid dropping the plate of food due to hibikis rash and sudden movements in leaving. as Jura looked on in surprise and mild horror as to her master plan failing so miserably, as Hibiki took off towards the hanger Bay so he could get to his own Vanguard, already fit for combat deployment.

"Don't forget that you promised to combine with me!"Jura called out as she watched the boy run away from her. She didn't want all of her hard work to go to waste and she really REALLY wanted to combine with the boys vanguard to create a machines beauty that matched her own.

Outside in deep space…

"I'm not gonna let these women make a mess out of any of the vanguards" Hibiki silently said to himself, voice filled with conviction on the mission before him.

Hibiki was the first to leave the Nirvana with his vanguard and head for the planet to start the operation. His Vanguard was armed with a special rocket umbrella that was used to both propel him forward towards the planet and protect him from atmospheres heat; behind him were the three Vanguards, one belonging to Jura, the other to Barnette, and the last belonging to Dita.

The drop-ship they were using to travel towards the planet was much different than hibikis method. the transport was long and held the three mech in side packed close together almost like a bob sled used by human long ago.

"Damn it…they're here too? "He thought to himself bitterly as he looked at his "teammates" coming closely behind him

Hibiki thought as he accelerated his Vanguard faster as the drop ship followed closely behind him.

Inside her Vanguard, Jura controlled the drop-ship in order to keep up with Hibiki, after she had gotten over her first bad performance in the simulator, the blonde was able to use the Vanguard with renewed skill. She kept herself right behind Hibiki and smiled warmly to herself at the sight of his vanguard entering the atmosphere.

"I'm not going to let you get away that easily." She said with a smirk, calmly telling herself that today was going to be the day when she was going to combine.

Unfortunately for Jura and the success of her plan, Dita seemed to have heard the whole thing and had seen the look on the older pilots face when she spoke the words. To say Dita was not happy would have been an understatement akin to a star being large. Dita was not going to have Jura get her fingers on Hibiki now or any time in the near future if she had anything to do about it , and she made her intent known to her blonde comrade.

"You stop that right now Jura! The only one Mr. Alien is going to combine with it me!"

Jura glared back at Dita and replied.

"You keep the heck out of this and be quiet!"

Both women glared at each other as Barnette, being a neutral party in this instance, sighed to herself at the antics of her comrades.

"Hopefully this mission will be over soon." The green haired woman muttered to herself, the sounds of her two friends still bickering in the back ground. She could literally feel the huge migraine forming in her mind as they went on and on with their bickering.

The planet's surface…

The four Vanguards broke through the planet's atmosphere and each began its planet towards the landscape below. The first to land was Dita who performed a perfect landing from the shuttle all the while activated her umbrella apparatus to slow her decent as to keep her from crashing, the next was Barn who did well on the landing but deactivated her umbrella a little too early and dropped a few extra feet to the ground, luckily for her it wasn't a problem and the green haired woman landed on both legs with no damage to the mecha or herself. While Jura on the other hand, while landing perfectly, landed on a sand dune and lost her footing sliding off the sand dune and landing on her back.

The last of the four to land happened to be Hibiki, and in spectacular fashion; he could not slow his decent to the ground like the others because unlike the others he discarded his umbrella as soon as he left the planet's atmosphere. Without it he quickly discovered he would be in big trouble if he didn't do anything to solve his predicament. He blew his mecha rear thrusters to slow himself down. His plan worked for the most part, he slowed considerably but still managed to crash onto one of the many sand dunes that littered the surface with an audible thud.

He shook his head a bit, slightly embarrassed at the others seeing what he just did and continued to scan the area before him for anything the crew might have needed. While he scanned anything that came to his mind he was both happy and surprised to note that Meia was not among the ground team. He thought to himself about the reason for her disappearance from the mission. Meia was differently one of the most dedicated and stubborn people Hibiki had ever met, despite whatever personal issues he had with meia, he knew there had to have been a very important reason as to why she wasn't here with them.

In the Hanger Bay…

"Damn it! I didn't make it in time!"

Meia swore as she was now in the Hanger Bay and her uncolored Vanguard was in the area. She had hoped to be the one leading the ground team as she was indeed the leader of the pirates' forces, but she had not arrived in time for the deployment.

Pyoro arrived and then spoke, hoping to keep the Megele woman calm; he had been there when she and the Spartan had the conversation between them.

"You shouldn't be pushing yourself like this Meia. Won't they be fine without you on this mission?"

No, I need to be out there something might happen to them if I'm not there with them. Don't you see? I'm responsible for their safety, every ones safety" she pleaded, with the navi robot, trying to convince it to help her out

"How honorable of you" a voice echoed, all around her as she turned towards the direction she assumed the voice was coming from.

"y-you" meia said as she took a subcontous step back as kratos walked closer towards her in long powerful strides.

"you seem surprised to find me here" the man said off handedly, sounding almost as if he didn't truly care about how she viewed him or the reasons for him being here.

"you don't seem to show any interest in anything but showing off in front of the others" meia said, with forced fierceness, to anyone else she would have sounded like a lioness defending her territory, but to kratos she sounded nothing more than a frighten kitten.

"I believe you've confused me with the whelp" kratos said with little more than slight annoyance for Meias lack luster insult towards his character. People have said much worse to him all throughout his life, and if kratos was honest with himself he would say they were 100 percent correct with what they said.

"Have I? " kratos said mock shock as he got closer and closer to her. his loud footsteps matching the rhythm and volume of her heart beat. After what seemed like hours for Meia he stood directly in front of her towering over her making her feel like she was nothing more than a child being scolded by her parent.

I killed the last person who spoke to me like you have" he said with no malice or anger in his voice, sounding less like a threat to scare her and more like a declaration of fact.

I'm not afraid of you" Meia said defiantly towards kratos, she stood straight as she stared up towards him with all the fierceness and courage she could muster in herself.

If he was impressed by her courage or annoyed by her pride, he didn't show it as he continued to stare down at the dread leader. His eyes seemed to be drilling into her mind reading all of her secrets and judging everything that she had done in her life.

"Of cause your not, but I suppose you will be soon. " he said as he turned to leave through the same door he used to enter the room. Meia let out a soft sigh as he left her personal space. Meia flinched as she heard his booming voice once again, without even turning around he adding one more line of speech that seemed to make her knee goes weak .

"Just like everyone else" he said, his voice fading as his massive form left Meia alone to contemplate her next move

On the surface…

Jura sighed exasperated with the whole situation she found herself in. with Meia missing in action she was the acting leader of the ground unit, and with that said she had to remain vigilant and aware of her surroundings. The only problem was she was bored out of mind, so bored in fact she had trouble keeping her mind on anything except complaints about the mission. She looked around the seemingly endless wasteland surrounding her and sighed another heavy sigh.

"Just look at this place, it's completely deserted."

"You're right, there's no need for Meia to be down here with us right now." Barnette answered as the two of them moved about, disappointment evident in her voice. After so many hours in the simulators they probably weren't going to see any action what so ever while planet side.

"Wow! Look at all the sand!" dita said, her childlike amusement shining through despite her current situation. She seemed to be the only one of the four truly enjoying herself. Exploring new worlds and spending time with Mr. alien, what better way to spend the day, seemed to be her train of thought.

"Hey! Don't you go wandering around by yourselves out here! This is not some sort of field tri….whoa!"

Hibiki didn't finish his statement as he slipped and fell from his position on top of a sand dune and landed on his back staring up at the face of Ditas pink vanguard from on top of the sand dune.

" Mr. Alien!"dita screamed, worry evident in both her face and her voice as she desperately tried to see if there was something that happened to hibiki. Dita then began to guide her Vanguard down towards the fallen teen.

"Oh crap, I just remembered this is the first time I've been on planet with the vanguards too and now look at me…flat on my back and looking stupid." he muttered to himself, as his ears were in the process of being bombarded with pleas from Dita asking if he were all right.

"Well now…this looks like a good a place as any for us to combine don't you think? So let's get on with it…" Jura spoke a very seductive way as she strode towards the fallen vanguard. Hibiki couldn't help but feel even more confused and somewhat uncomfortable as he gazed at the blonde Dread pilot through his monitor, though he still didn't figure out why.

"You out of your mind? You want to do it here?" he asked defiantly as he stared at the scarlet colored vanguard, pushing his embarrassment to the back of his mind.

"Stop that right now!"

The Vanguards looked and saw Dita's Vanguard nearby. Inside her own Vanguard, Dita was not very happy and made her displeasure known.

"The only one Mr. Alien's going to do it with is ME!" Dita said, sounding almost like a growl from an animal getting ready to defend what was theirs from another. Hibiki could help but begin to blush when those words left her mouth.

Jura naturally retaliated at that remark.

"Now wait just a damn minute Dita! Who do you think you're talking to here?"

For a moment Dita's anger wavered slightly, she knew for a fact that despite her superior skill with the vanguards she was still an apprentice Dread pilot, and while Jura wasn't always in the lead, the blonde was the second in command of the Dread Fighter Squadrons next to Meia. Therefore, that made the blonde her commanding officer for the time being, and talking back to her superior was not the best course of action, and besides that Dita' didn't like to fight with any of her comrades and friends within the pirate crew. However, it seemed when it concerned Hibiki, it was a different story.

"W….Well you can't do it!" she said, her voice filled his the vigor and determination it had before. Jura and Dita began to glare at one another, neither one of the two women willing to back down and let Hibiki get away from them.

Naturally, after what had just happened to him earlier during the mission, Hibiki was not in the mood to be fought over like he was some sort of trophy. it was very demeaning to him and he made his displeasure obvious as he shouted out and activated his Vanguard's thrusters.

"WILL THE TWO OF YOU JUST CUT THAT OUT!"

The Vanguard Hibiki piloted took off in a flash, as his thrusters propelled him forward into the sky in the blink of an eye, in a matter of a few seconds he had been lifted hundreds of feet off of the surface with no intent of stopping or even slowing down any time soon.

And that was when everything started to go to hell...

It was then that a beam fired upwards straight into the sky out from one of the many structures that littered the landscape near Barnette and quickly slammed into Hibiki's Vanguard. The shots energy quickly disabled Hibiki's Vanguard sending the youth falling back down to the ground as arcs of energy surrounded the Vanguards.

"AAAAAUUUUUUUGGGGGHHHHHH!"

"MR. ALIEN!" Dita screamed as she and the others looked on as Hibiki fell, before they knew what was happening however the sand around theme suddenly seemed to come life.

"What the hell is happening over here?" Jura shouted out as she and Barnette spotted the sand coming right at them at high speed with nothing but bad intentions.

on the Nirvana…

Duero was positioned on the bridge monitoring the life signs of the ground team when he first noticed the change in Hibiki's life signs, then like a domino effect Jura's Barnette's and then finally Dita's life sign rose to dangerously high levels. The rapid changes told him quickly that something was going on down there, what though he could only guess.

"The pulse rates for all the the Vanguard pilots are rising fast, something happening down there!"

Buzam wasted little time and quickly spoke to the bridge crew.

"Give me a status report, what's going on down there?"

"There appears to be some sort of defense system that was activated somehow." Amarone reported.

"Not good…" B.C said to herself in frustration as she tried to think of anything to get the ground bout of the danger

The rest of the ground team appeared on screen as Jura, Barnette and Dita were in shock as they tried to make sense of what was happening to them all.

"What the heck is going on?" Jura asked to no one in particular as she began slowly moving her mech backwards away from the oncoming sand

"It's no use, the shield already completely surrounded us, we're trapped" Barneete answered her friend as she too began looking for any opening whatever small to escape with their lives.

"Mr. Alien is going to die! Please help him!"

"Calm down everyone! What sort of trap is it?" Buzam said, hoping to keep the situation from getting even further out of hand.

"Ahhhhh!"

"I don't know!"

"The…the sand…it's attacking us!"

Buzam was stopped cold by that and looked on in disbelief…

"The...the sand is attacking?"

in a blink of an eye B.C had snapped out of her shock trance and had quickly order the crew to do a complete analysis of the sand to figure out just what the hell was going on.

On the ground…

Dita was not kidding as the sand that covered the planet began to cover up their Vanguards at a pace that was not normal for a sand storm., it was almost as if the sand seemed to be alive as it spread all over the Vanguards.

"What the heck is up with this sand?"

Hibiki shouted as he looked at the sand that was rapidly covering his partner's form and body. Dita likewise was panicking as well as she tried to use her Vanguard's arms to block the sand from seeping into her cockpit but the sand seemed to spread over her Vanguard's body rapidly and seems to move on its own as there was no wind to move it along.

"There's something really freaky about this sand!"

"What is this stuff, there's no way this is normal sand!" Jura said as she looked at the sand covering the surface of her own Vanguard.

Unbeknownst to the others, Up from the atmosphere, another umbrella rocket was coming down to where the others were and then the umbrella units broke off to reveal Meia's own Vanguard as she began to guide her mecha down to the surface.

"This is Meia, does anyone copy? Is anyone down there?"

On the bridge, Duero couldn't believe his eyes as Meia's picture appeared on his monitor along with her vital signs below Dita's own.

"She's pushing herself to hard." he said looking on as Meia tried squeezing herself into the mission.

While all this was going on Hibiki found himself in a very dangerous situation. the sand had hardened all over the Vanguard creating a shell of sand that covered the entire mech . stiffening the points to the point that it soon fell over on its back as more and more layers of sand continued to thicken all over the Vanguard. At this point Dita had managed to turn her Vanguard to the side as she tried in desperation to reach Hibiki's own Vanguard.

"Mr. Alien! Try to hold on! I'll do what I can to help you!"

Dita tried to move her Vanguard to reach the fallen Hibiki but found that her own Vanguard was getting stiffer and harder to control the more she moved as the sand began to cover her own Vanguard. Hibiki noted that very quickly and communicated to the redhead.

"Don't try to force it! If you keep on moving, the sand will keep on spreading further!"

"Leave this to me!" Jura said as her Vanguard suddenly came over to Hibiki's, before anyone could ask what she was planning, her crimson Vanguard was free of the sand, Barnette also appeared to be clear of the sand along with her blonde friend. As soon as the crimson vanguard landed on Hibiki's own Vanguard, right on the hips no less, the blonde activated her thrusters in reverse, blowing powerful gusts of air through the vents on her Vanguard .The air stream blasted the sand away . It was then that Hibiki noted that with the sand completely off of his Vanguard the response systems of his Mech were now functioning, while not at 100 percent, was significantly better then what they were..

"Hey thanks a lot!"

Jura just smiled as she replied. "oh you're very welcome. So what do you say, why don't we combine? don't you think that a fare trade for me saving your life?

Hibiki glared at Jura for what had to have been the tenth time that day as he heard her request. Even now when their lives hung in the balance the only thing she had on her mind was the process of combining with him.

"Are you still stuck on that combining business? In case you've forgotten something, My VANGAURD can only combine with your DREAD. How do you expect me to fuse my Vanguard with your Vanguard anyway?"

Jura gave a shocked and rather disappointed expression. "You gotta be joking? NO! Why didn't you tell me before? I knew I shouldn't have trained for this mission!"

Elsewhere...

Meia tried her best to guide her Vanguard properly for landing, but the Vanguard landed hard on the surface of the desert planet, which was now in a blinding sandstorm. The harsh landing in combination with the raging storm outside seamed to temporarily short circuit her dread. all the monitors in Meia's cockpit were covered in darkness for a few moments as her systems tried to reboot it systems as Meia herself was covered in the deep red flashes coming from the emergency lights.

Due to the sandstorm that arrived unexpectedly, she had landed several miles away from where the others were. As soon as she opened her eyes and looked around, her eyes widened and her breathing became rapid and she took in short rapid gasps of air, her heart rate began to gain speed and thundered feeling like it was going to explode out of her chest. Within a few short moments she seemed to be covered in sweat as her entire body begin to shake as her eyes were filled with absolute terror.

It was then that Duero's voice managed to reach her through the comm.-link on her Vanguard.

"This isn't good! Meia! Meia! Do you hear me? Turn on your main monitor! Look as far away as you can! Meia! Can you hear me?" Duero called out in a commanding voice as he tried to get Meia to recover.

The young Dread pilot reached out with a trembling hand and activated a switch to bring her monitor back online.

"He…should mind his own… business!" she said as she tried to sooth her beating and panicked heart back to its neutral rhythm.

As the monitor came back to life and showed the barren and sandy landscape, her breathing came back to normal and her heart rate returned to being steady. However, the Dread Leader's relief was short lived, as she caught movement ahead of her, something was swirling around and causing the very sand to reseed lower and lower in front of her.

The sand erupted in front of her, as a giant pillar of lava shot up dozens of feet into the air and filled her entire vision. The red hot magma pooled in front of her and her dread as the patch of dessert sand was turned in a flash into a sea of lava and fire.

As her mind searched for any reasonable her eyes widened as she caught a flow of movement within the sea of red.

She didn't even have the chance to scream before it was too late.

The Nirvana…

Belvedere gasped in shock. She was busy monitoring the scene unfolding on the desert planet and was watching the markers that told her the locations of all of the landing party. Meia's marker suddenly disappeared from the map

"Meia's mecha has disappeared from the sensors!" she said grimly already thinking of the worst possible outcomes for the blue haired woman.

"What was that?" B.C said, worry evident on her face as she desperately wanted more information on the situation unfolding.

"The pilots are hopelessly confused, they're all in great danger" Duello said, his warning snapping B.C out of her thoughts

It seemed that things were going to get even worse

Planet side...

Barnette had volunteered to go off alone to go search for Meia while the others go out to search through the information stored within the planets a banded structures. As soon as she took a step towards Meias last known location however everything went to hell. suddenly from the ground sand erupted up, somehow taking the forms identical to their own vanguards. like zombies leaving their graves, the sand vanguards crawled out of the sand and made their way towards the now terrified ground crew.

there were dozens of them, coming from all different directions effetely surrounding the still somewhat disorientated pirates.

Both Barrnette and Dita prepared their identical twin punch blades that were standardly issued to their vanguards while Hibiki used his Vanguard's energy sword while Jura held out her vanguards custom made rapier. They stood with their backs to one another in a make shift circle so no one would be able to sneak up on them, as they prepared to fight for their lives.

The bridge…

The captain and B.C. looked upon the screen the thing that was controlling the sand that attacked the landing party. It resembled some sort of insect, like a tick, only it was invisible to the naked eye. despite it being only a fraction of an inch in size it was super advanced, and with its large numbers, according to the scanners with numbers ranging in the millions, The nano-bots were able to control the sand through a remote terminal located somewhere in the area.. the ground team could not even leave their current location to find the origin of the signal as Meia was now stranded behind enemy lines.

"What's happening down there BC?" the captain asked calm and collective despite the situation she found her girls in.

Buzam looked at the scanners and was quite surprised as she looked at the results.

"The Vanguards are mounting a very fierce counter attack and are also doing well on defensive actions."

"figures that boy would start a fight on a unoccupied dessert planet, what's going on down there?" the captain said going over in her head how an easy information collecting mission became complete and utter chaos after only a few minutes.

"I don't think you're going to like this captain" Duello said looking at his monitor, with a look on his face that spoke volumes of just how worried he was for hibiki and the others.

"of course I'm not, but I'd still like to know" even in time like this the captain seemed to keep her sense of humor. she knew if the crew would see her worry the moral would plummet. they looked to her for guidance and strength and damnit she was going to give them that.

"It seems the nano-bots have copied the vanguards appearance and used the sand to create duplicates" Duello said matter of factley, in a tone of voice that betrayed his nervousness.

Magno paused as she evaluated is words in silence, then suddenly she turned to her second B.C and said "he's right B.C I really didn't like it"

On the ground…

After the most of the sand vanguards had been destroyed, Barnette had left the group in order to search for the missing Meia. She was clearly hesitant about leaving the others alone to fend for themselves as she, in her mind anyway, a banded them by fleeing. Surprisingly it was Dita who shook her out of this mind set as she reminded Barnett that saving Meia was more important and that while outnumbered by the enemy they were clearly more skilled and with the use of their weapons had the clear advantage against the more zombie like sand vanguards.

" After a few minutes of fruitless searching, the captains voice spook load and clear within Barrettes cockpit" Barnette, have you found Meia?"

"Not yet…wait…my Goddess… WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!"

Barneete was completely speechless as she found herself face to face with a creature reserved only for her darkest nightmares

The massive creature towered above her and her vanguard like it was a living mountain of flesh and armor like skin. It reminded Barnette of some kind of reptile with a thick and stocky snake like torso in which was immersed in the lava pit. it was twice as tall as her mecha but most of it size came from its 100 foot long torso ,instead of arms and legs the creature had ten tentacle like appendages as long as the torso itself sprouting out near the back of the neck by the creatures face.

From what Barneete could see the creature had no eyes, nose, or ears to speak of, the only three physical parts of the beast face she could see were that the upper half of its seemed to be covered with two identical shards of almost molten rock, still red from the extended time it spent within the magma. the bottom half of the massive face protruded outward about 30 like the snout of a snake. The third thing she noticed happened to be the creatures four arthropod-like mandibles, that seemed to act as a make shift opening for countless rows of razor sharp teeth that not only cover the entirety of the creatures mouth but continued down through the monsters throat.

"What's her status? Whats going on? Barnette? Barnette!"

the screams of B.C. broke Barneete out of her stupor as she regained her focus back on the battle. she looked up above the creatures head and found that two of its tentacles seemed to be holding something. Her eyes widened as she found it was the battered and broken form of Meia vanguard. One of its arms were missing as well as half of its head, its torso however was what really had Bareenete worried. it steel was bent and miss shapend like the tentacles were squeezing the life out of it.

before she could take the offensive to save her captured friend Barrnete was thrown on the defensive dodging on of the tentacles coming down on her like a hammer trying to drive down a nail.

"Barnette! What was that? What's Meia's status?"

"Something has got Meia, I need back up here" she said as she managed to dodge another one of the whip like appendages. She barely managed to avoid the strike but the sight of the 20 foot pillar of sand as well as the deep crevasses resulting from the attack showed her, all this thing needed was one good clean hit to break her mecha like it was a cheap toy.

"AND HURRY!"

On the surface…

"What? Another one? How many are there?"Hibiki said as he slice another one of the sand vanguards in half with his beam sword. they had stopped being scared and stared to become more of an annoyance to the group since barrnette left.

Hibiki had lost count of how many he had "killed" since then but they just kept on coming.

He took out his smaller throwing sword and was about to fire when Duellos face suddenly appeared on the monitor "Attention ground team, retreat to Barneets current location " his face and tone of voice showing the three remaining pilots that he meant business and that there was no time nor room for any arguments.

They quickly disengaged any of the enemies they were fighting at the time and began the trek towards their two comrades.

Nirvana

"Even the four of them won't be able to put a dent into the creature we need reinforcements"

none of the others would have significant experience or skill with a vanguard to shift the tides, there's nothing we can do

"Maybe Mr. kratos could help them out"

"Let me get this straight you want to send kratos down there? that's suicide" Celtic said. the bear suit wearing bridge bunny snapped at even the suggestion of sending kratos.

"It was just a suggestion"

"no ,no, no I think that it's our best option so far" Duello said. Instantly putting numbers into the system to check if the plan forming in his head had even a remote chance of success.

"He seems to have a pretty decent record when it comes to doing things I thought were impossible, why would he change now?" The captain said with her usual upbeat attitude remembering everything the pale man had done since she first meet kratos. if anyone could change the tides of this situation it was him.

but how the hell are we going to get him on the planet's surface in time to save them

"I have an idea but it's a little dangerous" Duello said over his shoulder, typing the equations into his computer at a frantic pace.

what do you mean by a little dangerous?" Ezra asked, feeling a little bit uneasy at the prospect of another person's life being put in danger.

"He could theoretically be either thrown through the vacuum of space or be burned to a crisp entering the planet's atmosphere." Duello said, not even looking at anyone as he crunched the numbers of the percentage of success of his plan.

"Sounds like something down his alley" Magno said, wondering if even the pale warrior would be able to change the tides of their current situation.

On the surface…

Hibiki was starting to regret his want for an exciting mission.

He had his fair share of excitement for one day when he dealt with the sand vanguards and now this...THING was going to eat him alive. It was times like this when he really regretted ever breaking into the ikasuki.

Hibiki was taken out of his thoughts as he dodged another attack as a tentacle impacted the ground where he stood but a moment ago.

Two of the tentacles held Meia high above the ground, which left eight equally large and powerful appendages to be split between the four other vanguards which, despite the improved odds for the vanguards with their numbers proved to be easier said than done.

All of their weapons proved useless despite close combat being the vanguards specialty. Many of its weapons were not designed to offensively deal with a monster of this size successfully.

Dita and Barnettes could not get close enough to the monster to do any real damage with their punch blades or any of their secondary weapons due to its tentacles keeping them at bay. Juras rapier was snapped like a twig from the grip of one of the tentacles and is now spending most of her time simply dodging and weaving around the tentacles The only weapon that seemed to do any damage at all to the creature was Hibikis beam sword, but even that was neutralize as it was thrown into the lava by the creature.

With all this going on however, Meias current situation seemed to be their main concern as the fear that at any moment the creature will choose to break into the vanguards hull killing her instantly.

Nirvana...

Kratos stood atop one of the dreads in the hanger with a look of annoyance etched into his hard face. After hearing the good doctors plan but a moment ago relayed to him through the captain, and not long later found himself in the hanger. He soon discovered that the dreads cockpit was not designed to be occupied by his near 300 pound mass, so he found himself on top one of the unused dread with his chain wrapped around the sides like it was some sort of chariot.

The dread was to be remote controlled from the bridge by the captain herself, who despite her age was once one of the most feared pilots of the mejael military before her retirement.

despite the apparent danger that many of the pirate crew told him of to get him to change his mind Kratos trusted the doctors plan and besides the point, kratos had never backed down from an inherent challenge before in his life now did not seem to be the best point to start.

"Kratos are you ready?"

The doctors voice spoke to him from the bridge, the emotionless tone of his voice betraying the butterflies in his stomach as well as the slight twitching of his hands on the keyboard he wish no one could see.

"Just get on with it before I die of old age"

Kratos was impatient with the whole thing, he wanted to get down there and do what he had to do and get back. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.

The dread beneath his feet began to his and rumble as the engines turned on, a fore shadowing of what was about to happen.

his body jolted as the space vessel jetted forward out of the hanger the force threatening to rip him off the dread but he held tight to the chained blades as the dread flew into space.

Kratos, much to his surprise heard nothing as he traveled through space, not the screams of the engine blasting only a few feet away from him, nor the beating of his own adrenaline fueled heart. He was shocked to find that the wailing of the craft which should be on the verge of deafening him as if it were the screech of a siren,

His body felt numb, and he felt completely weightless as he struggled to hold himself against the pull of the dark abyss that surrounded him. He felt as if his body was being pulled in every direction around him but he refused to let go, to give in.

His hands tightened against the chains so tightly he was going to draw blood as the Dark silence of space seemed to swallow him up as he moved closer and closer to the ever desert world.

Suddenly out of nowhere an explosion of violent sound erupted within his ears as an intense searing red hot heat engulfed the both him and the now slowly dying dread.

The atmosphere ripped and tore and burned at the dread searing and melting the meal as if it was a block of ice that was sitting outside in the sun all day. a lesser person would have succumb to the pain the fire and heat brought forth but kratos was no mere man.

Kratos readjusted his grip upon the chains as he used the forward momentum of the plummeting dread to steer the burning hunk of metal that was once a dread down towards the ground, gliding it towards the location of the vanguards and the creature.

Planet side...

Dita was thrown to the ground for what had to have been the tenth time of the day by the monster. She was the only one of the ground crew still in the fight as both Barnette and Jura were tied up by the appendages ad being kept down on the ground by the beast led tentacles while hibiki, still insisting he had everything under control, had been hoisted off the ground some time ago and has been dangling in the air for the past few minutes.

Alone and completely defenseless, Dita was forced to keep moving out of fear of being captured herself like her comrades. Her idea being if the beast's attention was on capturing her then it would hopefully ignore those it already captured. For the most part her plan was working. She leapt in between the remaining tentacles, keeping herself out of harm's way but doing little in terms of damaging the creature.

She was quickly running out of options however, as the constant strain her vanguards movements put on her body were starting to take their toll on her.

Suddenly from high up above, a huge explosion of booming sound erupted from the sky. What looked to dita like a giant ball of fire plummeted towards the ground directly towards the beast itself.

She did not know why, but she just knew this was anything but a random occurrence of nature. Her heart was racing a million miles a minute, partly from the adrenaline from fighting for her life, partly from the ever growing excitement growing from the pit of her stomach about who she knew was coming.

Despite the pain her entire body was in, Dita found herself smiling as the once shapeless ball of fire and flames began to form more rounded edges and more dread like in appearance the closer it descended closer to the ground.

"Mr. Kratos!"

The craft howled like wounded animal as it careened towards the still distracted monster and the now visibly reacting Dita as she scurried out of the way of the beast dipping and dodging past tentacles as she did.

As the flaming dread crashed into the beast the large monstrosity let out a mighty wail filled with immense pain as the still on fire make shift projectile burned and seared its flesh as its muscles were cut and torn as the immense pain it was in cause it to let go of it would be victims.

Once they felt the immense pressure of the appendages that was crushing but a moment ago subside both Jura and Barnette ran as fast as their vanguards could take them out of there to were Dita was watching the whole event with literal stars in her eyes for kratos for saving them in the way he did.

Hibiki was thrown in the air for the second time that day and once again for the second time that day soon found himself plummeting towards the ground below him as he landed with a dull thud against the desert sand.

Meia too was hurled to the ground but luckily land mush more softly on the ground then Hibiki.

Using the sand below him to soften his landing, kratos jumped off the dread before it connected with the beast and turned his free fall into a roll once he hit the ground. once his momentum subsided he settled into a crouched position waiting to see the positions of each of the ground crew once they escape from their current predicaments.

He noted that the only vanguard that was not moving at all was also the one that was closest to him had to have been Meia and that out of the five pilots she was the one who needed the most help.

Meias cockpit...

Meia laid in her seat completely motionless as the red emergency light began to finally die out. she was semi conscious and bloody but still alive. Small cuts and scrapes littered her exposed face brought on by broken glass. All of her monitors were completely destroyed, looking as if someone had decided to mash the screens with a hammer.

Her eyes fluttered slightly as she heard noises coming from the side of her cockpit outside. At first her heart began racing out of fear, thinking it was the monster from earlier coming to finish what it started. Her heart became loader as the sound of metal being torn in half filled her ears. The second the dark cockpit was filled with the natural light of the dessert sun she lost consciousness once again.

Outside...

The stainless steel hatch was ripped off as if it was a wet piece of cardboard and thrown to the side like it was a piece of trash.

Without a second thought kratos arms shot into the cockpit, slicing through her seat belts and lifting her now unconscious form into his arms bridal style as he proceeded to jump down into the sand and proceeded to run towards the nearest vanguard he could find, which as it so happened to be hibiki who by the looks of it was still trying to regain his composure after being dropped to the ground after the crash.

"Brat, open up this waste of steel now!" kratos half shouted at him in a tone of voice that offered no room for discussion.

With a hiss hibikis cockpit door opened and before he could even ask what was going on he found himself with an unconscious meia half collapsed, half hanging of him, looking as kratos proceeded to walk back towards the sight of the crash and the flaming wreckage that was once a dread.

"Hey what are yo…?"

Before hibiki could finish his question, the crash site exploded as chunks of red hot metal flew in All directions as now pissed off monster appeared from its would be grave.

Hibiki was speechless as he gazed between the beast and kratos, both unflinching as their blood lust took control of both of them. The beast running on territorial and primal instincts as kratos stood his ground, fully prepared for anything.

the beast shot towards him using several of its appendages to allow it to almost swim on top of the sand. Kratos saw the rampaging monster barreling straight towards him but did not move out of the way. He noticed that the beast was only targeting him and had seemed to have forgotten about the injured ground team.

He was now several yards away from the closet vanguard, Hibiki with the injured Meia, as the others were also scattered some distance away, so he knew they were safe for the time being at least while he dealt with the beast himself.

Nirvana...

"Captain we have a bit of a problem"

"What is now" the captain said fully exasperated towards all of the events of this once considered easy mission. She rubbed her temples with a heavy sigh thinking to herself just how this situation could get any worse.

"I'm reading signals coming from some the towers in the area everyone is in" Ezra said without taking her eyes off of the screen in front of her as she spoke to her captain. fear filling her voice with each word she spoke

"oh , this has got to good"

"Its a signal for a...self destruct countdown"

planet side...

As the monster speed forward with surprising speed kratos saw it was preparing for an attack. Instead of the beast whipping one of its tentacles at him like a whip or raising one of them up in the air to strike at him like a hammer like it had been doing before. It shot one of the lead tentacles shot straight at him like it was a spear or a lance intending to either pierce straight through his heart or any other vital organ to finish the fight quickly

His blades were un sheathed and in his hands within the blink of an eye. He side stepped to the left with his blade raised above his head and delivered a powerful vertical slash at the tentacles when it was halfway past him. Sending the sharp metal deep within the flesh and muscle of the appendage.

Wailing in pain, the monster raised its tentacle off the ground and raised it to the sky bringing its attacker with it. As he was being brought closer to the beast kratos, wrapped the chain of his blade around the tentacle, the heat and the roughness of the metal chain already grinding off the outer layer of flesh off of the appendage.

When he saw his opening he took it, as soon as another one of the tentacles was in jumping distance he soured through the air towards it, the motion caused the chain to rip through the flesh, slicing directly through the appendage like a hot knife through butter.

While still in mid air kratos threw both blades at the second tentacle impacting and penetrating the appendage up to the hilts of the twin blades. using his forward momentum to propel himself up and forward towards the face of the monster.

With both blades raised in the air over his head, he attacked with double vertical slashes that impaled the volcanic rock. he pulled himself closer towards the monsters face with the use of his chains and like a charging bull tackled the volcanic rock covering the beasts face shoulder first, effectively cracking it and turning the natural armor plating into nothing more than broken pieces of black pebbles.

With its face now exposed, Kratos deactivated his blades as he fell towards the ground below, before he touched the sand however he threw both of his blades into the beasts neck severing its jugular and forcing it to drown in its own blood, but that wasn't enough for the former god of war. with the blades still imbedded in the monster, kratos jumped onto another of its tentacles and used it to climb over and around the beasts head.

With his chain dragging behind him kratos wrapped his weapon around the back of the creatures neck as he now stood next his own flesh imbedded blades. with a powerful yank both chains were contracted, slicing through the flesh, muscles and bone of the creature severing the massive creatures head from its neck up.

blood flooded into the area filling crevasses that were made from the earlier fighting and being absorbed into the sand creating literal pools of blood covering the stretch of land as well as kratos.

Hibiki, as well as the others stood there silently watching the events unfold before their very eyes. The shear level of violence and carnage was something that any of them, not the head strong Hibiki, to the veteran pirates Jura and Barnnete, and especially not the naive Dita had ever seen nor experienced before in their lives.

Hibiki looked on with both utter horror and complete Awe as he watch the kratos walk silently towards him and his vanguard. Despite himself thoughts raced in his mind of kratos turning the blade of his swords on him and the others. If he did who would stop him, hell who could stop him if the thought crossed his mind to stuff them out like he just finished doing to the beast who laid dead behind the approaching kratos.

Hibikis hand flickered to his mechs controls, thought racing threw his mind a million miles a minute as he watch kratos get closer to him with each passing step.

The monster from before was nothing to the monster in front of him at the moment, but he knew if he didn't do anything the others with him and all the others on the ship would be in danger from this violent juggernaut.

He had to do something right now, if he caught him off guard then he might have a chance of at least getting him and everyone else out of here away from him before he could do anything.

The powerful wind of the desert blew across his sweat covered face chilling his entire body to the bone despite the ragging heat, his finger flickered against his mechs weapons systems as he prepared himself with what he knew he had to do

"MR. KATOS!"

Hibiki heart stopped when he heard the load feminine scream from behind him as the red headed Dita ran past his still down mech towards the approaching Spartan with a huge smile plastered onto her face.

Once she was directly in front of the massive man she looked as if she stopped herself from jumping up and hugging him for what he just did but instead offered him a simple towel she had brought with her for the mission.

originally she brought it just in case the dessert sun and heat got her or anyone else sweaty, though she admitted to herself the man before her seemed to be in need of the piece of cotton more than she ever could.

"Here use this Mr. Kratos" Dita said with a positive pep in her voice despite the scene unfolding before her.

Kratos took the towel without a word as he wiped his face as well as his torso and arms clean as both Jura and Barnnete made their way towards closer to Hibiki.

kratos watched as the three dreads walked closer to him and Dita two of the less damaged ones seemed to be dragging another Vanguard which Kratos assumed was the red head currently besides him.

"Leave now, return to the ship" he said to the four still conscious pilots in front of him as well as the red head currently trying to use his form to block out the powerful rays of the sun.

"Hey who put you in charge here?"Barnette said. She didn't like being ordered around by someone who didn't have the authority to do so but to be ordered around by a man no less, wounded her pride and to be honest pissed her off more than slightly.

that wounded pride however was no match for her survival instincts screaming and scolding her when kratos eyes turned to her. the same eyes that just a few moments ago were filled with blood lust, the same eyes that were the last image many former living creatures, mortal or otherwise, before dying a slow painful death.

"do you have a problem with that girl" kratos said evenly, watching intently for Barnnetes reaction, this was not the time for questioning authority. Their mission was over, they needed to leave, wounded pride and bruises included.

"well n-no, what I mean is" Barneete stuttered, the intimidation of kratos presence doing its job breaking her will to fight and argue the point.

"Good then leave now, return to the ship before you go off and try to get yourselves killed again"

"who do think you are? we were doing fine without you..."

of course Hibiki had to chose this time to open his mouth, and show to kratos how much of a man he was. Kratos figured Hibiki had a distinct distaste for getting push around, especially in front of women. for a young man growing up isolated from women a growing up being thought that they were monsters he valued their opinions quite highly.

"I'm the one who saved your miserable life and if you honestly think you were going to live to see the end of this day without me then you are dumber than I thought you were" kratos raised his voice slightly to get his point across better. he decided right there to cut to the chase, they were going back to the ship, their jobs were over, their mission complete, kratos felt as if Hibiki needed to learn his place , as well as to learn that there were some people he shouldn't try and get loud to, kratos just so happened to be one of those people.

"Now I'll say this again leave now or I'll make you leave" He said in a voice filled with promises of pain that sent chills down hibikis spine. There was once a day were kratos wouldn't have hesitated in killing Hibiki, or anyone else for that matter. But he was a changed man, for his family he do anything, but that didn't mean he'd have to like it.

"but what about you Mr. Kratos" Dita said looking up towards kratos with a pleading look on her face, worry filling her eyes about leaving kratos alone on the planet while they all left to the ship.

"She's right, the dread you used is completely destroyed, how do expect to get off this rock" Jura said, thankful for not having kratos anger or annoyance directed towards her after seeing what he could do first hand.

"I'll worry about that when the time comes just return to the ship, don't worry about me, I have some things I have to take care of" Kratos said finishing the discussion and turning around and walking in the opposite direction of where the vanguards would be heading. The pilots looked at each other and figured there was no other choice and left together for the shuttle.

As the rest of the ground crew left to head towards their shuttle to return back to the ship, meias now semi conscious body tagging along with hibiki, kratos turned away from the now dead beast towards the sight of several large structures jetting into the sky itself.

The largest of which caught kratos attention. The massive monolith towered over all of the other structures and looked as if it was the center piece of whatever society once called this land home. As the sand storm began to succeed more of the structures form began to become visible.

It looked humanoid in shape, in fact it took the appearance of a powerfully built male on top of a pedestal.

The statue itself looked to be made of pure solid ivory adorned with silver and gold to highlight its hair eyes and other facial detail. Its long haired looked to made of pure gold dyed to have an almost reddish tinge to it when light bounces off of it making it look like it was made of fire. The statue looked to made wearing armor crafted from the finest of metals this planet had to offer. The plate mail that incorporated most of its body was pure black with gold ornaments such as its shoulder pads and chest plates. All atop a pure gold pedestal showed kratos that whatever this man was, the people of this dessert treated him like a god.

When the sand fully subsided kratos eyes nearly threatened to bug out of his head as he took a sharp intake of break in shook at what he saw.

He stared directly into the face of the statue, a face he never thought he would ever see again and for the first time in years kratos felt somewhat unsettled at what looked back. He said a single word in a whisper, to clarify what his eyes were trying to tell his mind what they are seeing is the truth and not some illusion.

"….Ares"

Nirvana…

"Thirty seconds!" B.C said, counting the time down until the self destruct sequence would

"All units! Get out of there!" The captain shouted to the ground team, urging them to get off the ground before it was too late.

Planet side...

"All units! Get out of there!"

"yes captain" Jura said to the intercom, the group had just gotten to

but what about kratos? Dita said. wanting to wait for the man despite his order to leave

"if we don't leave now we'll all die" Jura said trying to convince the younger women. Truth be told she wasn't fully comfortable herself leaving a fellow crew mate to die, and if kratos was anything he was a crew mate to her and she knew that barnnete despite her abrasive personality thought the same.

you heard the guy , he wanted us to leave him" Hibiki said, being the only one of the four being stationed within their transport all ready to leave. The words kratos said to him still resonating within his thoughts as he stared blankly over the horizon trying to keep his mind from thinking about kratos .

He knew he shouldn't be thinking the things he was thinking about, but he couldn't help himself, his instincts were screaming at him that Spartan was dangerous and that he should take any chance he could at getting rid of him, but another part was telling him the exact opposite. It was confusing and it was starting to hurt his head the more thought he put into it.

"b-but" Dita stuttered

"Dita we have to go"

Base of statue...

Kratos continued to stare at the massive monument in front of him with a look on his face that mirrored the intense hatred he felt for himself as well as the image of the statue in front of him.

The image seemed to be burning into his very mind as its eyes seem to stare directly into his own the longer he looked.

The image of the original God of war was something he thought he would never see again in his life after the destruction of Olympus, but here this statue was in all of Ares merciless, psychotic glory staring Kratos down with nothing but contempt in its lifeless stone eyes.

The longer he stared at the statues face the more vivid the memories flared in his mind, Every life he took under the guidance of Ares recurred in front of him until he was viably shacking with rage. the sight of the corpse of him wife and child set him over the edge as he took a mighty swing with his twin blades to the massive statue.

the impact of the blow shattered the solid stone like it was a thin piece of glass with shards flying all around him from the force of the blow. hunks of the once richly detailed and engraved stone littered across the sand, kratos walked towards one hunk in particular in barley controlled rage. He squeezed his hands into fists so tightly he was going to draw blood as he stared directly into the eyes of Ares face.

With immense hatred for the image of his half brother as well as himself he brought back his arm and with all of his inhuman strength punched the stone with all of his might.

the only sound audible over the harsh winds of the dessert was a single dull thud of flesh and bone meeting solid stone. the blow was enough to turn the thick slab of stone into mere dust as the wind took it away to scatter it across the dessert.

Kratos stared silently at the space the giant rock slab once laid but a moment ago as the remnants of what was the statue head were being blown away.

he stood there watching as the dust drifted away from him, a thoughtful and regretful expression on his hard face. All he had done to secure his revenge and the prospect of any chance of the Gods surviving his wrath, any chance at all was giving his mind a spin, as more and more questions arouse in his mind.

kratos soon found himself shaken from his thoughts however when he sensed a danger even greater than the beast he destroyed but a moment ago. Many of the structures surrounding him erupted into bright red light as towers of solid red light shot up towards the sky, creating a dome of light encasing him and the surrounding area within its borders. Suddenly over the sound of the blowing wind, a voice devoid of any emotion suddenly spoke.

The land beneath his feet began to shake as the disembodied voice continued specking to the sole member of its audience.

10…

9…

8…

The countdown signaling the detonation of the structures around roared load and clear for anyone left to hear it, and it seemed that title alone belong to kratos at that particular point in time.

His inner conflicts push to the back of his head for the time being, kratos felt as if he was drawn towards a particular direction through the make shift maze of statues and structures. He had no idea where he was going or why he was even going but something he couldn't explain was almost dragging him down this path.

7…

6…

5…

Kratos stopped dead in his tracks the second he saw it, framed in what looked to him like solid gold built with unspeakable detail and craftsmanship was a familiar sight for the former god of war. what looked to be built straight into the statues base was a Hyperion Gate. Built by Hephaestus himself these once littered all across Mount Olympus and were used as a means for quick transportation between different parts of the mountain and the golden palace that occupied its peak. Kratos didn't ask questions for the reason why this was here along with the statue or even where this would take him. instead he jumped through the glowing blue center hoping for a safe arrival. 4... 3... 2...

Bridge…

"Time's up." Amarone replied as the countdown meter on her console reached a full zero.

On the bridge of the Nirvana, Magno and the rest of her crew watched with apprehension as the surface of the desert planet was engulfed in huge balls of fire and explosive force that covered the entire surface with orange-red flames. Duero's medical monitors were showing nothing but static. There was a deep foreboding silence all over the ship, as all of the pirates feared for the worst for their crew mates. Suddenly Duero's attention went back to the monitors as four readouts displaying the landing party vanguards went back online. like a literal bat out of hell, the drop ship blasted through the fire and flames that tore up the planet's surface.

"Only four?" BC said with growing apprehension. "Which ones?"

"I count Dita, Jura, Hibiki, and Barnette's Vanguards." Ezra replied.

"But where is Meia?"B.C said , asking the question everyone else on the bridge was wondering but was to afraid to ask.

"I'm sensing two life signals emitting from hibikis vanguard she must be in there with him" Ezra reported signifigently raising the spirits of the entire bridge crew.

The bridge crew brought up a monitor showing the inside of hibikis cockpit. what they found were the two pilots in the midst of a shouting match where meia demanded to know how she got there as they bickered and struggled for room like small children.

The captain could only smirk and shake her head slightly at the scene in front of her "Good to have them back isn't I was worried we'd get used to all that quiet"

"But wait where is Mr. kratos?"

Magnos smile instantly left her face as she looked through the monitors of all of the vanguards in search of the man but found none as she instantly thought of the worst.

The thoughts of his death sensed however when a monitor originating from the peksis chamber opened up to reveal the massive form of the kratos.

The grim look that the bridge crew held instantly evaporated from their faces when they relised kratos was able to get off the planet, how he managed to do it on the other hand plagued their mind.

"You gave us quite a scare, any particular reason you decided to scare us half to death"

"You were already so close to deaths door I assumed that's all It would take to finish you off, I'll have to try harder next time I suppose"

"Funny. very funny indeed, but do me a favor and stick to fighting monsters and leave the sarcastic remarks to me for now on" the captain said. her shock of finding him not only safe from the blast that encompassed the planet but also tucked away in the center of the ship, dying down as she wrote it off as another one of those unbelievable things about kratos she was sure she was hallucinating about due to her old age.

The rest of the bridge personnel let off a collective sigh of relief as well. It was then that one of the bridge crew namely Belvedere announced that she had received some data from the investigation.

"Read it." BC ordered, sounding almost as if she herself didn't want to hear about whatever the aliens were planning on doing.

Belvedere became a bit tense, but nodded, with a little prodding from Buzam.

"Attention. This year's harvest includes red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, lymph products, etc. All blood products are in good condition. That's where the data ends." she finished, feeling almost like she needed a shower to wash away what she just read out load.

The whole bridge personnel became quiet as they absorbed what they just heard. They were all shocked to their very core by the reality of their enemies plans. Magno looked down of the ground with a barely controlled anger as her hands balled into fist as she shook with rage. BC turned to her captain, in a vain attempt to calm the women down.

"They… They can't really mean…"

"I know BC, but the evidence is right here in front of us, and from what we have seen" the captain paused in her speech to look away from her second in command to look up towards the screen before continuing. "Our enemies meant harvest completely. We're nothing but vegetables to them!" Magno then looked out to the stars and gave an outraged look.

"Whoever our new enemies, these aliens are. two things are certain, they are quite formidable and we will not fail."

Vanguard Hanger...

In the hanger bay, the Vanguards minus Meia's Vanguard were now being sent back to dry dock, but Parfet had decided that the Vanguards were now to be repaired and maintained, in case the next battle would call for their use. With the aliens now stepping up their attacks to ground warfare, it was now going to be a growing possibility that they would be part of their forces.

Kratos and Duello were also in the Hanger Bay to the shock and delight of the ground crew. Dita as well as a few of the maintenance staff were off talking to the large man as Duello tried in vain to attempt to give him an examination after the battle Hibiki was leaning against the railing next to his partner watching everyone in the hanger, secretly waiting for the good doctor to come and check on the cold he was currently nursing. On several crates, Jura and Barnette after getting checked out by Duello, were resting against each other's back after their first taste of Vanguard combat. Leaning against another crate at another location sat Meia, who watched with a bit of anger at Hibiki and the Spartan.

"Being saved by someone is bad enough. But being rescued by a man is a complete disgrace, let alone TWO men. And of all the men in this whole universe, I had to owe my life to THEM! "Meia thought to herself as she glared at both Hibiki and kratos. Her pride was strong and right now it felt battered by the fact that the only reason she as well as the others were alive was because of kratos and hibiki. from up above Hibiki then noted her glares directed towards him then turned and was now glaring at her. She kept her stare up for a few moments then immediately tore her eyes away to look elsewhere.

Hibiki continued to glare at Meia.

"Man, what is her problem?"

"Cool it Hibiki, fighting with her right now isn't going to change things."Duello said, coming up from behind him in the docking bay.

"It's all right…the only thing that matters is that everyone is here and safe."

Hibiki took his eyes off the good doctor as he turned his vision towards the retreating form of kratos. images of kratos covered in the blood of his enemy flooded his mind. The immense awe he felt looking at the pale warrior standing over the fallen beasts corpse forever etched into him mind The fear of what the man before him was truly capable of flooded every fiber of his being "Yeah…achooo!"

Despite the day's events the only "injury amongst the group of vanguards pilots seemed to be a cold Hibiki caught due to the exposure from the planets harsh winds.

"I think it's time to head off to the Medical Bay though, you might really be sick this time."Duello said as he led the now sneezing hibiki down towards the infirmary.

CLICK! CLICK! CLICK!

"Pai check!"

Paiway was busy gathering new information on the events of the mission. Despite being only eleven years old, the young nurse had the eye of a seasoned detective, though she had no experience on what she was seeing,

"Something strange will happen soon, I just know it!" She thought as she scribbled down her observations. It was then that Pyoro flew next to her.

"I guess I'll never truly understand humans."

"What would be the point of it all when you do?" Paiway asked the little machine.

"What's the point of you taking photos right now?"

"You're a mean robot."

"Shut up."

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nothing really to say hope you enjoyed. please leave a review