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

[Kristia]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur

Mara felt calm as Kiara talked to her ("Well, she is showing true care, why not?") she thought and smiled

"Well, I got most of the check ups done, so might as well follow you" the bioroid said to the officer

[S121]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur

John nodded at Lieutenant Navarre, walked beside Aion, and got in formation.

He then waited for the training to start. If the training mission was to be a pilot, then John was more than qualified for the job, thanks to his superior reaction time, quick thinking, and skill.

[bookdragon2000]

Sol Inceneron
Near Inopia - NGO Ares Class Cruiser

Nhiome hesitated, this rendered the lock on KuroiKaze useless, so he transferred the lock to the remote that he carried. He then spoke aloud to no one in particular, "One-time usage? does that include coming back? Never mind, I don't feel like coming back anyway, I will get back on my own." He sent KuroiKaze out to meet up with ShiroiKaze, then quickly stepped through the warp gate.

[Cucoo5]

???

Nhiome stepped out the other side into a room that was pure white; where the walls or ceiling were could not be discerned. Black flowing columns of a strange substance lined room. At one end was a chair behind a pedestal made of what appeared to be obsidian with a sort of chess board engraved on the top that represented the galaxy. Standing with his back turned to Nhiome was Revere at the far end standing in front of the pedestal, looking down at the various pieces on it.

------------------

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur

Kiara clapped her hands together. "Ok, we can head to the Medical wing now then."
"Could I help?" Terrisa looked at both Kiara and Mara pleadingly.
"Sure~ You can come along."
"Yay!" Terrisa then ran ahead with her arms out.

***

Aion turned to John. "So what's your name or callsign? I need something brief so I can contact ya quickly." He then looked at the squadron he was assigned to and looked at the temporary leader of that squadron. To him they seemed dysfunctional just by their attitudes. "This will be a train-wreck of a training exercise...I can tell already." He thought to himself, which was slightly conveyed by his nervousness as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Well...let's get going shall we?"

[S121]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur

Aion was right. John never introduced himself, so he decided to give his usual introduction, along with some information for good measure.

"I am UNSC Master Chief Petty Officer Sierra-117, a Spartan-II super-soldier. Many people call me "Master Chief", "Chief", "Spartan", or "117". You can call me by any of them.", John said to Aion in a calm tone.

[Cucoo5]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur

"Super soldier, huh? Well then, it'll be interesting to see what the Ground Assault training yields then. And I'll be referring to ya as Chief then. Rolls of the tongue easy. My friend, Joe, developed my callsign: Arrow." He then turned and watched the rest of the squad get into their fighters. "Well, time to saddle up..." He watched the others closely noting the fact many just climbed in. "It's sad...none of them except my Hunters observe anything of the tradition of being a Maverick. Pilots that man their fighters are a dying breed..."

[S121]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur

"How are they a dying breed?", John asked Aion as the approached one of the ships.

[Cucoo5]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur

Aion started to climb into his fighter as John watched. Midway, he stopped again and looked at the blue phoenix emblem on his fighter. "Think about it...why put yourself as a pilot into the direct line of fire, right in the fray of a skirmish, when you can control a Drone from the safety of a base." He reached out to the emblem and placed his hand on the cold metal. "Drone Pilots think we're nothing but fools and we think them the same as they have no real skill." He slid his hand off of the emblem to the kill tally. "This here is proof of that."

Maverick Kills: 58
Drone Kills: 849 Stopped Counting

[S121]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur

John thought about what Aion had said.

In John's time period, they never really used drones, only AIs. Of course, AIs were somewhat the equivalent of a drone, but there was still a person on board, at least with Cortana that would be the case. More often than not, the UNSC would either use Spartans as pilot's because of their superior abilities, or humans.

John soon shook the thought out of his head as he climbed aboard the fighter and sat down in it.

"So do you know what the objective for this mission is?", John asked Aion as Cortana began to scan the ship for it's various controls.

"Okay, Chief. This ship is pretty similar to a Broadsword in terms of interface, so it shouldn't be too hard to learn the controls.", Cortana said to John.

John nodded to give Cortana a response and sat in the pilot seat. Once he strapped himself in, he then activated the fighter and was ready for further instructions.

[Koishi]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur

---

"I... had another memory surface." Mima said.

[Kristia]

Helios System Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur

Mara couldn't help but smirk at the girl's enthusiasm. "She is quite an energetic person" she said following Kiara

The white haired rubbed the back of her neck while seeing that most, if mot everyone, was fully organic. To be honest that made her shiver for a second

("Come on Mara, the augmentations are for the ones who needed them, like you. These people are highly trained and don't gave the necesity for them") she shook the idea away

[bookdragon2000]

???

Nhiome was disconcerted at first by the stark contrast of the black and white, and was surprised that he was not in another ship. He then headed towards the pedestal, the only feature in the room. There was a man looking at what appeared to be a board on the pedestal. He stepped just out of reach of the pedestal and spoke, "I assume you are the Revere person that the NGO officer mentioned? What do you want? what do you know about the...situation concerning my arm."

Nhiome then looked down at what the man was staring at so intently and was slightly surprised to see what was apparently a depiction of the galaxy.

" And what is this place and this board...?"

[Cucoo5]

???

The man stood there, analyzing the pieces on the board. Each piece was a figurine. He picked up one and moved it to the center where the core of the galaxy was. It was a figurine of Nhiome, without the helmet or suit. If one looked closer, there were figurines of everyone. However, the only figurine that looked like Revere was not next to the Nhiome figure, rather it was placed on a mark that symbolized the Helios System. "The only reason you are here is because I need to see how far Aurora's Curse has progressed." Revere then turned to Nhiome. "Show me your arm, boy. And I will show you what remains of mine." As he spoke, he rolled up his long sleeve over his right arm, revealing what seemed to be scars that ran up his arm in an intricate pattern, similar to what the crystals embedded in Nhiome's arm had formed.

-------------

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur

Kiara tilted her head when she saw Mara's expression. "What's wrong? Something's troubling you?"

***

Nero nodded and looked to the archive terminal. "At least your memories are coming back. Mine won't...ever..." He smiled wryly. "When I was a Life Hacker, I had to keep myself off the grid. I even had to erase my own memories to protect those I cared for. I left only one memory: the memory that I had those memories. I know what I had, but I don't know what exactly I had. That was to protect them, whoever I cared for, from me should I be captured. But now...I can't go back to that life now. My sacrifice to protect them."

***

"I've seen these kinds of training exercises many a time when I was training to become a mercenary. Typically we go on patrol in an area with no back up and destroy a target under a rookie's leadership." Aion shook his head. "If anything, this will be a comedy of errors..."
"All Fighters, prepare for launch."
"...Here we go."

[Koishi]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur

---

"That doesn't matter. What matters is that I almost destroyed humanity. On purpose." Mima said, turning away from him.

[Kristia]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur

To be honest, Im quite alerted with all this people around, Im not used to be around so many beings since I have all this" Mara said referring to her body

"I know most people accept mechanical augmented people, but Im sure you know there have been cases of augmented madmen with no physical limiters to stop their acts. That is something that not everyone say, but their eyes show the distrust" the white haired explained her conmotion

How much of me do you think its synthetic or prothestic?" the bioroid asked to see how much would Kiara see