"January the third, twenty-thirty-one, I've been assigned along with my fellow saiyans to the human ship, the UNSC Spirit of Fire. We've been told to assist them against covenant activities on Harvest in a nutshell. Honestly, I can wait to shove a Ki blast right up the covies asses, because I'll be meeting with my old childhood friend Forge. I heard he made it to Sergeant rank, heh, can't wait to give him a merry fucking christmas when I meet him."
-SSA SEW squad leader, Turles, of the UNSC Spirit of Fire.
Be Hybrid
Chapter 9: The Spatial Siege of Arcadia
LOCATION: Orbit above Harvest. DATE: 2/6/2531. Military Time: 07:17
In the orbit above the planet Harvest, within the UNSC Spirit of Fire, Captain Cutter, Sergeant Forge, and Professor Anders stood onboard the vessel's observatory deck. The Sergeant's fist clenched, before pressing down upon the holographic table, his eyes burning with the want for vengeance.
"Damnit! Just had to be the hero didn't he?" Forge exclaimed in anger, his fist slamming on the table.
"Keep your temper down Forge, we all lost something in this war," Cutter exclaimed as he passed by, walking to Professor Anders who was reading through some notes on her desk. The Captain of the Spirit of Fire looked over her shoulder to the notes before, narrowing his eyes as he pointed to the paper.
"So all it did was point here?" Cutter said, waiting for a confirmation.
"In the thirty seconds I had to examine it? Yes, all it did was point at a second star system," Professor Anders replied, shrugging her shoulders in irritation.
The UNSC ship's AI decided to speak up, "Arcadia colony to be precise, population little under three million, largely unexplored, but apparently quite the vacation resort." She said as a holographic display of the planet and its moons appeared to showcase it.
Anders walked forward, "There's something there, Captain, and I think it's important that we get there before the Covenant do." The professor said, looking to the Captain of the ship.
"Our orders are to investigate Harvest," Captain Cutter began as he looked down to the frozen partially glassed planet below, "We still don't know a lot about what's going on down there."
"I understand that, Captain, but everything I see here tells me that we need to get to Arcadia to figure this out." She insisted.
Forge butted in, "Captain, the Covenant know about the ruins, so they could be heading to Arcadia as well." He said.
Captain Cutter paused in thought, before looking to Anders, "Very well, Professor. I'll clear it with Admiral Cole." He looked to the ship's AI, "Serina, set course for Arcadia."
The AI, Serina, looked to him as Cutter walked past her, "Aye, sir. Crazy mystery trip to Arcadia plotted in, spinning up FTL drive."
Forge left the room, following after Cutter, Anders rolled her eyes and pouted a bit in annoyance, "Serina, get out of my lab."
The UNSC Spirit of Fire changed direction in the midst of space, firing up its engines and leaving the orbit of the planet before reaching a safe zone to initiate Faster than Light travel. It's slipspace engine flared up, and a large, sizable, blue portal in space opened outward and granted the human ship access into its dimension.
LOCATION: Procyon System. DATE: 2/9/2531. Military Time: 13:42
A blue portal, mystifying, gigantic in size, and seemingly swirling with endless amounts of energy flaring ever slowly outward, erupted forth in the emptiness of space. Out from this space between dimensions, the UNSC Spirit of Fire arrived to a battle within space.
Captain Cutter's vision from the main deck was instantaneously bombarded with alarms for battle, as before him a Covenant ship had just recently finished disabling the local human defenses.
"Battlestations men, I want firing solutions on that covenant vessel! Prep the MAC cannon and Archer missiles! And make sure those Chi shields are online!" The Captain practically roared at his ship's crew, servicemen and women scrambling about.
The ship's AI, Serina, appeared on a holodeck. "MAC round loaded, fifty percent charge and rising."
"Fire when ready." Cutter replied as he observed the battlefield.
Suddenly, Serina looked alarmed, "Slipspace rupture detected, ninety kilometers portside!"
"Friend or Foe?" The Captain asked, silently holding in a breath.
"Identification: SSA Double Sunday! Friendly, Captain, establishing Communication." Serina said.
"What in the name of the Other World is the Covenant doing near Arcadia!" A prideful, raging voice yelled through the communication lines.
The navy commander of the UNSC Spirit of Fire, looked at a small screen showing the face of his newest ally. In all honestly, Cutter wished he had a different person to deal with. But right now, he wasn't caring about who his ally was. Even if the saiyan, clad in brown SEW armor without the helm with spiky hair going down to his ankles, was that person.
"We're asking the same question, Captain Raditz. But first, we got to deal with their ship!" Captain Cutter retorted back at the saiyan.
"Hahahaha!" Raditz laughed loudly, "They shall know the true power of a saiyan's might! Charge up the Chi Cannon!"
Cutter's eyes widened in surprise,"You have a Chi Cannon on that ship? Aren't those things experimental?! Not to mention that backlash would leave your ship half dead without power!"
"That's why you're there, hit them hard while we regain power to our ship. The Chi Cannon should break through their shields in one fell swoop!" The saiyan replied with an arrogant smirk on his face before the screen shut off.
Serina spoke up, "Video offline, audio communications are still open when needed." The AI finished, before speaking again, "Sir, while I disapprove the usage of the Chi Cannon given the side effects on a ship's generators, it does provide a crucial advantage in taking down their shields."
"But at the same time, it will disable their own Chi shields and leave them drifting for a few precious minutes." Captain Cutter replied. "What's MAC status?"
"Ninety five percent sir, will be ready in a few short seconds." Serina replied.
"Firing solutions are locked on!" A crew member stated.
"Hold fire until the Double Sunday launches their attack." The Captain ordered.
"Sir!" A crewman exclaimed, "Enemy fire inbound!"
'"Brace for impact!"
An volley of plasma shot from the enemy covenant vessel, soaring through space and impacting harshly against the Spirit of Fire's green Chi shields as they flared out violently to thwart the weapon fire. Despite this, the ship itself shook from the dangerous power of that attack.
"Status!" Captain Cutter exclaimed.
Serina replied immediately, "Chi Shields holding at 17%, no hull damages. We got lucky."
A crew woman shouted, "SSA Double Sunday is firing, sir!"
With the Double Sunday, the 1.2 kilometer warship sported a long, and large, barrel on its top. Supported by multiple crutches, small green wisps of energy seemed to be emitting from the tip of the gun, the insides glowing brighter and brighter a green light before erupting forth a beam of energy toward the covenant vessel.
The Covenant ship's shields flared out to protect its occupants, fighting off the Chi Cannon's beam for a few seconds before it broke, shattering apart as the Chi Cannon's energy dimmed to nothing.
"Fire!" Captain Cutter roared.
The UNSC Spirit of Fire fired forward its own attack, a bright yellow line, magnetically accelerated shot and impacted one side of the ship, which began to blow apart with blue flames.
Suddenly, an additional yellow streak added on to the chaos, striking against the other side with prompted the explosions to decorated the covenant vessel's engines.
Soon after, the entire thing ignited in a ball of flame.
"Who shot that other MAC round?" James Cutter asked Serina.
"The UNSC Pillar of Autumn granted the covenant that gift, sir." The AI responded. "However they are badly damaged. Reports indicate that there were three covenant vessels, one was destroyed before we arrived, one we blew up, and another engaging on surface activities. We lost the UNSC Texas and Belfast, and Armstrong is venting atmosphere."
"What kind of surface activities?"
"Unknown... Wait... Incoming transmission."
"Bzh... Covenant forces engaging us! Still evacuating civilians... Bzz.. Some civilians holding with saiyans inside martial.. Bzh.. Tournament area. Send help!"
Serina added, "Getting visuals now."
Cutter went over to the enhanced miniature visual display, and watched to rapt attention as the playback feed came into view. What he saw would make his decisions, as soldiers of unparalleled abilities were shown.
Spartans
Hybrids
"Prepare drop pods, bring ship back into alert!" Captain Cutter commanded.
LOCATION: Arcadia. DATE: 2/9/2531. Military Time: 14:51
Trunks-315, a Hybrid assigned to his fellow Spartans called Red Team, finished his elaborate hand movements as he channeled the Ki in front of his open gauntlets, his signature Burning Attack shot forward with ferocious speed. The technique impacted against a covenant Wraith, the alien's version of tank, and had blown it apart with the power of a 'plasma cannon'.
It caused an explosion of blue plasma flames and yellow Ki energy as the Wrath tank was destroyed instantaneously.
Although it was not like a Spartan or Hybrid to display emotion to a enemy, Trunks was an exception. He utterly despised the Covenant, he hated when human lives were lost to the merciless genocide caused by the aliens. And although he also disliked it when saiyan citizens also got injured, he always enjoyed humanity a bit more.
That didn't stop him from saving as much of both humans and saiyans as he could though.
"Three-one-five, watch your seven!" His fellow Spartan, Jerome-092, exclaimed as he himself fired a shotgun round into the nearest Elite minor, the blue armor plates shattering apart alongside its shields as the rounds tore through the alien.
Hybrid-315 grabbed hold of his M6D Magnum Sidearm on his side, taking cover behind a damaged civilian car as he felt his armor's Chi Shielding drop to forty-one percent. He properly predicted where his enemy's position is from the direction in which the plasma fire originated from. With a sudden movement, he came out of cover, aiming with deadly precision, and fired the Magnum's semi-piercing high explosive rounds into the heads of seven grunts and five jackals.
Trunks reeled his body back into cover as the now empty clip dropped to the ground, the Hybrid reloaded a new one in before going back to his killing spree. However, the radio picked up.
"Sierra-315, 092, do you copy? This is Captain Cutter of the UNSC Spirit of Fire."
"This is Sierra-092, we copy over." The Spartan ally replied as he bashed his shotgun over the topside of a grunt's skull, before kicking it away and then firing a shot into another Elite.
"Sergeant Forge and his marines will be covering Civilian Evac, however there is a group of saiyan and human civilians over at the tournament area. I need one of you to get over there and extract them back toward the Evac vessels."
"Roger that, I'll have 315 head to that direction now." The Spartan replied, before looking toward Trunks, "You know the mission."
"I'll be back as quickly as I can, Jerome." Hybrid-315 stated, already moving toward that direction. His eyes quickly scanned his surroundings for some sort of fast moving vehicle, the Hybrid super soldier would much rather prefer not wasting his Ki energy in trying to get to his destination instead of using it on his enemies.
Spotting a damaged, but still functional, mongoose, Trunks-315 flipped it over on its wheels with ease. He started the UNSC-commissioned vehicle and began making his way with great speeds. The road bumped the mongoose multiple times, jagged remains of the road caused by previous explosion and combat made little difficulty for a military transport such as the M274 Ultra-Light-All-Terrain Vehicle.
However, the noise generated by the mongoose gathered Covenant attention, already he could spot the reptilian-like xenos that classified as Jackals. Normally, if he were a marine, it would be unable to do something but keep moving forward and use the mongoose's high speeds to avoid combat.
However, Trunks is a Hybrid, the counterpart program to Spartans. He could achieve feats greater than any unaugmented human or saiyan alone.
Reached for the Magnum pistol attached to his belt magnets, the Hybrid whipped it forward, shot the four Jackals, and killed each one of them without losing any control over his ride. Trunks-315's enhanced eyesight then pinpointed his destination, and frowned at the combat that was currently occurring there.
Things were about to get messy.
I got no excuse other than some sent a private flame message that really put my spirits down for this story. So I continued to procrastinate again and again, I finally managed to finish this chapter thankfully. Review and tell me what you thought of it!
Fun Fact: Trunk's serial number is based off the years. 3 Years Until Androids attack, and the 15 years he was from the future.