[IC] Eternal Galaxy: Shards of Starlight - Part I

[Cucoo5]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur

"Ha! If there was 'no hope,' then we'd all have probably took a gun to our own heads and be dead by now." Joe shook his head. "There's a reason why the fight continues. Those legends are our hope. They say that the clock of fate will turn when we will it to turn. The question is: How do we break the cycle without sacrificing everything we have been fighting for. We might not know why we were fighting initially, but we know what we are fighting for. Family, loved ones, hope. The Strike Fighters might have no reason why we started fighting then, but we have a purpose now: To protect the people of the planets and end the fear of losing the Galaxy's central governing body: the Venturian Council. If we can hold out, if we can keep that oath, if we can survive long enough to see to it the clock turns once more, then we will win. To decisively end the war might mean the death of the galaxy, but there's hope for it to not end that way. This isn't just a war of ideals, it's a war of attrition for those ideals. If the Strike Fighters lay down and die, then the Galaxy will lose what was: The Venturian Council that maintained a near utopian society. Before the war we had it all. Now we're the line of defense against the radicalists who think the Venturian Council needs to be overthrown, all because they have a different system which we know will lead to the old human means of government, which will lead to all hell breaking loose again, and then it would repeat. Rather than go through that phase where we face annihilation and then another war immediately after, we choose to keep the war as it is to contain it. If we can keep this as it is...we might be able to see the clock turn finally and put an end to it. We have hope, and we have us humans to thank for it with our stubborn will to survive and find hope in the darkness."

***
"Oh~ well that's actually pretty interesting~ Could I ask to see it later? And c'mon let's go see if my friend Arrow is ready for the rites." Terrisa tugged at Nova's arm like a child trying to get someone to go with them.

***
"Hm, let me try this..." Nero took out an orb that levitated and pushed it into the pocket dimension. It then scanned the entire area mapping out individual objects. Nero then looked at the holographic display and showed it to Mima. "There, you can scroll through that and it will show you everything that's in there. I use this little thing often myself..." He then glanced to the paper work piled up on his desks. "...quite often."

[Koishi]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur

---

"Oh fine, I'll humor your little rites or whatever." Nova said. "So who's this friend of yours anyways?"

---

Oh. That is quite useful." Mima scrolled through until she found a box simply labeled "Reading Material". She went through the portal, and came back about thirty seconds later hefting a large cardboard box, putting it on the floor.

"Well, there's the books." Mima said. "At least I have something for entertainment." Mima then went back to scrolling through the orb. "Now where is the fridge...."

---

Venion System
Hyperion

---

Selarious's ship was wrecked, the mech crushed underneath like a pancake. Still, The Reaper armed three kunai in the tips of it's fingers just in case Selarious still had something up his sleeves. Then, as if the ship knew it's thoughts, another smaller floating machine appeared, two large human-like hands at it's sides as it rose. Four jet engines let it hover in the air, and a large gatling gun was mounted on the bottom.

"I AM NOT DONE YET, REAPER! YOU WILL DIE THIS DAY, WHETHER I DIE OR NOT DOESN'T MATTER." Selarious yelled as the gatling gun took aim and fired a stream of bullets, where The Reaper went extremely fast, barely outrunning them as they came for him. This was not good at all.

[Cucoo5]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur
"His name is Aion Leonares, though me and my brother call him Arrow. He's an ace Maverick Pilot and now he's the Captain of the Hunter Squadron here." Terrisa skipped along alittle bit. "I like to think he's my other brother, hehehe. Joe and I know him well enough that we often call him a part of our family. Though Joe says I think everyone is family once I get to know them~"

[Koishi]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur

---

"I prefer to work alone." Nova replied. "But your friend sounds interesting, though I've been at the firing end of both the Guardians and the NGO at one time or another." Nova explained. "Hopefully he won't know of me."

[Cucoo5]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur

"Firing end? As in you allied yourself with them? Uhm..." Terrisa paused. "If you did, keep quiet about siding with the NGO. People here will go at your throat if they knew that."

***
Nero blinked in surprise. "If you need a fridge, I can easily get ya one...unless...you think there might be something in it..."

[Koishi]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur

---

"No, not like that. I mean that they've both fired at me at the same time. I'm freelance, I ally myself with no faction." Nova said. "That would be bad for business."

---

"It's a special fridge. It has some special items in it from what I remember." Mima said, scrolling through the list.

[S121]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur

John thought for a moment about these Nihiliods and how they sounded much like the Flood. The Flood were more like some kind of fleshy, fungal species of parasite that would burrow into the host's body and latch onto their spinal cord. The only way to kill them was to shoot them in the chest cavity. If these Nihiliods were anything like the Flood, then they needed to be destroyed.

"Have you guys tried to bomb the planet, or cover it in radiation? We had a similar enemy called 'The Flood'.", John said to Joe.





Cortana looked over to Mara and spoke.

"We were supposed to be going home, but if the future is going to turn out like this, then we need to change it. I just hope we don't mess the future up.", Cortana said to Mara.

[Cucoo5]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur

"Oh, then your fine." Terrisa said smiling. "Most of us here are mercenaries anyway that just believe in the Strike Fighter's ideology."

***
Nero looked at Mima with a curious glance. "And it needs to be kept cool? Huh..." He looked at the rift to the dimension. "Interesting..."

***
"We've tried that." Joe said grimly. "That planet is the source planet of them. Before, 40,000 years ago, our ancestors destroyed the original source planet...but then they simply drifted in space and converted another planet as their new source, or home planet. They can't be completely eliminated. We can only contain them. And goddess forbid if they spread again. 40,000 years ago they spread, and only 2,000 years ago did we contain them again. 38,000 years of death caused by Nihiliods. Sol incineron and Venion were the two systems that were affected by them. We then found a small outburst in Egale and we contained it there and forced them to remain on the planet they infected as their new home."

The group was almost back to the hangar bay.

[Koishi]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur

---

"I don't even really know that much about them. All I know about them is their ships and tech." Nova said.

---

Mima came back out with a tiny fridge, small enough to fit in the hand.

"Here it is." Mima then put it on the ground and pushed the top. It then grew into a large, full sized fridge. "Perfect."

[S121]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur

Cortana heard how people in the past tried to destroy the planet to get rid of the Nihiliods. It was a decent plan, but what if they were wrong? Cortana had a look on her face that showed everyone that she had an idea.

"What if you were aiming at the wrong target?", Cortana asked Joe.

"You just told us that they are an insectiod type of parasite. Based on their numbers, along with their species, they would form some kind of hive, like bees, or ants. All the previous generations have been doing was damaging their hive. What if what you need to do is kill the queen? Of course, if they are anything like a bee colony, they would simply find another queen to take its place, but first the replacement would need to undergo a metamorphosis into a queen insect via a special mix of chemicals and hormones. If that is the case, then why not contaminate their food supply? If the entire planet is infested and still stable, then that means that the entire planet has one hive. If you take poison their food supply, then they will all die. If all the insectoids are poisoned, then there's less of a chance of them creating another queen insectoid. Think of it like exterminating an anthill, only on a much larger scale.", Cortana said to Joe.

[Cucoo5]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur

"I've always saw it referenced as a nest, but ya, hive. Though the problem is...there's no queen. The studies of the Nihiliods have proven inconclusive on a single queen. All we can tell is that each individual Nihiliod just spawns 100,000 more Nihiliods after a certain time frame. As for their food source...that would be anything of Venturia. The galaxy is their food source. We've come to the conclusion that it's specifically Aura energy, but first, there's no known anti to Aura and second, everything in this galaxy, including empty space itself, has Aura energy. So..." Joe shrugged again and kept walking. They finally reached Hangar Bay M again.

***
"Oh? Ok." Terrisa nodded and dragged Nova to Hangar Bay M, and she saw her brother. "Big brother! There you are!" She ran over to him."

"Ah...Hey sis."

***
"Well, there's some real magic." Nero chuckled to himself. "So what's inside? 519 thousand year old ice-cream?"

[S121]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur

Cortana couldn't see John's face, but she could easily tell he was thinking of something.

"Something on your mind?", Cortana asked John.

John snapped out of his trance and looked over at Cortana.

"Just thinking about how this galaxy has more problems than solutions. This entire galaxy seems to only have 'band-aid' solutions to all their problems.", John said to Cortana in a calm tone.

"Perhaps, but maybe we can help with that. We might know some methods that they never even thought of trying.", Cortana said to John.

John simply turned his head back to the front, not speaking until a moment had passed.

"Maybe.", John said to Cortana.

John didn't really want to stay in this time period longer than he had to. The people were nice, but there were too many complications and problems with this galaxy for him to have patience with it. He was more used to the structure of his time period. In his time period, all he had to worry about were The Forerunners, The Covenant, and the occasional insurrectionist or militia group.

[Cucoo5]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur

"Assume that over the course of one-hundred thousand years of war, we've tried nearly everything." Aion walked up to the group with a medium sized Digibag in hand. "But you're right on one aspect. We're looking only at the surface. Only a few have delved to the root of the problem. Can you guess what it really is? One-hundred thousand years of war have made cowards out of us all and thus, those that know the answer won't step forward into the crossfire. I won't say I know for certain the solution to the war, but I know where it began." He walked pass them. "It's time to begin the rites." He went to an open bay door where the force field was the only thing separating space from the inside of the ship. As he approached, he activated the digibag and orbs of glass and metal rings appeared around him, suspended. Each had a different colored Aura crystal within.

[S121]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur

John and Cortana watched as Aion stood there with Aura Crystals surrounding him.

John felt little from the deaths of so many people. He didn't really know why, but if he had to guess, it was either because he didn't know them well enough, or because he knew that it was an unfortunate consequence of battle. Perhaps it was both. John had seen many of his fellow humans die, but he only grieved for a very short while, then moved on. The grieving process was a little bit longer for fellow Spartans, but it would still end with him quickly moving on.

[Koishi]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur

---

Mima opend the fridge and looked through it.

"Well, there is ice cream in here. It's still good too...ah, here's what I was looking for." Mima said.

She pulled out what looked like a container for holding organs. "It's probably still good too."

---

Nova simply stood there, watching and observing the situation. She didn't like being wrapped up in these situations, gets one too close to people, and she knew that was dangerous.