Tarvaa stood in the airlock nearest the alien corvette. This was a suicide mission, but the black and silver dart seemed preoccupied with letting its missiles eat away at the carcass of the Titan's Fist. Forge's plan was crazy, completely unorthodox, and incredibly risky. But it was the best plan Tarvaa had ever heard in her long life.
"Are you sure about this?" she asked the Human, who was standing beside her in his armour, which was as suitable for extra-vehicular action in space as it was for ground combat on planetary surfaces.
Forge simply looked at Tarvaa and said "What choice do we have?"
Tarvaa smiled, and then concentrated. Her Kanohi mask changed shape, and finally settled into an appearance that encased her full face, had a visor over her eyes, and a large knob that looked like a breathing apparatus over her mouth. She had equipped her Kanohi mask of environmental survivability, a necessary Kanohi for most Toa that travelled off-world, since it allowed them to live in almost any environment comfortably, including low oxygen environments.
Tarvaa's orange and white armour was covered in soot and smoke-marks from the fires that raged across the ship. John's blue and white armour was in a similar condition. But that was what happened in wars: your armour got a little dirty.
"Evee, are you ready?" Tarvaa called.
"Yes, Shadow One," Evee responded. "As soon as you and Shadow Two exit the airlock, I will convert all non-essential power to the main nova cannon. I will fire at your command."
"Excellent." Tarvaa activated the comm. link attached to her Kanohi. "How are things looking from up there, bridge?"
The response came in a few seconds. "We're in severe danger, Commander: you're boring us to death!" Tarvaa smiled. Ahra's sarcasm was the one thing that was genuinely funny to her anymore.
"Though I don't share Ahra's humour, I must agree with his point." Kislee was always a to-the-point person. "The Titan can't take much more of this bombardment, Commander. It's now or never, Tarvaa."
"Good luck to you, Shadow Team," Tisias said, sounding very tired. It had been a long and horrifying day for him. "Get the job done."
"Yes, sir." Tarvaa was ready. This plan would work. It had to work. If it didn't, then the survivors of the Titan's Fist wouldn't survive for long. "Evee, open the airlock."
There was a brief whirring, and the doors leading to space opened, revealing the alien corvette casually launching its devastating energy bolts at the husk that was left of the UGC Dreadnought. The gases in the airlock were sucked out and lost in the vacuum of space, and the force pulled Tarvaa and Forge with it. If it had not been for his Olympian suit or her Kanohi mask, they would have been lost right there.
Tarvaa opened her comm. link to Forge and said "Alright, let's get a little closer to that corvette, shall we?"
The Toa extended her left arm, and the gauntlet attached to it lit up, sending a circular field of plasma two feet around it. A Plasma Shield, upgraded with a Gravity Core. The plasma barrier that formed the bulk of the device was taken from her own elemental energies, while the Gravity Core was a technological attachment. Normally, the core drew incoming projectiles and hazards towards the shield so that Tarvaa didn't need to swing her left arm around as much. Today, she would use it to travel without a vehicle in space.
Tarvaa drew her Plasma Sword from its sheath on her back, and made sure Forge was ready. He had a Human military-grade jet pack and stabilizing jet boots built in to his armour. The engineers at project OLYMPIA had thought of everything, it seemed.
Forge nodded to say he was ready, and Tarvaa extended her left arm towards the alien corvette. Forge followed with gentle bursts from his jetpack.
As the duo got closer to the black and silver starship, they were able to make out a few more details about the vessel. The thing was roughly 150 meters long from head to tail. The tip of the ship had a sort of round bulge and several small glowing red lines and shapes all over the part of the ship that Tarvaa suspected to be the bridge. The silver ribs that protruded from the dart's sides looked more like curved mechanical arms, probably used for landing on a planet's surface. Upon closer inspection, the arms also seemed to be mounted with some sort of gun or missile launcher, but it was impossible to say exactly what kind of weapon it was. There were hundreds of guns mounted all along the sides, the front, and the underbelly of the craft, but they were too alien-looking to compare them to anything Tarvaa had ever seen, and she had seen the galaxy for over 50,000 years.
The dart's six wings were arranged in a six-pointed star formation, and connected directly to the rear edge of the corvette. The entire back end of the dart seemed to be covered with millions of tiny engines, and they were glowing with a fantastic white light now. Even the wings had rows of the engines at their rear edges.
The corvette was firing some of its torpedoes and bombs at the burning ruins of the city-ship. All in all, she thought it was the most beautiful, streamlined ship in the galaxy, and she hated it for the lives it had taken today.
She turned to Forge. "Start powering up your elemental energies now, Forge," she commanded
Forge was something else. In project OLYMPIA, he had been trained as a specialist-class soldier called an adept. He never used a weapon in combat; only his armoured hands and elemental powers.
The Human cupped his hands in front of him. The suit focused his Lightning powers in between his hands, and arcs of electricity began flying and dancing around the Human.
They drifted closer to the corvette.
Tarvaa also began charging her elemental powers, focusing them into her sword. They needed enough time to finish building up their elemental powers. They were stage one of the plan. Stage two was up to Evee.
They drifted closer to the corvette.
Forge's plan was simple and incredibly risky for him and the Commander. Forge and Tarvaa's role was to build up their energies and unleash a Nova Blast on the corvette. The electromagnetic Plasma and the power of Forge's Lightning combined would surely shut down the corvette's shields, and if they were lucky, its weapons and engines, too.
Meanwhile, Evee would transfer all the power she could to the Titan's main cannon, which was even now poised straight at the alien ship. As soon as its shields were down, Evee would fire the cannon, striking with the force of a third Nova Blast, and that would hopefully destroy or disable the corvette. Hopefully.
They drifted closer to the corvette.
"Main cannon charge at 66%." Evee was speaking through the comm. link.
"How close are you, Commander?" Ahra was saying. "The lights are going out. You better be ready!"
Tarvaa glanced at the Heads-Up Display in her Kanohi. "We just need a little more time."
Evee came in again, "Main cannon charge at 70%."
"Just a little more time… A few more seconds…"
"Main cannon charge at 75%."
Ahra was getting impatient as usual. "Commander," he cried over the comm., "you're running out of time. You've got a five-second window and it's closing fast!"
"Just a little longer…"
"Main cannon charge at 80%."
They drifted closer to the corvette. They would be able to touch a part of it soon.
"Main cannon charge at 90%."
"Commander, it's now or never!" Ahra was shouting.
"One more second…" Tarvaa's HUD showed that they had built up sufficient energy. "Forge, Nova Blast, now!"
Forge stabilized himself, thrust his palms out at the dart, and shot a wave of Lightning that looked like it belonged in a hurricane at the corvette. Tarvaa stopped her drift, pointed her sword at the devastating corvette, and a star erupted from her blade, moving quickly towards the corvette.
"Warning," Evee reported, "electromagnetic disturbance detected, sensors failing. Main cannon charge at 96%."
The Nova Blasts obscured anything from view, they were so bright. The other members of Shadow Team could feel the heat of the attacks from the bridge – on the opposite side of the Dreadnought.
Evee made a quick beeping sound. "Main cannon charge at one hundred percent, ready to fire."
The intensity of the two Nova Blasts was threatening to be too much for even Tarvaa and Forge. Their armour's systems were failing, their personal energy shields had been knocked out, and the environmental control of Forge's suit was overtaxing itself. Just a bit more…..
Tarvaa and Forge had given all they had. They were exhausted, but they knew their ordeal wasn't done yet.
"Evee, fire now!" Tarvaa commanded.
Evee made no response. She didn't need to. Even if she had, no one would have heard her, because the Titan's cannon was the only thing falling on anyone's ears.
Tarvaa had heard that no one can hear you scream in space. That must have been true, because she couldn't hear her own screams, only the sudden, thunderous shriek that erupted from the cannon.
An impossibly bright, white beam shot from what was left of the city-ship's main tower. The beam arced across empty space and struck the stunned corvette directly in the side.
Less than half a second had passed. The white beam disappeared, leaving auras in everyone's eyes and ringing in their ears.
"Tarvaa?" Kislee was shouting through the comm. "Forge? Are you alright? Can you hear me?"
Silence.
"Oh crud," Ahra said, genuinely horrified, which came to Kislee as a surprise. "Either we just blew them apart, or the corvette killed them. They're gone…"
More silence.
Tisias was the only one who seemed unaffected by any of the events. He just stared straight ahead in empty space.
Silence.
Wait.
There was a slight crackle over the comm. link. Just static, then it disappeared.
"…Boom."
Ahra and Kislee felt like they had just found a long-lost friend. Which, in a way, they had.
"Ha-ha!" Ahra was roaring with laughter. "Forge, you have seen some crazy things, pal, but that was the craziest thing you have ever done!"
"Forge, is the Commander with you?" Kislee always counted all the variables, but she couldn't hide the relief in her voice.
"Yes," was Tarvaa's response. "I'm all right. A little stunned, but I'm okay. Did the plan work?"
"The sensors are still down," Kislee reported, "we can't see anything from here."
"You're closer than us," Ahra teased, "give us the good news!"
Tarvaa waited for her sight to return. To her, everything still looked green and white. She waited. Her sight cleared, and she could see Forge a few feet away from her. Using her Plasma Shield, she drifted towards him. He was staring right at her. Or his helmet was. She couldn't see his eyes behind the visors of his helmet. Wait. He gave a slight nod, and a thumbs-up. Forge was okay.
Tarvaa looked around the infinity of space. If it had not been for the hulk of the Titan's Fist, she would surely be lost. Wait. There were pieces of the UGC Dreadnought floating around the zero-gravity vacuum. Glowing hot wrecks, towers that had been torn apart. Something was out of place. That tower was the wrong colour; it didn't match the rest of the Titan.
But it was never meant to.
"Tarvaa to bridge," she reported, "enemy craft appears to be intact, but heavily damaged. Its engines don't look like they're working, and its not shooting. I think this operation was a success!"
Everyone that was left to cheer screamed with joy. They had done it. They had saved the lives of the Titan's Fist. Even Evee sounded overjoyed. The pride and relief was short-lived.
"Wait," Tarvaa called. "The corvette's doing something."
"Sensors back online, Commander. We can see from here." Kislee used the ship's situational scanners to locate the downed corvette. And it was, indeed, doing something.
The entire ship was glowing. The glow brightened, and it grew to a shine. The alien dart was shining. Soon, the white light erupting from the sleek black and silver hull completely obscured it from view. Another star was forming. A star with a jagged, solid shape.
Evee sounded confused as she declared, "Unidentified matter is forming around the corvette."
"Matter?" Kislee sounded equally confused, but not surprised. "Evee, can you identify what it is?"
"Scanning…" Evee sounded focused. "Results will take some time."
The light around the ship was incredibly white, and a hundred times as bright as the Nova attack unleashed moments ago. Tarvaa and Forge could only watch in wonder as a distinctly sharp and jagged shape was forming under all the light. Suddenly, space was dark again. The light was gone, but the corvette was still right where it had been before. Only now, it was encased in a shiny, transparent, very rough solid block.
"Scan complete," Evee reported to Kislee, "solid matter has materialized around the alien corvette. Matter is composed of extremely dense carbon."
Kislee read over the results of Evee's scan. She couldn't believe her neurosuit's eyes. "Commander," she reported, "you're not going to believe this. Are you seeing what happened to the corvette?"
"Yes, Kislee," the Commander replied. "It's encased itself in some kind of crystal."
"Not just any crystal." Kislee sounded baffled, and in overall disbelief. "Commander, the corvette just created a block of diamond around itself!"
"Diamond?" Tarvaa was absolutely flabbergasted. "But… That's impossible! Matter creation is not possible without elemental powers, and to create diamond? That's…"
"Incredibly advanced technology," Kislee finished. "Commander, if this is not proof enough, then I don't know what is, but that alien in there knows, or at least knew, the Great Beings."
Tarvaa was stunned. Forge gave no hint of it, but he was just as shocked as the Toa. But Ahra had a different thought in mind.
"Commander," he said, grimly, "you know as well as I do that this isn't over yet. For better or worse, we've already seen it in our dreams. We're boarding that corvette."