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Chapter Text

(This is heavily inspired by a fanfiction called Halo shooting stars over on fanfiction.net, made by GrimlyFiendish, I am effectively using that story as a base for thus one, except I hope to finish this one)

Prolugue
Commander Grover Riggs had made many a sacrifice to win battles, it was how this war with the Covenant was fought and the only way battles were won.
His sacrifices usually payed out, and while they weren't always liked (especially with said sacrifices) in the genocidal war against the Covenant he couldn't make mistakes, he had only ever made very few.
It seems today would add another to the tally of mistakes he had made.

The UNSC frigate, The Road Not Taken, was cut to little power and nearly destroyed by the Covenant carrier, the rest of the fleet, side the 2 destroyers Hannibal and Concorde, were destroyed by the previously mentioned Carrier, along with eight cruisers, three Corvettes and about five dozen Seraph fighters.
The 3 remaining ships only survived thanks the UNSC Hannibel, having overcharged their Translight Engine enough to open a portal large enough for the 3 remaining ships to travel through, which came with it's own risks, they were lucky the Hannibel wasn't dead in the water at least.

Something was off though, not the complete destruction of UNSC ships, that was normal in this case, what was off was that none of Covenant gave chase, none attempted to follow, that was very strange for a Covenant fleet.
The remaining 3 captains came to 2 conclusions, 1 the Covenant was on the run, heavily unlikely, even if the Covenant wasn't so powerful the captains would likely see battle scars or something similar on the Covenant ships.
The second and more plausible answer was that the Covenant had found something, they wanted it badly enough to let their hated enemy leave alive.

The UNSC Road Not taken, Hannibal, and Concorde all agreed to hegde their bets on the second answer.
They decided that the UNSC Concorde, the at present weakest of the 3 ships would return to the UNSC to inform command, the remaining 2, Road Not Taken and Hannibal, which still had a great deal of Armour, weapons, and manpower, would follow the Covenant forces and figure out just what they wanted so badly.

Chapter Text

Ship Unknown

The UNSC ships the Road Not Taken and Hannibal entered slipspace in pursuit of the Covenant force that had torn through their fleet, seemingly searching for something in what seemed to be empty space.

Admiral Ruben Hale of the UNSC Demolisher was forced to abandon ship along with the rest of it's crew, of course only after erasing any and all Data they could, such was the Cole protocol.

The remaining crew split among the 2 remaining ships, while the admiral boarded the Road Not Taken, the fact that there was any survivors was proof enough that the Covenant was in a hurry.

As the 3 commanders discussed their current circumstances, the Road Not Taken's AI Christine (or just Chrissy if your busy) detected an unidentified ship that seemed to have been watching both the Covenant and the UNSC, neither having detected the ship till right now.

Christine took her holographic form (a navy look from the the early 2000's) and informed the 3 commanders of the anomaly.

It was quickly decided that the Road Not Taken would investigate the unidentified ship, while the Hannibel would continue to shadow the Covenant.

X

The crew of the Halberd, the Meta-Knights, were in the bridge discussing the situation at hand.

They had been investigating the otherside of a Dimensional/Spacial anomaly, and now they had been made aware of a fleet of ships, each of which dwarfed the Halberd in size, and one thing was made perfectly clear.
That the fleet that passed them by was heading straight to the Dimensional anomaly, and therefor, Popstar.

While his loyal knights bounced ideas between themselves, Meta Knight, Leader of the Meta-Knights and comander of the Halberd carefully considered their options.

Their main objective was mainly reconnaissance, and the personal matter of checking if the ship could fly after it had been repaired from the battle with Star Dream, to which Meta Knight mentally sighed thinking about that mess.

There hadn't been much in the way of trouble lately, so when Magolor informed the Star Allies of the Dimensional anomaly Meta Knight decided that the Halbwrd would investigate alone to figure out what was there and if there was any danger while the Star Allies prepared Postar for ant potential trouble.
Given the large fleet size of his likely new foes he doubted that they would be friendly and so it was his duty to give chase.

When Meta Knight voiced this conclusion, everyone unanimously agreed. He was about to give the order to head back to Popstar when two more ships passed by.

They were headed after the first fleet, but didn't seem to be a part of it; the difference in appearances made that quite obvious, maybe a war between 2 groups? Not his problem.

The Halberd was going to head off much the same, when one of the ships came back....of course he had to jinx himself.

X

The unknown ship came into view of the Road Not Taken's bridge. Grover had never seen a ship like it before, though he could make comparisons to several potential ship types and of course it's overall body proportions.
It's body looked like some alien cross between a battleship and a bloody bowling pin.
The ship was primarily Grey, with a purple undercarriage which was also the same color used on the wings towards the back of the ship.
The wings should've had no place on a starship, honestly they looked like they belonged to some large bat.
Both sides of the vessel were lined with what he could presume to be guns that would've been on old battleships, and there was a good deal of them, each placed so there would be no blind spot for would be attacker's to assault the ship.
On the deck was a large weapon separated into 2, the top cannon (cause what else could he call it?) Looked like it would fire actual cannon balls. The bottom section probably fired an energy weapon, but it was impossible to tell. Next to it was a long, extendable arm with a 3 digit claw on the end of it.
It looked like neither Covenant nor UNSC, it was Alien, new. The last time Humanity discovered something new and alien Humanity was brought into a genocidal war for their life's.

"Admiral Ruben Hale sir, we should start communications" Grover stated.

"We should wait to see how they act" the admiral replied, watching the the unknown ship.

"And if we do they could attempt to flee or become hostile thinking we're a threat" Grover protested.

"May I interrupt?" Christine formed from her pad in front of the 2. "I agree with commander Grover, sir. If we don't make the first move, there's have a good chance of it not being in our favor"

"Very well then, open up the communication line" Ruben relented, "but if they don't respond in a positive manner then we must be ready"

"Right, Christine get everyone prepared for combat and bring all our weapon systems online, then try to open a link with that other ship" Grover ordered.

"Yes sir!"

X

"Sir me'a knigh', 'heir a''emp'in con'ac'!" Informed a green armored crew member at the communications console.

"Understood Blade, open up communications" Meta Knight commanded, "let's hope they won't be a problem." Meta Knight said under his breath as Blade Knight opened up the communication link on their end, allowing the occupants of the other ship to speak.

"This is commander Grover Riggs, head officer of the UNSC Road Not Taken." The speaker blared, "please identify yourself and your intentions strange vessel."

"They mustn't be hostile if they're asking us" determined a taller turquoise knight. "Though I'm not the only one who thinks their ship and attitude is very military right?"

"First appearances can be deceiving sword, we should all know that by now" Meta Knight cautioned, "however, we should still answer, captain Vul go ahead."

"Right away sir." Vul acknowledged and began to respond to the clearly military vessel.

X

"Commander their responding!" Christine spoke up, much to the relief of those on bridge.

"Patch them through." Grover requested.

"Understood captain" she said, disappearing into her pad to fulfill the request.

The voice comming from the other ship sounded rather confident of himself, "This is captain Vul of the battleship halberd." Grover could have sworn that the voice belonged to a bird of some kind, parrot maybe? "We intend to uncover the plot of all these ships moving towards planet Popstar"

The 2 commanding officer's shared a look before Grover asked the question which would determine if they'd be friend or foe.

"So captain Vul, your not part of the Covenant?"
"Covenent of what? We are the great Meta-Knights of Dreamland!"

To most of the crew on the brigde it was relieving to know that the ship infront of them claimed to have nothing to do with the Covenant, it was surprising, yet doubtful, that they had never heard of the group before.

Ruben thought this was a 'likely' story, "This is Admiral Ruben Hale. You mean to tell us that you don't know of those alien monsters who are currently in the process of wiping out humanity planet by planet!?."
He had been a young adult when this war happened, he saw first hand the horrors of what the covenant could do, it seemed the covenant had effected everything, to hear a race of beings that didn't even know it existed was beyond him.

X

"Um, Sir, isn't humanity what Adeleine is?" An orange, spherical little creature (a waddle dee) wearing a sailor hat inquired. (Sailor Dee)

"And that everytime we find something of humanity, it's always them either being gone or dead?" Blade knight pointed out.

"ma'e ain'' wrong, every'hin we see some'hin 'uman i''s all brown bread an' broken." Sword Knight recalled.

"Well sir, do you think they're hostile now?" a small, pitchfork wielding knight asked the bridge, looking pointedly at Meta Knight.

"Even so we have no idea what this covenant is Trident Knight." Vul retorted

"Enough" Meta Knight said, halting the conversation. "There is much we do not know, and recklessness can defeat even me."

Meta Knight took a deep breath, taking a moment to think and focus.
"Vul see if you can convince them to meet face-to-face, I'd prefer learning this information in person, Trident and Mace, go prep the hanger for their arrival, sword keep an eye on the scanners, we can't be interrupted at this crucial moment"
Meta Knight ordered his crew in a flurry of practiced ease, they had their places, and they knew them well.
Despite this comfort, Meta Knight couldn't stop his mind from drifting, to the dead Shiver Star, to more recent developments of the Forgotten Land, of Humanity's constant deaths across dimensions.

Chapter Text

First Contact

Captain Vul of the Halberd had that they meet face-to-face. Admiral Ruben Hale had not been happy about that. It seemed the only way to do it was for a small group to fly into the into the Halberd with a pelican, mainly cause it would be impossible for the 2 ships to link up with their differing designs.

As the small troop ship came within 75 meters of the hanger door it began to open. The large door swung down like a ramp to reveal it's interior to which the pelican entered.

As they gradually landed inside the hanger they got a better view of the interior. It had a very mechanical look to it, everything was made of metal, from the exposed grating on the floors to the exposed pipes along the ceiling.

There was several purple bat like spacecraft along with a lot of weird creatures that seemed to be watching the pelican.

The Pelicans rear doors held for a moment until the all clear of air pressurizing was complete and 6 ODST's hopped out and suryed the hanger with shouldered weapons, followed by commander Grover Riggs.

They were approached by 2 creatures, both looked like Knight's which given what captain Vul said makes sense, but he wasn't expecting space knights today.
One wore a helmet with a cresent moon on top, and both had a seemingly robotic visors.
....Grover couldn't help but be confused on this groups level of technology.

"Welcome to the Battleship Halberd commander Grover Riggs. I am Mace Knight, of the Meta-Knights of Dreamland. I will guide you to the bridge," the small seemingly robot being explained in a typical robotic voice.

"This is Trident Knight, don't mind that he won't speak, he refuses to speak to anyone except our leader, he'll be looking after your transport."
"Now please, follow us."

"Orders sir?" the squad leader of the ODST's requested.

"Come on, standing around won't solve anything, follow the...robots?" Grover said.

The 2 robots turned around and led them through through the hanger. On the way past, Grover noticed the height of the locking mechanism the doors; it came to about the height of his hip, he'd have to crouch down in order to use the controls.
he stored this piece of information away for future reference.

The group navigated numerous corridors and elevators, until they must have reached the top of the ship. All the while they passed by various creatures of usually small sizes.

They reached the (assumed) last corridor before reaching the bridge at the top of the ship and Mace Knight opened it for them. None of them knew what they were expecting to find, but they knew that this wasn't it.

The décor was the same as the rest of the ship, but the large view screen and number of controls clearly indicated that they had reached the bridge. But it was made very clear that they were much to tall for interior of the ship, the highest controls came up to about waist hight, and the large window went from there to just a little over the head of an elite.

The one walking around the room with squaking orders to everyone else must've been captain Vul. The voice gave him away and Grover couldn't help but mentally congratulate himself on his parrot guess.
Vul was a four foot tall, tan coloured bird wearing regal captain's garb.

The strangest thing was that Vul wasn't the strangest living being in the room. Various smaller creatures were around the bridge, ignoring the captain to analyze the newcomers.

Something noteworthy (or more likely confusing) was that none of them had legs, their feet were attached directly to their body's.
Grover hoped that whatever biologist that was asked to study them didn't get an aneurism from how confusing their anatomy likely was.

Vul realized that everyone was ignoring him and snapped. "Oh for the love of- DO I NEED TO SMASH POTS AND PANS TOGETHER TO GET YOUR ATTENTION!!" Noticing that everyone was looking up at the entrance and spun around to face the humans, audibly squaking when he registered the size of his guests.
He recovered quickly to address them, "Commander Grover Riggs I presume? I am captian Vul", he then turned and ordered the rest of the bridge, "Stop staring and introduce yourselves."

Two sword wielding, armored creatures stepped forth. The slightly taller one was primarily turquoise in color while the other was green.
The formers helmet stuck over it's back and had ridges down the center, if it had a face Griver couldn't see it through the mask.
The Green one had a red tassel that sat at the back of it's helmet while a pink mask covered it's face.
The green one spoke first, "'ello 'here, i am blade knigh' an' 'his is swawd knigh'" "hello" responded sword.
Then everyone else followed.

Axe Knight, Javelin Knight, Sailor Waddle Dee, and several more.
Grover couldn't name a more colorful and frankly weird group then this.

"Now then, pardon me for a moment," Vul said before turning back towards his crew. "Listen up! You can't just stare at something when we have things to do! So remember to do your jobs and show some respect to your commanding officer!"

"And that respect you would have, if you were the commanding officer," said a deep, Spanish accent coming from the doorway from the doorway behind the group of visitors.

X

The link from the bridge to the Heavy lobster bay had been playing up recently, there hadn't been anything done because it wasn't needed. Meta Knight had needed to manually shut down it's defense mechanism so it wouldn't attack the 'pelican' when it entered the hanger.
Sword or Blade could've done it perfectly fine, but he liked the position that it put him in.
He could keep an eye on this potential threat, without them knowing about it.

When the humans in the pelican stepped out Meta Knight allowed his eyes gain a hint of red to them. Why was it that everything in the universe seemed to be taller then him?
It caused him to have to work so hard to be intimidating, sure Adeleine was taller then him, and she was young....okay maybe he should've expected this.

They had enough wits to about them to come armed, and seemingly enough trust to keep them lowered.
Maybe it wasn't trust, if he had been the one to take his followers onto their ship he wouldn't trust it.
Perhaps they were just as baffled as his own crew were, they needed information just as much as it was the otherwise around.
It was most likely that they hadn't come here to start a fight; as such they hadn't wanted to look like it. They were merely prepared for his own attack against them.

He had trailed them to the bridge without being seen, although he came close when one of the soldiers at the back might have felt his presence and turned to look at where he was a moment before.
He was going to make a note of that later.

When they had entered the bridge, Meta Knight had come to stand in the doorway behind them. His own crew were much too distracted with the new arrivals to take note of him, so he was able to observe the goings on without being a part of them.

Their visitors had only stood anxiously while Vul had attempted to make proper introductions. It was difficult to determine the impression that the Commander and his group had gotten from his crew, as they seemed much too concerned with the impression that they were giving out.
Currently though this was going nowhere so Meta Knight decided that now was a good time to step in.

X

The fairly laid back attitude of the Halberd's crew instantly vanished, with the crew now at full attention.
The Captain himself attempted to explain his way out of the situation that he seemed to was in with what seemed to be his superior, "Sir Meta Knight, I was just explaining to the knights about focusing at the task at hand, as per your order's."

The small creature had a dark purple cape wrapped around itself and most strikingly a metal mask which looked just like the 'face' which was at the front of the ship.
Grover could see that its body was a dark blue, spherical shape with purple metal shoes.
It wore grey shoulder armour which had a symbol, presumably the symbol of the Meta-Knights.

"Thank you Captain, it is appreciated," Meta Knight said with a deliberately weary and almost sarcastic tone.
As Meta Knight took his place in the center of the room he spoke in a lower voice to Vul, "the Wheelies are getting agitated, they seem to know that something's up and are getting tense. I need you to rotate their courses and settle them down, before they break something again."

"Yes, sir," Vul responded and hurried out of the room. Having successfully gotten rid of Vul, Meta Knight turned to address Grover's group.
"My apologies for not having met you here. There was maintenance required for you to be able to successfully enter the hanger. I am Meta Knight, leader of the Meta-Knights and the Battleship Halberd," he said with a slight bow.

Grover didn't know how to act in this situation. He knew that protocol expected him to be entirely professional but these Aliens seemed fairly laid back in what was likely a very important situation.

Grover decided on, "It's nice to meet you under good conditions, I am Commander Grover" He knelt down and offered his hand to shake.
He thought he saw a flash of green go through Meta Knight's eyes as he hesitated, why would any of these beings know what a bloody handshake was? He surely made himself look like a bloody idiot infront of everyone in the room. He was then relieved and confused when Meta Knight took his hand after only a second.

"Likewise."

Chapter Text

INFORMATION

As Grover stood once more Meta Knight decided to take the initiative in this conversation.
"Well now that greetings are out of the way, I believe some explanations are in order. Foremost being what is the Covenent, and how their, ahem, 'alien monsters who are currently in the process of wiping out Humanity planet by planet' as your Admiral put it."

"Right," Grover responded as he thought about how best to put the destruction the Covenant forced upon Humanity into words.
"When Humanity first learned about the Covenant, it was that they were heading to a planet called harvest. We were excited, we weren't alone in the galaxy and they were clearly more advanced then us. We didn't know a damn thing what was coming"
"They believe somehow that Humanity is an affront to their gods, who wish our eradication. To that end they have waged a genocidal war against Humanity. We've attempted to fight back of course, but...," Grover sighed, thinking of everyone that had been lost to the war.

"That is enough," Meta Knight said in the brief silence that formed.

"But," Gover began to say, before Meta Knight cut him off. "I understand enough, assuming you are telling the truth, which I am willing to extend an olive brach on, I would like to know what we going to be facing in the near future"

Grover nodded and got himself together, "Right, the main problem with their ships is their heavy use of plasma, it'll melt through un-shielded hulls of anything the UNSC can through at them. The second problem is that almost every ship, even the smaller ones, are shielded, making most of our weaponry near useless. Only our MAC cannons and nukes can bring the shields down, but MAC's take several hits to do this and our nukes aren't always available."

Meta Knight's eyes flashed green which Grover could only hope mean he was thinking, then spoke. "That could pose a problem, my own energy weapons could do something but our own shields are untested."

"You have shields?" Grover was genuinely surprised, but ever so slightly relieved that these hopefully new Allies wouldn't be dead weight.

"Untested shields must I remind you, we had to deal with an invasion force a while ago. We were able to grab a few good boons to the ship from that problem, but we have not faced another threat which required the Halberd to be a warship again." Meta Knight said pointingly, and Grover bought the partial lie.

"Even still that's better then nothing, especially if-" Grover realized something, these people must have had a planet right? Some place to do home too? Given that they hadn't been seen before it was likely that their home planet was somewhere around here, which a Covenant fleet was exploring.
"Oh fuck"

"I assume you've made the realization? That our home planet Popstar is somewhere around here?" Meta Knight said rather calmly despite the potential danger to his planet.

"Yes and I would think the fact that a fleet of genocidal aliens likely looking for your planet would be enough to warrant panic" Grover said unnerved.

"Their genocidal to Humanity, not planet Popstar," Meta Knight reminded. "Even if they do find Popster there are people who can stall them till the Halberd arrives"

"Good point" Grover said relieved. "But it is unlikely that your planet is ready for the Covenant."

"Do not underestimate our home," Meta Knight said simply. "We have survived invasions before and only grown, this covenant, whatever it can throw at us, can be beaten back."

Grover was surprised at the determination and confidence of not just Meta Knight but also his crew as they all seemingly nodded to Meta Knight's words.

"How can you be sure, the Covenant have decimated much of what Humanity could field against them. So unless your an interstellar empire I don't think you'll fair much better"

Meta Knight's eyes shined pink,(which is amusement), and he calmly spoke, "There is much you don't know, not of Popstar or it's exploits, though your worry is appreciated."

X

Meta Knight couldn't help but enjoy the skeptical look on Grover's face, but he knew that this Covenant would fall, just like every other enemy that has come to attack popstar.

"Now then, I believe we should get back on track? You still haven't told me what troops Popstar might face." Meta Knight pointed out, to which Grover calmed and responded, "of course, the Covenant consists of several groups, Grunts, Jackals, Drones, Hunters, Engineers, Brutes, Elites, and the Prophets."

Meta Knight could get the roles of each race by the descriptive names humanity had given them, and given that the Covenant ships had plasma weapons it was likely that their troops had plasma weapons as well, this could prove problems if they managed to land troops, not to mention all the other things like armour and aircraft.
Meta Knight hoped that the Lor Starcutter and Susie's defense fleet have the ability to halt the ships before their able to land forces on Popstar.

X

Meanwhile....

"This is taking way to long!" Dedede annoyingly said, causing Magalor's ears to drop.

"You said that 5 minutes ago" Susie said patiently as she drank her hot chocolate. Things had been going well till that weird dimensional rift had shown up, Susie had been more then willing to go through with some of her new Haltmann Works Company ships but Meta Knight had shut that down, almost like he was still mad for the whole star dream incident, she didn't blame him.

Triple Dee looked gruff at that statement, "Meta Knight should be back by now, what could there possibly be there that's keeping him!"

"A number of potential things, Dark Matter, an alternate Meta Knight, and so much more. That's the problem with alternate dimensions, never know what your gonna get." Susie countered, "your not afraid if there is a problem, your afraid if he lost to it"

"And how do you think that?" Dedede questioned. "It's the most logical thing to worry about, Meta Knight is one of the best warriors in Dreamland, second to you and Kirby" Susie responded back.

"Ahhggg!" Dedede grumbled, "I hate being worried like this, he should've brought kirby or someone with him."

"As Kirby's best buddy," Magolor said very sarcastically, "I doubt Kirby could be cooped up in that ship, even if we got Kirby on they would eventually just start planet hopping thanks to their endless curiosity."

"Besides," Magolor gestered to the mostly empty Starcutter they were in, "everyone else doesn't seem to be scared of it seeing how quickly they all left"

Susie had taken noticed of that, all of the other Star Allies had left quickly after the Halberd took off to go through the rift, the only one that had stay, and had remained quiet during this conversation, was Bandana Dee.

"Yeah your not wrong, after the Void Termina thing I doubt anyone would be scared of a little old rift." Dedede said thoughtfully, "I just hope it's not another adventure, I don't want be mind controlled again you hear!"

Bandana Dee, finally deciding he had something to contribute, said "I'm sure it'll be fine great king, we've just had a bit of bad luck is all, I'm sure of it."

Dedede gave bandana a head pat as he smiled, "thanks, even still though, hope Meta-" and before he could even finish Magalor's computer began to beep. "W-what is it! Is Meta Knight back?"

Looking over the ships that had come through the portal, Magolor came to the same conclusion Susie did. "Dedede get everyone ready, I don't want to rush the gun but we need to be prepared if our new visitors aren't friendly," he said as he began to press buttons on the Lor's computer.

"Then I shall go prep my own fleet, don't want them getting startled over the approaching ships," Susie said as she moved to leave.

"You think those ships will be hostile?" Dedede inquired, Bandana Dee following close behind.

"It would be unwise to treat them completely friendly, especially with this planet's track record" Susie stated as she thought about how best to handle this new dangerous situation.

X

The talks with the Meta-Knights had been good so far, they seemed to understand the threat of the Covenant and were willing to help.
He had gone back to the UNSC Road Not Taken to inform Admiral Ruben Hale of the developing situation.
It was safe to say that the admiral was unsure of these friendly aliens, but after some convincing he was willing to give it a try once they regrouped with Hannibal, which wasn't hard to find as the ship had left signs of where it went whenever it jumped.

The Halberd followed close behind the Road Not Taken using an FTL system no one had seen before and the most Christine got from scanning the Halberd after it left FTL was that it was seemingly using an unknown energy which bled into the surrounding space.

When the 2 ships entered more seemingly empty space they received an immediate message from the Hannibel.
"Hannibel to Road Not Taken, you need to see this now! Covenant are going through some sort of portal!"
And true to the Hannibel's words there was a portal, or perhaps rift would be a more accurate term.
The opening in space seemed to have been cracked open, as if something physically punched through and came out the other side.
They could only watch as the last Covenant ship went through, to whatever is on the other side.

Chapter Text

CONFLICT

"What the hell is that! Some kind of Covenant portal?!" Said the Captain of The Hannibel.

"Unlikely miss Irma Windsor, though I have no idea what in the hell that is. Christine any idea what we're looking at here?" Ruben Hale commanded.

"Unknown spacial anomaly large enough for Covenant fleet to travel through with ease. It seems to be radiating the same unknown energy that the Halberd was giving off, I must also stress that there is a 100% chance that it is portal of some sort seeing as the covenant were willing to jump through it."

Ruben Hale was not happy with this, that could easily be told by the scowl on his face. "Get me the Halberd, I want an explanation and their gonna give me one god dammit"

The crew quickly went to work and got the Halberd to respond.
"This is Halbird to Road not Taken, we read you, over" came the voice of Captain Vul

"What is this?"
"I don't believe I understan-"
"Cut the crap, that portal is radiating the same unknown energy as your ship."
"Wha- what are you talking about!? All systems seem fine here"
"Well clearly something is up and I want to know what!"

Captain Vul was quiet for a moment, Grover wanted to reprimand Ruben, sure Grover didn't trust them either but this was a bit much. It seems Christine agreed as she spoke up.
"Sir please calm down, there is a 90% chance that continued aggression will lead to conflict with the Halberd which we do not need."
Ruben seemed quite done with today and was about to retort when Meta Knight's voice came through.
"If I am correct it is because we are from a different dimension Admiral Ruben Hale."

The room Is grew quiet at that, mainly from sheer disbelief at that fact.
"You expect me to believe that!" Ruben said with anger.
"It is the truth, we noticed the rift and we decided to make sure there wasn't a threat to our planet Popstar. Apologies for telling you so suddenly, we've dealt with so many rifts I forgot thought they were common"
Everyone could immediately tell that what Meta Knight said was a half-assed excused, seems he was to busy to come up with a good one as the Halberd had already begin streaming ahead towards the portal.

"If you head in there now you'll be crushed!" Grover said speaking up this time.
"Do not doubt us or Popstar, we have faced worse then this Covenant. It will fall like all the others who have tried to take over our planet. You may come with or leave to your UNSC, if what you've said is true then I would not blame you for taking your leave, but we will not abandon our home in it's time of need."
It's almost like Meta Knight was giving a speech, if he was then it was a damn good one by Grover's metrics.
Though it seems Ruben Hale was far less impressed when the Halberd kept on course and entered the rift.
"Idiots the lot of them, they'll be crushed"
Ruben said as he let out a long sigh.

"Shouldn't we follow them sir? Even if their going to die that doesn't mean we can't save any of them."
Grover said hopping to appeal to Ruben's clearly less then stellar personality, thank god it worked.
"No but we can see what the Covenant are after, they did seem aware of the portal since they beamed straight for it."
Grover nodded, hopping that the Meta-Knights could back up their words, but fearing the worst.
"Hannibal be prepared to follow behind us, we're moving to go through the portal"

X

Things were already not going well Susie had firmly decided.
These beings from a different dimension had rudely come in and declared that the Planet was now claimed for the Covenant by the 'grace' of their gods.
They had already landed both ground troops and vehicles on Popstar, not to mention that their ships were massive and armed to the teeth-

BOOM

The ship she was in shook as it was impacted by Plasma from one of the Covenant space craft, Susie was thankful her ships shields could be fallen back on when their mobility failed them.
Which brought her to one of the few things her ships seemed to have an advantage in, they were far faster then these Covenant ships, with more maneuverability to boot.
"Guess things could be worse, we could be dealing with that Carrier."
It had not joined the battle in space, instead seemingly far more interested in Jambandra Base at the Edge of the solar system.
A small mercy's in the end but a very needed one as the Carrier took some of the fleet with it, leaving the rest to attempt to capture Popstar.
.....
Scratch one, no two Covenant fighters. Maybe she'll be able to catch up to Magolor's killstreak, most of the time she cursed Mags for having found the incredible piece of technology known as the Lor Starcutter but right now she was glad that he had it.
Especially since he actually managed to destroy one of the Covenant's cruisers to which most of the fighters responded by focus firing on him, left them easier pickings.

Still Susie was pushing it and she knew it, these Covenant ships were more powerful and with enough time they would likely overwhelm her small fleet. She was hoping for this world to grant her one more miracle, and luckily she was granted it as something she quickly identified as star shaped smacked into one of the Corvettes shields, puncturing through both the shield and the hull of said cruiser.

Susie turned her ship to support the rest of her fleet.
Kirby would deal with that one.

X

Magalor was having the time of his life! The thrill of being the focus of these Covenent ships, of dodging plasma bolt after plasma bolt, of cutting through their space craft like how Kirby's Ultra Sword cut through him, it was exhilarating.
He had been worried at first, he hadn't been there during the Haltmann's Works Company invasion of Popstar, but he had both heard and seen the scars.
So seeing a large fleet which smallest ships were double Susie's own ships size was quite worrisome.
And to be far they were formidable, their numbers were greater and their plasma weaponry was nothing to scoff at, if only they could actual hit their shots hah!
They had been able to land troops unfortunately, but Popstar had Kirby, Dedede, and plenty of skilled fighters to defend it so he didn't have to worry.
Now back to his kill streak....35....36...ooooo some in a big bunch-

BOOM BOOM BOOM

And that clumps all gone.
While Magolor was angry that someone had stolen his kills from him.
Meta Knight was back!
Magolor quickly opened communications as he steered the Lor around Covenant fire.
"Bufflehead! Been a hot minute, seemed you and Meta Knight missed the huge purple fleet seeing as the Halberd is without a scratch."

"Shut your track and it's Captain Vul you fink!"

"Yeah yeah I hear you, what's the Halberd gonna do?"

The line turns quiet as Vul consults Meta Knight.

"We will deploy some Meta-Knights to protect the lesser protected areas around Popstar, though from scans it seems that these Covenant are attempting to amass around objects of power like the Star Rod and Sun Stones while also assaulting fortified areas like Castle Dedede"

Okay that could actually be very bad.

"Is their anyone there to stop them?"

"Taranza and the people of floralia will require assistance along with the Fountain of Dreams, most other artifacts are either guarded or in pieces. We will assist where it's needed then rejoin you and Susie's fleet."

"Understood Bufflehead!"

Cutting communications just as he heard Vul sigh in annoyance, magolor focused on the battle once more, he couldn't have anyone beat him in kills now could he?

Chapter Text

POPSTAR DEFENSE

Popstar was a battlefield, the Covenant invaders attempting to take the planet for themselves, but for once the people of Popstar could and would fight back, either as scattered forces or as unified groups.

Here are some battles taking place.

X

The Great Halberd soared over Floralia, dropping some of it's warriors onto the kingdom desperately trying to beat the Covenant back.
From 1 dropper shot out a Heavy Lobster.
The Covenant had fortified an area of Old Odyssey which needed clearing, and it was the Heavy Lobster's job to clear the way for the infantry.

Resistance was steep, but the Heavy Lobster was designed to break through all resistance back when Meta Knight declared war on Dreamland.
With a firing of it's cannons any enemy threats were sent flying from the blast, those that tried to flank would be despatched by the Mini-Lobsters, and any that tried to close the gap were dealt with by a swing of it's claws.
All while the Meta-Knights followed behind, using it as cover and supporting it when possible.

"Enemy Hover Tanks! Move!" Cried out one of the infantry under the Lobsters protection, and with mechanical instinct the Lobster jumped out of the way of 2 large Plasma shots, which would have done great damage if they landed.

Turning to it's new foes, the Heavy Lobstar quickly identified them as Covenant Wraiths, problems to the Lobsters infantry, immediate threats.
The Lobster decided to close the gap, lowering itself onto it's wheels and driving ahead dodging another barrage of Wraith plasma fire.
One Wraith decided to challenge the Lobsters advance, boosting towards the Lobster.
A grave error.

The Lobster lowered it's left claw and when the Wraith drew close enough it thrust it's left claw upward, flipping the Wairth over.
Then with it's right claw swiped across the bottom of the Wraith, damaging it's hovering ability and slicing through the cockpit.
Then lowering it's left claw level with the reck, it fired it's cannon, blowing the Wraith to pieces.

The Lobster then turned to the second Wraith, which was rapidly backing up in response to the other Wraiths destruction.
The lobster gave pursuit, lowering itself onto it's wheels and giving chase.
Once it was close enough to the Wraith the Lobster jumped up into the air and slammed itself onto the purple hover tank, destroying it and it's 2 occupants.

Getting off of the reck, the lobster regrouped with it's infantry and moved towards it main objective.

X

Ripple field was a disaster area right now, an all out brawl between the alien invaders and the natural inhabitants.
Adeleine would have assisted but when she entered the fight the enemy's focused on her, shouting in their language she couldn't understand.
She could barely keep up with everything, even trying to keep everyone in top form with her food was difficult, already Knuckle Joe and Bonkers had to bail her out.
Not to mention, unlike most dreamlander's which poofed, these Aliens bled and stayed down.
She couldn't help but be greatful for the fountain right now.
She needed to rest, but she couldn't, not while everyone was counting on her.
"Ahhh, lohbaba!"
That was the sound of one of the Invaders! Adeleine just managed to roll out of the way as plasma hit were she just was.
Turning to face her enemy, it was one of the tall ones that seemed to command the others.

She stood, ready to fight when a ball of flame slammed into the tall aliens side and launched it away.
"Hay Adiy! Is this tall not friend bullying you?"
"Gooey!"
Adeleine couldn't help but feel the relief sweep through her body at Gooey's sudden appearance.
"Adiy? Do you need huggy? Gooey loves huggy's!"
"In a minute in a minute, could you deal with the bad guy please?"
"Dark night is doing the dealing"
Adeleine turned her head to the side, seeing Dark Meta Knight stancing up to fight his new opponent in what looked like a fair duel, before Dark summoned a sword right under the tall alien splitting the alien in half....
Adeleine did not need to see that, and promptly collapsed to the ground as she felt sick.
"Adiy!"
Gooey proceeded to glomp onto Adeleine, giving one of his huggy's.
"T-thank you Gooey, what were you even doing here?"
"Me and dark night were having picnic with Kirby, then non friends ruined it, Kirby got mad."
Adeleine shakily got to her feet as she quietly laughed, holding onto gooey for support.
"We're just gonna be just fine ha."
"As much as your adorable display sickens me to my core I believe we have bigger things to do, like getting Adeleine somewhere safe." DMK said with indifference.
"I can he-"
"No you can not, either you are going to die or someone is gonna poof protecting you, now do I need to grab you and forcefully take you somewhere or are you gonna be an idiot and die" DMK said with annoyance in his voice.
"No! Bad other Meta! Don't be jerky!" Gooey exclaimed as he boped DMK on the head with his tongue.
"Tch- fine, sorry, but your to valuable to lose"
"Bedder"
"Heh, thanks gooey, fine you can take me somewhere, but I want to help wherever we end up."
"That's fine child, gooey help everyone here stop the 'bully's'"
"Ok other Meta"
DMK grabbed my arm and flew off as gooey went to help everyone...
I wish I could've helped more.

X

The great castle Dedede was under the best of times, a joke. Either easily penatrated by invading forces or made useless through other means, likely mind controlling great king dedede.
So Bandana Dee was more then happy to see that the castle was finally doing it's job, as the invaders were having trouble assaulting the castle.
The mountain the castle sat upon was effectively useless thanks to the aliens aircraft, but that did limit where they could land, and Kabula further pressured the aircraft attempting to land on castle Dedede.

But they still managed to land, there was simply to many and Kabula couldn't go down, if she fell the castle would be swamped by alien invaders.

Which means Bandana Dee had to do what he did best.
Clean up the mess, and it did seem like there would be quite a mess seeing as when he hit the aliens they bled all over the nice clean floor that the Waddle Dee's had cleaned not just a few seconds ago.

He kept up the advance, the Invaders were good and he couldn't faulter, they'd already taken control of the west and south wing of great kings castle.
Great King decided to spread out, he would go reclaim the southern wing of the castle while Bandana Dee reclaimed the western wing.

Which was where he was currently, leading the Dee's in the retaking of the south wing.
And he was not having a good time.

Bandana Dee took cover behind a Parasol Dee's parasol, a couple Waddle Dee's behind him getting poofed.
It was moments like these that he was thankful he trained the Parasol Dee's after the Void Termina mess.

"Dee's pick a Parasol Dee and stay behind them, Parasol Dee's, Advance!"
With a loud wanya the Dee's began to advance.
And when the 2 sides got close enough, chaos broke loose.
"Charge!!!" Cried Bandana Dee as the Dee's sprinted forward.
The charge quickly turned into a close range brawl, spear Dee's in front as missle Dee-s took potshots whenever possible while Parasol Dee's attempted to keep everyone safe.
The hectic melee was over as quickly as it began, this had been repeated several times over already and with every fight he lost more and more Dee's.
Thankfully it didn't seem the Invaders were very tough, just annoying stubborn.
So they neared the area where these Aliens were landing, Bandana Dee and his friends made 1 more push.
With Dee slamming the door to the area outside and yelling, "FOR GREAT KING DEDEDE!!!"
"WANYA!!!"

Chapter Text

SPACE BATTLE

Susie was beginning to get desperate, these Covenant ships were going down, but it was slow going. Her fleets weaponry wasn't cracking the bigger Covenant ships shields fast enough.
The only ship which had made significant progress in destroying the ships had been the Lor Starcutter, having already destroyed another Corvette and a Cruiser.
And of course Kirby's help was welcome but his action of boarding and destroying the ship from the inside was slow and her ships were not ment to hold out for this long.

"I wish Meta Knight would hurry and-"
Susie was promptly shut up as her comms flared to life, "President Susie ma'am, our ship has taken heavy damage, permission to peel off"
Of course....this is risky but she had an idea.
"Sigh, go and get repairs and reinforcements, I think we'll need it."
"Yes ma'am."
This was getting worse every second.
"Come on Susie, focus"

X

The Road Not Taken and Hannibal had traveled through the weird portal, and whatever Grover had expected to see, this was certainly not it.

A star shaped planet (Popstar, of course), under seiged by some of the Covenant ships that went through the portal, but not all.

"Chrissy where's the rest of the Covenant fleet."
"Scanning....um, you might wanna take a look at this."
Chrissy pulled up an image of a structure.
"What am I looking at her Chrissy?"
"There's a large...space station? At the edge of the solar system"
"You sound worried," Admiral Ruben Hale piped up, "what's the problem?"
"Not worried, you see the station is larger then the star in the center of the solar system"

That caused everyone to do a second take, "That must be what the Covenant are after," the Admiral claimed.
"Well if it is it doesn't want them as the Covenant are now locked in battle with the station, and it's going in the station's favor"

Well then, perhaps this was Grover's moment.
"Admiral Ruben, permission to join the um, Popstarians? In battle?"
"We have 2 ships to our name, we can't risk it. We'll see what we can figure about about that station instead"
"But sir, that place, whatever it is, can hold it's own. Besides it's much more likely for us to help out the Popstarians which, given close proximity, may let us in that place anyway"

The admiral grumbled, it was logical and these Popstarians had seemingly destroyed several ships.
"Chrissy what do you think?"
"I think it has a 80% chance of working"
"Sigh, very well. The Road Not Taken and the Hannibel will join these people in the defense of Popstar, but once things get bad we are pulling out, understand!"
"Sir yes sir!"

X

The Lor dipped and dodged through the battle with practiced easy, the fighter space craft had been all destroyed either by his or Susie's little fleet, this left only the big ships and they weren't much tougher in comparison to the nimble Lor Starcutter.

Honestly, Magolor was getting bored of this little game, come on! Shoot a large missle! A large lazer, or hell summon a black hole or something.

Mags bet the Lor would agree if it spoke to him....wait a minute!

Magolor quickly put up the Lor's shields as in his thoughts the Lor had stop moving completely.
This was a first, what in the world got the Lor so...spooked?
A quick scan revealed the answer....he did not like it.
Ever since Magolor had redeemed himself (kinda), he'd been more in tune with the Lor, able to, feel it's emotions for a lack of better word?
And those ships, blocky and grey with clear focus on fuction over form, were causing the Lor a great deal of confusion and worry.
Magolor couldn't allow that, so he jumped on the communicator and contected the leading vessel of the lead ship to speak with the potential attacker.

"Hello new friends, you are in the presence of Magolor! Are you here to be fought or be welcomed?"
"Is that a god damn boat?"
"What a way to start a conversation," Magolor chuckled, "please do not insult the Lor, it's undignified."

"This is UNSC Road Not Taken, alongside UNSC Hannibel, we are here to destroy the Covenant Magolor."
"Then welcome to Popstar you weirdly named ships, mi-"
"Magolor!" Susie blared through the coms, "one of those Covenant ships is pulling off towards Popstar"
"Oh Void damn- you mind helping out here Road Not Taken and Hannibel?"
"Got it, keep us covered we can't take hits from the Covenant"
"Right I got ya"

The Lor pulled off to support these mysterious new allies, and Mags hoped The Halberd could deal with that Covenant ship before it did....whatever it was doing.

(Hay there, bit of a shorter one here but I hope you do enjoy jt)

Chapter Text

DEFIANCE

The Covenant cruiser moved over Popstar towards Floralia, specifically the ruins of Old Odyssey.
While the Covenant had faced fierce resistance they had managed greater gains in Old Odyssey and Floralia as a whole then the rest of Popstar.
Now the crusier was heading straight there to ensure that at least something was gained on this day.

X

The Heavy Lobster raced forward, after the destruction of the Covenant base it was hastily assigned to destroy a different one, one that the enemy was retreating their forces from.

Unacceptable.

So it was sent ahead, in deep with no cover, alone against the enemy.
It would have to make use of surprise in order to taste victory.
And that's exactly what it did, it could not stealth to gather information so instead it rammed into the Covenant forces head on, the enemy not prepared for it's arrival.

Some small things attempted to run, but it was faster, and crushed them under it's wheels.
Some attempted to snipe at it, but their weapons did little to it's armour, and it's own weapons to long ranged.
Some tall things attempted to flank it, to cut through the Lobster with their swords, so it simply crushed them with it's claws.

As it neared the base it saw several flying aircraft begin to take off from the base, it couldn't allow them to flee.

It's raised both of it's arms...

Only for pain to rocket through the Lobsters systems as it was hit on the right side with 2 large beams of plasma, and knocked over.

Blocking a second stream of plasma with it's right claw, heavily damaging said claw in the process, the Heavy Lobster was able to reorient itself to face it's new foes.

Hunter's, it had faced them during the destruction of the previous Covenant base, yet these did not match information on file.
Gold armour, instead of the blue that usually adorned the hulking things.

Doesn't matter, they are in the way.
The Heavy lobster raised both of it's claws and fired.

The first hunter jumped out of the way of the blast ment for it and into the blast ment for the second hunter shield first, blocking said shot and sending the first hunter flying, but leaving the second hunter without a scratch and more then enough time to line up it's shot.

The shot landed right into the Heavy Lobsters right claw, destroying the cannon inside and damaging the claw.

Not good, higher skill the anticipated, better at range but what about in melee?

The Heavy Lobster took aim once more, not at the second hunter but directly infront of it, the blast creating a smoke screen.

The lobster then got down on it's wheels and sped forth, zig zaging around the second hunter's blind fire, then it jumped and slammed down it's right claw onto the spot the second hunter had been before.

The hunter dodged and fired with it's arm cannon, the plasma being blocked by the Lobsters right arm, practically melting the thing.

The lobster swung its left arm at the golden hunter, connecting with the shield and knocking the enemy down.
The Lobster moved on top of the enemy and grabbed it with it's left claw, beginning to squeeze and was about to cut the hunter in 2.

A stream of plasma stopped the Heavy Lobster as the first hunter rejoined the fight, running towards the the Lobster while also hitting it's back with a concentrated stream of Plasma.

The Lobster, still holding onto the second hunter in it's claw, turned quickly around and threw it at the first.

The first caught it, only for both to be rammed into by the Heavy Lobster racing into them at max speed, knocking all of them down.

The Lobster was about to bring it's left claw down onto the the first hunter, but the second recovered faster, and with a well placed shot blew the left claw clean off and giving time for the first to get up.

The Heavy Lobster swung it's right melted claw at the first who met the swing with it's shield, and won the clash, breaking the claw off as the hunter slammed its arm cannon directly into the Lobsters eyes.

There was nothing.

"SOS heavily Lobster badly damaged at old-"

Then there was light.

X

Butter Building was burning, Biospark was nearby being forced to dual Gigant Edge when the invaders attacked.

Due to being a large fortified area the Invaders seemingly wished to take it for themselves, and Gigant Edge had immediately ran into the fray with reckless abandon with Biospark being forced to help in a very none ninja way.

At least Mr. Bright and Mr. Shine were here defending their building alongside all the people who lived there but these invaders were really persistent, even when facing the embodiment of the sun and moon.

"Begone parasites!" "Know our power!" Screamed Mr. Bright and Mr. Shine, Bright shooting powerful sun beams as Shine summoned great meteors from the top of Butter Building.

Honestly Biospark was hoping one of the invaders would poof him so he didn't have to listen to the 2 scream about their power for who knows how long.
And there was also Gigant Edge.

"HAHAHAH!" The large green swordsman bellowed as he cut down another bunker's like creature, "Come on Biospark! We have quite the opportunity here for worthy opponents. HAHAHAHAH!"

Throwing a kunai into the unshielded hand of one of the smaller (maybe bird-like???) beings then finishing it off with several more kunai, "focus Gigant Edge! Your wide open, as per usasual."

"Tch, your no fun! Live a little and enjoy the chaos of combat small one," Edge responded as he pulled his shield up to block some incoming plasma fire.

"FUN!?! This is what? The fifth time Dreamland had been invaded by aliens?!" Biospark yelled in annoyance.

"Oh I should bother you more often, thus is amazing," Gigant Edge laughed at Biosparks annoyance, "Also watch your left."

Dodging without a second to spare as an energy blade passes right through where Biospark just was, which immediately turns off.

Throwing a few kunai in the general area where the sword was one of the kunai finds it's mark, connecting with the shield of the invader.

Rushing forward and grappling with the invader so Biospark can sublex the enemy into the ground, breaking the enemy's shields and revealing a dark red armour (zealot).

Before Biospark could recover from the grapple the dark red enemy kicked him away and got to it's feet, brandishing it's energy sword with Biospark responding in kind.

"Alright then, come and g-" before Biospark could finish speaking Gigant Edge slams besides, "ah- here to help?"
"We got a problem little one"
"Wha- oh..."

The realization of what was happening settled in as several more dark red colored invaders uncloaked around the 2, surrounding the 2 dreamlanders.

"So...you take half and I take half?" Biospark reasoned before Gigant Edge let out a heavily laugh, "come on you chumps, you'll all be just another victory for me! HAHAHAHAH!"

X

High is the sky's above Dreamland, bombs boomed, and great steal feathers tore into the Covenant airforce.

Dyna Blade flew through the air, cutting through Banshee's as Bombar shot down stronger Seraphs and Phantoms attempting to evacuate to the Corvette.

Their continued presence could not be allowed if the Covenant wished to have dominate the air and evacuate what it could from this battle.
Understandably this lead to the Covenant focusing them down.
Soon enough the great air battle was over Dedede castle and Kabula had eagerly joined, as it's situation was less then optimal.

The 3 fought through in the air around increasing plasma fire as anti air guns got into position under the 3.

It was only a matter of time before 1 of them took a hit they couldn't recover from.

Chapter Text

SAVIOR

Why were they come down here the Kig-Yar ultra Zhep thought to himself.
Like seriously?! Because there was supposedly some powerful artifact in these claustrophobic caves?
What a joke!
What could possibly be down here?

I mean, sure there was all the native inhabitants of this soon to be Covenant world down here, including the ones that were quite tougher then the others but they could just be here for literally any other reason.

"I can hear you grumbling fool, shall I cut off your tongue so you can't any more?" The leading Sangheili zealot said.

"Agh don't waste your time with that filth and focus on the mission, I can feel that we're close," spoke another Sangheili zealot.
Yeah right, what could be her-

"Wait what's that!" The leading zealot yelled out.

The group of Sangheili, Kig-Yar, and Unggoy enter a chamber of rock and jewels.
Inside on a pedestal of jewels is what looked like a broken...painting?
Did we come all this way for a f-

"Intolopers! Who dares enter the lair of Wham Bam Rock!"
2 eyes become visible from the dark of the lair as a large rock being floats forward, using one of it's hands to slam into the entrance, causing rocks to fall and block the way they came.

May the forerunners have mercy.

X

Curse the inhabitants of this annoying planet! The Sangheili Zealot N'thuro 'Kranamai thought to himself as he darted out of the way of a flying stone fist.

None of this made sense, stone doesn't just come alive! At least it was predictable to deal with though that still left the problem of the blocked entrance.

He would've thrown a genade but was currently to busy not being turned into a fine paint by 'Wham Bams' hands which were doing a very good job at stopping them from escaping.

Already the cracking of bones had filled the lair as the Unggoy weren't able to keep up with Wham Bam's attacks, worst still only grenades had seemingly done much of anything to it which were currently limited and may be needed.

He knew they shouldn't have brought the extra fodder for what should've been a zelot only mission.

Just as N'thuro 'Kranamai was about to fire his plazma rifle he was grapped and pulled behind cover by the other zealot he was teamed up with, Cida 'Dagramai.

"I got a plan, but you aren't going to like it" said Cida.
"We don't have another choice, what is it?"
"Your the better swordfighter here, you get in close and distract it while I open the way."
"Tch- acceptable, ready?"
"Ready"
"GO!"

N'thuro 'Kranamai charged forward, gun and sword in hand, doing his best to dodge the stone giants fists. Shooting the temperamental Wham Bams eyes every now and then to keep it'd focus on him.

As another swing of Wham Bam fist came the Sangheili ducked under while raising it's plasma sword and watched as the blade cut right through the stone giants fist.

"You dare! Puny pest! Rrrrraagggggh!"

N'thuro 'Kranamai feels himself go flying as Wham bam back hands him through into the wall of the cave, excruciating pain everywhere but his lower body.

He watched as Wham Bam raised his fist high before being immediately shot in his stone eye by a still living Kig-Yar ultra, who had earlier discarded his shield upon seeing that it wouldn't be of much use.

BOOM!!!

Ah, that must've been the exit being opened.
N'thuro 'Kranamai, attempted to stand but found that he couldn't, upon looking down it became quite clear why.

His legs were broken.

X

Cida 'Dagramai rushed back to N'thuro, grabbing the handicapped Sangheili and moving him behind cover.

"Prop me up and go! I will cover you as you leave with the artifact." Said N'thuro clutching his plazma rifle.

"I'm not letting you die that easily." Cida claimed as he looked around, attempting to form a strategy. Looking at the artifact, then to the Kig-Yar ultra, an idea formed in his head.

Rushing out of cover he looked towards the Kig-Yar and readied his throwing arm as he gripped his plasma rifle, "Kig-Yar catch!" And threw the ultra his plasma rifle, to which he caught.

Now with the Kig-Yar able to more effectively distract Wham bam by dual wielding plasma rifles Cida ran for the artifact then placing it inside a container.

"RUN!!" Cida exclaimed, speeding over to N'thuro and hoisting him up by his other arm and making a rush for the exit.

Wham Bam cried "NO!" In worry and terror for the first time during their encounter, beginning to desperately catch them, throwing the last grenade Cida had at the things face and running through the entrance along with the Kig-Yar ultra.

X

Zhep ran as fast as he could, the zealot lumbering behind him, he was so thankful that they cleared the way before, still didn't help the pits and ledges they had to climb past but they made it work.

Now they were finally on the surface of this planet and could call in an evac, Zhep could not tell you just how relieved he was.

Still there was work to be done, mainly setting up a perimeter so they weren't ambushed, not that such would be difficult given that there was only 3 of them and one of them had broken legs.

Thankful Kig-Yar had the best eye-sight in the galaxy and Zhep would bet hard Gekz for that, so it was easy to spot the approaching warriors from a distance.

But there was only 4 of them?

"4 of them, coming closer, they likely don't know we're here. Orders?" Zhep said turning to the still walking zealot.

"It is more important that we escape with the artifact, hide and let them pass, we cannot afford a fight."

More then happy to hide then deal with more of these things the 3 quickly hid, the zealots using their invisibility while Zhep hid in a bush.

The 4 slowly passer by, a floating spikey ball (Captian Stitch), 2 armored beings (Iron Mam and Kibble Blade), and a being in robe (Julkid).
Somehow not the weirdest group of things they've seen so far.

However as a searing pain told Zhep, there was not 4, but five beings in this group.
Zhep rolled out of the way of another projectile that was aimed at his head and fired his plasma rifle at the robed enemy (Waiu).

The thing jumped away from Zhep preparing to throw another projectile only for a miracle to happen as the Warrior Transport finally arrived raining glorious covering fire as reinforcementing Unggoy minors lead by a Sangheili minor dropped from the the ship.

In the haze of combat Zhep swear he heard someone yell "GO" but couldn't place who, he was to busy running for his life as Unggoy were cut down.

The adrenaline only stopped when he was already inside the transport, falling to his knees he looked upon the battle as the transport pulled off, the lance squad decimated and the zealot with broken legs left to die.

Honestly, Zhep was just glad this was over.

X

Cida 'Dagramai walked through the corvette, to the room of the luminary and Ship Master Latan 'Gantakai.
In the room was several recovered artifacts, stone that shined with the power of the sun (Sun Stones), fruit that glowed like a rainbow (Miracle Fruit), a staff with a heart on the end (Friend Rod), a glowing rainbow of something (Sparkling Star).
And now, this shattered painting.

Latan 'Gantakai eyed the broken object before he spoke, "I hope the artifact wasn't broken during your, retrieval of it, that would look quite poorly on you, wouldn't it."

"It was broken when we got to it Ship Master, with hope we can repair it" Cida said as he placed the pieces for the luminary to identify.

"You best hope so, the events of the last cycle have been catastrophic! We need something big or we're all-" before Latan could finish his angry rant the luminary identified the object.

It said

SAVIOR

Chapter Text

(Alright let's start giving these actual decent titles)
BATTLE FOR THE STAR ROD
PART 1

The area around the fountain of dreams was usually the picture of calmness and tranquility, even during the chaos surrounding the fountain there was a level of focus permitting the battlefield.

If anything Spynum thought that helped the far more disciplined enemies that they were fighting.
At least it helped him put some arrows in the unshielded ones.
Though it was more likely that everyone else was drawing their attention and he was hidden behind his fake prop.

He set another arrow flying into one of the big furry ones that Bugzzy had thrown himself against, knocking the furry thing down. "Thank you arrow friend!," as bugzzy grabbed his fallen foe and threw him through the air.

He got up to move to a different area, bad to stay in one spot after all.
Case in point, he started getting shot at by the enemies plasma weapons, thank void his prop was a good shield in a pinch.

X

King Doo was locked in fierce alongside his Waddle Doo brethren, these monstrous creatures were clearly after the Star Rod! That could not be allowed.

Unfortunately these things were putting up a far better fight then King Doo liked, already many of his brethren had fallen before the energy weapons of the enemy.

For once he wished that insolent Kirby was here, where in the void was that blasted puff ball anyway!

Well King Doo was currently hidi- taking a break behind a wall, he hated to admit it but these things were running him ragged
He would've been nice enough to join them on whatever conquest of the stars they were on but they were to stupid to seem to ask for it.

He's knocked out of his musings by the wall exploding, sending debris all over his singular eye.
Then he was sent flying, landing on the several of his own Waddle Doos, poofing them in the process.

Getting up from the ground he faced his foe.
One of those large hairy things, welding a large hammer, stupid bonkers ripoff. (brute chieftain)

King doo roared at the his enemy and shot an energy ball at the enemy, only for the the hairy foe to run through the blast, it's shield taking most of the damage as it fizzled out.

He attempted to energy whip the furry thing, only for the thing to dodge out of the way and slam it's hammer into King Doo singular eye.

He couldn't see, so he attempted to run only for for him to feel the hammer hit into his back.
He could feel himself going, vanishing again.
With 1 more mighty slam of the of the beasts hammer, and King Doo was gone.

X

The inner area where the Fountain of Dreams stood had yet to be breached yet, furthermore people were using it to rest and heal themselves, so Dark Meta Knight had believed it a suitable place to bring Adeleine.

While she went to work doing her best DMK thought of a strategy for victory, these invaders were good, with great technology and far to many numbers.
They would overwhelm this place, he wouldn't fall of course, but Adeleine wasn't a dreamlander, she wouldn't come back like the rest of weaklings here.

He couldn't have gone anywhere else, he didn't know what was comprised and what wasn't.

That ship, it hanged over their heads.
Perhaps if he went up there and destroyed it? No these warriors seemed to have enough discipline to not run in terror, at least not all of them anyway.

He wished Shadow Kirby was here, then he would someone with some actual skill to split up the problems with.

"Sir Dark! The people here are healed, well, to the best of my abilities anyway." Said Adeleine as she walked close, a content smile having graced her face for the first time in maybe a day or 2.

"Good child, we'll need all the help we can muster."
"Um- so what's the plan? You do have a plan right?"
The silence that permitted throughout the area was deafening, same could be said with the horrified look that creeped onto her face
"But- how-"
He responded the second tears threatened to fall from her eyes.
"Child look at me, we'll be fine. We have all these weaklings, we have myself of course, and we have you. We'll manage, I promise you."
"I *snifle* thank you, Sir Dark" she said as she wipped her eyes.
"Better? Good cause that was sickening to say."
He made a fake gagging sound causing the Adeleine to laugh.
"Now that that's settled, yknow what you can do better then anyone here, so where would you be best at?"
"Here, at the back helping everyone."
"See already the beginnings of success are here. Now we just need to hold-"

The ground shook as the sound of something heavy crashing into the ground reverberated through the area.

He nearly lost balance as Adeleine held onto him for support.
"Sir Dark! What was that!"
"Don't know I'll fly up and see what that was!"
And so he did, unfurling his wings and soaring over high above the Fountain of Dreams.
He did not like the the huge four legged scorpion looking thing approaching.
No one here would be able to handle this except for him (and maybe Adeleine but that was to much of a risk).

He would have to deal with that, alone.

"Sir Dark? What do you see!" Adeleine yelled, hoping that DMK could hear her from all the way down here.

"Large enemy vehicle that requires my attention, can I assume you can keep thus area secure?"

She barely gave it a moments thought, "Yes Sir Dark! I can hold here!" people here needed her, he knew deep in his blackned heart that she had this.

Chapter Text

Battle for the Star Rod
Part 2

Dark Meta Knight flew through the air, the large vehicle turned it's face? (scarab laser) towards him and fired upon the mirrored knight.

Flying up above the weapons field of fire he was instead shot at by the vehicles head turret.

Dark Meta Knight circled the towering walker, attempting to scout out any potential weaknesses in the machines design.

The back was his best bet at destroying the machine, though it was annoyingly persistent in it's attempts to keep him away from it's back.

Destroying a leg should put a stop to that.
Flying infront of top turret fully knowing ot would fire at him.

Shifting into his mirror before the plazma hit, the energy turned into a large purple star and reflected back into the turret, doing heavy damage to it.

Then throwing his whole body and strength into the turret, ripping it from it's hinges.

Dmk flew around to the beck right leg with the turret in tow and smashed it into the leg, heavily damaging it, a single swing of Dmk's blade was all that was needed to chop the leg off after the fact.

Flying to the back of the large vehicle and with a couple slashes of his blade the... what Dmk assumed was some sort of core was revealed.

Slash Slash Stab!

The alarmed confirmed what Dmk thought, and he quickly flew off as the large vehicle exploded behind him.

X (Meanwhile and a couple minutes before.)

Adeleine's paint minions dodged back and forth as she tried tend to the wounds of some Waddle doos that had fallen back after King doo poofed apparently.

When King Doo fell a decent bit of the people protecting this place scattered and got poofed themselves, allowing the invaders greater advances closer to the Star Rod, even Adeleine was now forced to do some fighting.

Scattering some food around for the others before running away from some plasma fire as some more people sped into the the main area around the fountain.

Creating a paint Waiu and hopping on him, he had him throw a few cutters at them, to which only fit a few and only killed one.

She was still uncomfortable with the idea of having to kill.

"Not know ado! Focus!"

Quickly dodging out of the way of returned plasma fire she used Waiu ninja moves to vanish to the otherside of the fountain so she had a bit more time to think.

This was bad? Very very bad.
Come on there's gotta be something here, some plan that could be done.

Counter firing at a rounding taller foe (Elite) but completely missed the white armoured foe as he rolled under most of her cutters and fired back, destroying her Waiu.

The being ran up, drawing his energy sword and pounced on Adeleine.
She was able to roll away, hitting him with her brush as she backed away.
Adeleine was given no time to recover unfortunately as her paint barely stunned the him.

Working quickly on her feet she focused all her effort on dodging, getting small hits in whenever she could to little success.
Then she had a moment of (hopefully) genius.
Upon the enemy getting close to her again, she brushed against the grenades the foe was carrying.
And she thankfully got lucky.
As the grenade began to glow she shoved into the enemy with all her puny might throwing them to the ground.
She got up as quick as she could, and jumped away from the enemy as an explosion went off behind her.

With a minor miracle she had won, but their were others and she barely had enough energy to keep going.
That's when she heard a laugh.

"My my you seem to be in quite a pervebal pickle."

Oh god/oh good it's Marx

"What do you want Marx? Kinda in the middle of something."

"Oh please little kiddo, it looks like you can barely stand let alone fight these weirdos."
"I am doing just-"
"Hay hay hay! Don't let your little insecurities get in the way. I think you should take a nap, it looks like you need it."
Marx claimed with knowing mischievous smile.
"MARX DON'T YOU-"
In less then a second Adeleine was knocked out, Marx having teleported behind her and given her a little 'love tap'.

X

"Now then! I was having a very good time today, and you idiots just had to ruin it...
I'm going to have so, much, fun!"

Marx flew towards the enemy as sup-light speed, already in their mists before they even noticed him.
As he unfurled his wings he sent cutter blades in several directions, cutting up a few of his new living toys.
The faster ones attempted to aim and fire, but they weren't able to properly lower their guns at Marx before he barfed out a large bomb, which exploded and froze several of them solid.

The farthest one actually managed to line him up, only to find that his weapon wouldn't fire...and that it had a large bite taken out of it.

Marx appeared from behind him.
"Hay you gonna finish that?"

The larger foe attempted to smack him with the broken weapon which was easy enough for Marx to dodge.
'Hay watch this!"

Marx built up his power and opened his mouth to unleash and huge laser which completely incinerated him.

"That's what you get for ruining my day! Hahahah!"

Marx had his fun for what felt like hours, but was only a few short minutes.
Already enemy was running in terror of him, he hadn't had this much fun scaring the Void of people in so long.

"Marx! When did you arrive?"

"Oh? The fake knight! Have you to been having fun today?"
"I told you to stop calling me fake knight!"
"Well maybe you should stop reacting to it then!"
"Enough! Whsaf's Adeleine?"
"Oh I just put her to sleep for a moment."
"I swear to Void-"
"Cool your jets man! She's safe, I promise my little head, I drew most of these guys attention."
"You better have."

The 2 flew back to the fountain of dreams, Adeleine was right were Marx left her, though she had woken up rather quickly, maybe she a bit hardyer then Marx thought.

The 2 touched down and Adeleine immediately swept with relief.
"Dark Meta Knight! Your okay!"
"Was there really any doubt" fake Knight replied with his usual voice of arrogance.
"I mean who knows, if the real thing can get possessed then who knows."
"Oh my Void Marx-" The faker knight was about to yell at him when Adeleine spoke up.

"Marx....where's the Star Rod?!"

Chapter Text

PYRRHIC VICTORY
The first boss fight
And finally
Kirby

Latan 'Gantakai issued his orders with a panic fervor, the last 2 artifacts had been, exceptional.
That 'Dream Maker' as the luminary had identified it and the broken painting which was simply described as 'Savior'.
If either were true, then it could potentially change everything.
This, along with all the other artifacts they had collected, made Latan feel it was worth it to retreat and return to high charity.
This battle was lost anyway, so he hoped the High Prophets could forgive him for his failure to succeed.

The ship rocked as another blast hit it, that masked ship, getting away from it was proving difficult.
What remained of the fleet couldn't help either as they were busy dealing with the smaller ships.
And somehow, as if this planet was cursed, humans had arrived and seemingly joined forces with the inhabitants of this planet.
His ship, the Rapid Reverence, couldn't just slipspace away and come back later. He needed to leave NOW.

Then a minor miracle, the fleet carrier arrived.
Latan didn't care if it was a retreat of if it was cause they needed help, it proved a great distraction.

Latan ordered the Rapid Reverence pulled off just as the largest enemy ship took aim at the Carrier.
As the Rapid Reverence fled it received a communication from the Carrier, the Triumph and Transgression.

"Rapid Reverence! Where are you going!?!" Screamed the Fleetmaster.
"We have several important artifacts in storage, we can't allow any of it to be recovered or destroyed. Please give us cover and reteat if you can."

The fleetmaster audibly growled, "Fine! But you will be blamed for forcing our-"
Then an object moving far faster then their systems could track slammed full force into the carriers shields, breaking through like a plasma sword through flesh and punctured the ships hull.

The fleetmaster fell over from the sheer force of the impact, before stumbling to his feet.
"What was that!" He spoke to someone out of sight.
"Unknown- wait, fleet master! We've been boarded!"
"Then get rid of whatever dares to enter the Triumph and Transgression so easily!" The fleetmaster turned back to the screen, "Rapid Reverence you have your order's, get out of here! We will follow."
"Understood fleetmaster! Fight well."
The communications cut off, both subconsciously understanding they would never see eachother again.

X

The pink thing squashed any and all foes it came across, Elites, brutes, hunters, even the use of Covenant vehicles inside their own ship couldn't slow it down for more then a minute.

It jumped and rolled out of the way of plasma and grenade fire, all the while armed with the Covenant's own plasma guns.

It was approaching the command center...the fleetmaster would face it down with what little forces he still had.
He turned to the Covenant under his command.

"Elites! That pink thing comes. Today we shall show this misguided warrior just how powerful the Covenant are!"
The speech had it's in intended effect, with his elites roaring as if already assured of victory.
He knew better, this thing, whatever it was, would kill them.
They stood little chance, but they would fight, for the glory of Covenant!

X

These people were very mean. Like, they tried to hurt his friends and ruined his picnic. No one could hurt his friends and get away from it!
Though Kirby had to admit, these weapons were very cool, he even got a new ranger copy ability out of it!
Covenant Ranger
Shame that it belongs to these meanies, maybe after Kirby gets all these people to stop being mean they can trade some stiff with Susie, Kirby thinks she'll like that.
Looking down at his new pop-gun weapon which Kirby had dubbed the Nova Pistol, Kirby couldn't help but wonder what cool things Susie could make from all this.

More of those tall ones came in, flanked by the smaller ones.
Blue, red, white, in the highest numbers he had yet seen.
Kirby rolled out of the way of incoming energy fire as timed slowed, taking aim at the tall ones and charging it up, letting it rip as the huge star shaped energy shot ripped through the tall ones, their cool shields unable to stop it, as it's energy arched through the smaller ones.

Seeing some had themselves rolled or jumped out of the way Kirby summoned a arm-mounted shield thingy along with a new dubbed Nova Rifle and sprayed at the remaining foes as they sprayed back, with some arm-mounted shielded people walking forward.
Jumping back and chucking a Nova grenade at the advancing enemies, sticking one and causing the others to panic as they tried to runaway from the grenade.
The star-like explosion destroyed the remaining enemies despite their attempt to get away.

Running through the purple interiors and breaking through a locked door. Kirby came faced to faced with one of those tall ones, though this one had bright golden colors in comparison to the others.

"And so the warrior arrives, you have come far from your planet and so you deserve a worthy end. Yet the threat you pose, it's on the level of the cursed demons! You can't be allowed to leave alive, and so I! Fleet master Jeta 'Rerom, shall send give you the grandest end you could recive!"

...Sooooo Jeta wanted to fight? Alright Kirby was more then ready for that! Kirby moved to a fighting stance, ready for whatever Jeta could throw at him

The Fleet master pressed a button and sirens blared throughout the ship. "They ship will become your tome warrior, the explosion will rip you to atoms!"

Timed fight? That's bad! How will Jeta get out when this place is going to go boom!

Kirby didn't have time to finish that though as Jeta pulled out an energy sword that Kirby has seen some of the other tall ones use and stance up.

Covenant Fleetmaster
Jeta 'Rerom

Jeta charged the pink puffball, swinging his sword to try and cut Kirby in 2. It was easily dodged, and Kirby countered with a flurry of plazma fire.
Raised his sword to block the incoming plasma as he slowly became more transparent, till Kirby couldn't see him at all.
But it wasn't perfect, Kirby noticed Jeta hopping onto the holographic table before launching himself at Kirby.
Kirby charged and fired a low level charged shot from his Nova pistol, hitting Jeta directly in the chest, causing his shield to fizzle out but was not strong enough to stop the momentum of Jeta's attack.
Kirby elected to block the attack instead of dodging, so Kirby raise his little nubs as a white blinking energy along with his energy shield surrounded his body, the sword still stung, but this left Jeta open for Kirby to smack him in the face with his foot.

Kirby raised his Nova rifle but Jeta kicked the weapon away, then jumped away as he threw a grenade at Kirby.
Kirby responded by tossing his own Nova grenade, the 2 connecting in mid-air, sizzling for a second before exploding in a beautiful display of light.
Jeta jumped through the smoke, to late to realize that Kirby was charging his Nova pistol, so slow to interrupt Kirby as he reached max charge and let the weapon rip with a furious thunderclap!
Jeta tried to jump to the side but it was little to late as the Star shaped energy ripped right through the entire right half of Jeta's body, with the rest being fried from the the energy cascading into Jeta's body.
Death was instant.

...Kirby looked at the body, a poor taste growing in their mouth.
They-
They didn't like this, they didn't think he'd be so...frail.
He looked at the body, wondering when it was gonna poof or vanish into smoke like so many of the other enemies kirby has had to deal with.
But then again, the rest were just like him, he'd barely registered it before but no one else on this ship poofed or vanished after he best them.
Did-
Was he?
No
No no no no NO!
They had a solution they just um-
Ah
That might work
Kirby raised their arms into the air summoning the friend heart from another adventure.
Tossing it onto the body of Jeta, Kirby watched as the magical energy flowed into him.
Kirby could feel it, there was nothing there- but it wasn't the first time he'd felt that in one of his friends.
Kirby placed his hands on top of Jeta's body, wincing as the superheated flesh and armour came into contact with Kirby's skin.
They pushed their energy into Jeta as light filled the room.
Then as the light fell and Kirby looked at the body...nothing had changed.
So Kirby tried again, and again nothing came of it, and again, and again.
Kirby had all but forgotten about the ship about to explode, this was far more important.
Kirby refused to give up, he closed his eyes and grabbed at whatever he could. He found...something, something leaving quickly.
Tugging it back and having his energy envelope Jeta, Kirby refused to close his eyes as the light grew brighter and brighter till it threatened to blind Kirby.
Then it began to fade, Kirby looked over the body of Jeta once more...and sighed in relief was ragged and pained breaths came out.
Kirby reacted quickly, taking out a food capsule that contained a maximum tomato and basically shoving it down Jeta's throat.
Jeta couldn't help but stare in amazement as his burned and charred skin began to heal right before his eyes, his right arm and leg, which was completely vaporized by Kirby's max charge Nova shot, regrew in a matter of seconds.
What was pained and labored breathing turn into far less painful and much more normal breathing as Kirby stood over him, relieved that Jeta didn't meet a unfortunate end.

Unfortunately for Kirby that might still happen.
The ship shaked and began to rupture as the self destruct system finished it's thing, causing the ship to begin exploding and filling it with great purple flame, burning anything still alive on the ship to cinders before exposing it to the vacuum of space.

Kirby, with barely a couple seconds to think took off his helmet and shoved it on top of Jeta's own helmet.
Picking him up and summoning the warp star Kirby lached onto it as it rammed through the ships hull just before purple flame turned the room into ash.

As Kirby flew through spacs on the warp star, Jeta clinged onto the side, the helmet Kirby forced onto his head helping him breath in space.
All the while questions screamed through his mind.
Why did this warrior save him?
Did the ship with the artifacts make it?
How did this planet produce such a warrior?
Why-
Why did things seem so clear?

X

After Kirby's victory over the Fleet master the rest were comparatively easy pickings, their were still loose groups of Covenant on Popstar, but none could threaten it majorly.
They'd be rounded up in time and peace could return to the planet.
And so Meta Knight decided to contect everyone to check up on the damages.

"Halberd to all allied, come in allies."
"We're reading you Meta Knight" came Susie's voice quietly relieved at how the battle turned out.
"Your clear Halberd" the Road Not Taken's commander responded still on guard.
"We're heading you loud and clear Halberd" came Hannibal in disbelief at the seemingly few casualties for their side.
"All systems up and running Meta Knight" magolor said with a cheer at having won the battle.

"Report, what are our casualties."
"Road Not taken reports no casualties...at all" if Grover Riggs was on the otherside he sounded surprised in the most positive way possible.
"It's much the same on the Hannibel, no casualties."
"The Lor Starcutter was barely scratched by those Covenant idiots. Dispite their inadequacies this was-" Meta Knight tuned the rest of what magolor said out as it was clearly not important.
Susie's voice came next, "My ships are beaten and bruised but not broken. We've suffered a few casualties unfortunately and one of my ships had to flee entirely. They were going to get reinforcements but it seems that wasn't needed."

Meta Knight mused about the information, all in all a resounding success he would say.
"So a total victory then."
"Not likely Meta Knight" Magolor said, "one of the shops got away, and seeing that it was the one that went towards the planet it likely took more then a few artifacts from Popstar."
The tone was almost accusatory.
"Then we must get ready to take after them, a meeting will likely be called to decide what to do and we can discuss it there."
"Not to chime in on your business but we should leave." Road Not Taken had stated, " the U.N.S.C must know of this for future endeavors."
Ah so they were leaving already.
Good, the sooner this U.N.S.C knows the better this will go.
"Then go Road not taken and hannibel, no one will move to stop you."
"Have a safe trip, I'd not want to fine the carcasses of your ships" Magolor cheekily said.

And so the group split, the Road Not Taken and Hannibal flying back through the portal as the Halberd and Lor Starcutter set down on Popstar, Susie's fleet remained in space as she would have to inform her reinforcements of the situation.

Chapter Text

MEETING OF THE ALLIES

Clean up took only a couple of hours, while the remaining Covenant force had generals and leader they were all to spread out and had little knowledge of the area to effectively regroup.
Once the Halberd appeared in the skies of Popstar once more it was effectively over for what remained.
Prisoners were taken, frankly to many as the grunts often surrendered barely a fight.
Same with the Jackals except they just didn't want to die.
The only ones they had few of were the Elites and the Brutes, most decided to go down fighting, which left only the cowards and opportunists of their like with few exceptions.

Now there was the question of what to do, Meta Knight, Susie, Magolor, King Dedede, immediately got a meeting together.
Since Castle Dedede was partial recked and The Halberd along with Susie's ships needed to refuel, it was decided that the meeting would be held in Jambandra Base.
After the Void Termina incident the Jambandra Base had been expanded, allowing for the refueling/repairing of ships and living quarters for the Star Allies or any Dreamlanders that need to be evacuated incase of emergency.
The Star Allies gathered in a small conference room that had also been built here, all in attendance, unusual given most are often doing important things or really didn't care for these conferences. But then again, the events of the last 24 hours were rather important.

X

"We must take action! These people dared to not just invade Popstar, but also steal so many ancient artifacts from the land!" Dmk roared, swinging his hand wide to drive the point forward.
"We know nothing about about these p-" Dedede tried to say before being cut off.
"I agree with Dark Meta Knight, but for different reasons." Susie noted bringing out a small projector, which began to show pictures.
"From what very brief information I have gotten, this Covenant is a very hostile and incredibly evil religious coalition of alien beings who, when not targeting the humans of their dimension in order to commit genocide against them, are subjugating any other race they meet."

Several gasps and angry noises came from the room before-
"Jamblasted!" Came a voice from the doorway, as Hyness, the 3 Mage Sisters, and their chief Jamerjab walked in.
Magolor gave Marx a pleading look, that Marx ignored, "Well what took you 5 so long? Needed to grip over the fact that another religious group is causing trouble again?" Marx laughed before, Zan Par sent a lighting bolt just above his head, shutting him up.
"Listen here you winged purple konjy! This place is large and required maintenance from the battle, not that you would understand what it takes to run a superstructure like this."

"Enough!" "Poyo!" "Focus please!" Came from the mouths of Meta Knight, Kirby, and Adeleine.
"We have enough to deal with without people trying to kill Marx, this meeting is to decide what action the Star Allies will take against the Covenant," Adeleine pointed out.
"Is it not obvious? We fight them, we win, and take our stuff back" Dmk retaliated.
"Yes I know, but just because these people are monster's shouldn't mean that we should do the same to them" Adeleine explained.
"Not friends become friends?" Gooey asked.
"Maybe...but I think Kirby has already made effort on that front, right Kirby?"
"Poyo!" Kirby jumped up excitedly

"Well before this goes further, Hyness glad you could house this meeting after the attack on your Jambanda Base"
"Jes jes bonjam everyone, thank you all for attending." Hyness took a deep breath, before continuing, "This meeting begins now, the first question and the one that does not need answering, will the Star Allies take action?"
A hollering of yeses (+1 Poyo ) Came from the group.
"Then we must ask, what shall be done to prisoners of war?"
Susie perked up and spoke, "We might be able to handle that, you see at-" but was interrupted by Meta Knight, "drop the sales pitch and explain."
"Very well, our prisons, while limited can hold people in relative comfort. We used to have more but after the Haltmann Works invasion I thought they weren't needed"
"We're gonna need more then a few unfortunately, the old dungeons of sec- the Castle on radiant road should suffice for this," Taranza offered warily.
"You sure ab-"
"Yes" Taranza said with a hint of finality to his tone.
"Well then comes the other question of who shall take part," Hyness scanned the room, "I am not just talking about you, but of course the other friends and allies, like King Dedede's Waddle Dees?"
"Maybe we should bring simply to them? Spread the word and let those on Popstar decide if they wanna help, though given that until we get the Star Rod back people who were poofed won't come back, I worry about how many will do so." Darouch contemplated.

"Of course all of us will be helping in whatever way we could," Magolor said with a gesture to the room, "most will fight them, the rest could help heal and keep the humans safe, assuming we can help eachother."
"Then, finally, what happens after? When the genocidal religion that names itself the Covenant falls, what will be done to what's left. Any ideas," Hyness said with a bit of his old fervor for grand speeches coming through.
Meta Knight raised his hand, before Dedede attempted to shut it down with, "that doesn't make us their king or something."
"It's a good idea! I swear! Those, elites i believe they were called? They valued strength and honor while not holding it above tactics and smarts. If bested in a particular way they might follow me, and if I can do that I might be able to make the rest follow suit."
"If, cause you have no idea what the Covenant is like and we still don't have much on them, they might not be the dominant species of the Covenant!"
"Well does anyone else have any bright ideas?" Meta Knight exclaimed looking around the room.
No one spoke up.
"Exactly, till we know otherwise it's our best shot at getting them to stop."
"Poyooo?" Kirby looked at Meta Knight, almost as if judging him for past and current recklessness.
"I promise to treat these people well, they will be allowed to take life at their own pace and to make the right choices needed for change and growth. You all have my word."
Kirby seemed happy at that.

Hyness looked to the room judging everyone's faces, Dedede and Bandana Dee was unsure, the people who had done evil and seen Meta Knight try to thwart them seemed content, and Marx seemed to be internally laughing.
"Very well then, it is time to put it to a vote. Will Meta Knight, leader of the Meta-Knights and captain of the Halberd be allowed to become, effectively the king of the Covenant if such proves to be the best strategy?"

The number of yeses was smaller, but it still contained 1 Poyo.

"Then it is agreed, unless anyone else has something to add to this meeting, it is adjourned."
No one spoke.
"Then it is over, go home everyone, and get some rest. We're all gonna need it for the coming days, Jaitty."

X

"You seemed quite professional during the meeting," Ribbon spoke, "did um- the Invasion rattle you? I- um, it rattled me to so if there's-"
"That's... not the problem," Adeleine said, as she attempted to find words that would fit what she's feeling.
"Well, you don't have to tell me, whenever you're ready you can open up to me"
"Thanks it's just- those people, whenever they saw me they gunned for me in an attempt to kill me. I- I know that humans have, at least at large never treated outsiders well..." Adeleine loses her motivation to speak, and so Ribbon does for her.
"You worry that humanity has done something to them and you don't want to fight your own kind? Or perhaps more accurate you blame yourself for any wrong they've done without knowing they'veeven done it?"
"Yeah? How did-"
"Whenever i visit i spend most of my day around Kirby and Dedede, I learned to read people now after so long of that."

Ribbon thinks for a minute, of the best way to comfort her old friend.
"Even if they have, which I doubt, you are not them. You have never been them and you'll never be them, your Adeleine to everyone, not some human."
"And what makes you so sure?"
"I don't think, no matter what humanity has done, that the correct response would be Genocide."
Ribbon shivered at that, the news shook her to her core, she couldn't find the effort to speak during the meeting.
"Everything will be okay, we have Kirby after all?"
"But now? With the Star Rod gone, any being created from it won't come back after they 'poof' that's worring."
"Well-"
Before the 2 could continue further, they were both consumed by a big hug and a familiar laugh has heard.

"Whatcha 2 talking about? You both know that this isn't the first time Kirba has had to track down the old Star Rod!"
"King Dedede/Tripple Dee!" Came the 2 prisoners of Dedede's hug.
"Besides," Dedede set them down, "Kirba has me? How could he possibly lose! Hahahah."
"How long have you been there?!" Said Adeleine with an eyebrow raise.
"Oh I heard you 2 being worrywarts and of course the great king of Dreamland had to change that! Also Gooey'a here."
"Helo Ribbon, helo Addy."
"Well thank you Tripple Dee"
"No problem Ripps, also I need you for something too."
"Oh? Need another painting made?"
"No no no, I'm thinking of making something that I'll need your help for, buuuuuttt it's supposed to be a secret. Can I promise you to keep it secret from even Kirba? I'll pay you whateva you want!"
"Hmmm what am I being payed in?"
"I'll make you cakes wheneva you want do we have a deal?"
"I'll have to hear more, but we can talk on way."

The 2 walked ahead of the group, while Ribbon and Gooey, stayed a little bit behind them.
"His majesty heard everything and wanted to cheer Adeleine up, didn't he?" Ribbon said to Gooey.
"Wanted to cheer up Ribbon too! Ribbon good friend, make Addy happy.'
"Just doing my job as a friend.
"Thanks for good job."
"Yeah no problem."

X

"So who's getting what of the scraps the Covenant ships became, some are in pretty decent shape after all," Magolor pointed out.
"No offense to you Meta Knight-"
"I'll reserve my judgment for now"
"-But I think it would be wise if I got the most of it, I am the only one of us who can really scan and recreate what the Covenant have on a large scale. Even if you 2 could somehow do it faster or better then the Haltmann Works."
"And why should I trust you with that t-"
"Because she isn't mechanizing anyone anymore you metal idiot," came the growly voice of DMK.
Susie and Magolor reluctantly backed up as they saw Meta Knight's eyes turn a bright red.
"I. Know. That," Meta Knight growled, "that does not change what she has and can do."
"You once tried to take over Dreamland/ Popstar, whichever it was, because of it's 'lazy lifestyle'." Dmk pointed out with air quotations.
"Okay okay enough you 2!" Magolor said with increasing distress, "we don't need you 2 fighting when we're about to go to war. Besides I have an idea."
"Speak." The irritation Meta Knight gave off was palpable.
"Why don't we all work together? We're the Star Allies! We're kinda supposed to do thaaaat."
"....Fine"

Meta Knigt stormed away as the 3 watched him.
"Tch, my copy got a title of strongest warrior in the galaxy and refuses to act like it," DMK, turns to Susie, "I get that he doesn't like you, for good reason I might add, but he shouldn't make things more difficult for the rest of us that reckless nimrod."
"Hay it'd not his fault, from- from what I've heard he's seem to have gotten worst after...I don't believe I need to say what i did to him."
Magolor gave Susie a pat on the shoulder, "Hay take it from me, it means the world that your trying to change, to make things right. You may never be forgiven, and to be fair I don't think you should. But in helping others your making up for the wrongs you did, even if you can't fix them completely."
Susie sighs, "thank you."
"Are you 2 done? I'm going to vomit on my mask."
We were having a tender moment!"
"And it was making me sick."
"Dark Meta Knight!"
As the 2 bickered and smacked talked eachother Susie can't help but let a small smile drift to her face.
"Alright time to work, the war won't wait for you 2 to stop bickering. We still need to salvage and examine the Covenant equipment after all."
"Got it Susie/Yes Ma'am."

Chapter Text

PREPARING

A couple days have passed and the world of Popstar is preparing for war.
The Halberd are flushed with people in wanting to help, the Haltmann Works ships that had set down didn't have enough equipment to equip them all.

Susie had to bring in more ships and even some Haltmann space stations to study the debris left by the Covenant.

And of course Castle Dedede (after being repaired) was full of Waddle Dees, Waddle Doos, and all manner of creatures wanting to find some way to help.

Let's get a good look on what's going on.

X

Dedede maneuvered around the many guests as he escorted Adeleine through Castle Dee, he would personally speak to each and every guest but unfortunately he had big plans.
"So where am I helping to paint this 'special project' of yours."
"Not where you think you are kiddo."
"Ominous."
"Oh you have no idea."
The king leads Adeleine to a room behind a grandfather clock with an elevator.
"What's this? A secret entrance to a secret evil lair?" Adeleine joked as the 2 entered and Dedede pressed the Down button.
"Kid give the king some class, evil is not I'm my dictionary anymore."
"Yeah yeah big guy, this just better not be some Kirby clobb-"

Her voice catches in her throat as the elevator descends into a huge underground section of mount Dedede, it honestly looks like the entire mountain has been hollowed out but that can't be.
It's not like this is new either, there's generators and barracks down here and so many support beams keeping everything together.
"How- when- why- when did this happen!?!"
"Shortly after the whole thing with Star Dream and Popstar being mechanized. Sense Castle Dedede was so easily destroyed I thought to build some stuff underground so people could still have someplace to evacuate too if that happens, and to be fair it's been expanded quite a lot over the years."
"Well- any guesses I had have flown out the window."
Dedede's laugh echoed throughout the hollowed mountain.
Once the elevator touched down Dedede brought her to a very colorful area, she even saw some...Waddle Dees made of clay?
The king opened a door, "Here's the people who are going to be helping with the thing i have an mind," and showed her inside.

Inside was a floating painter, Vividria, with dress and has coarse hair that forms a paintbrush still recognizable. It was the other person she saw. A person(what she assumed was a girl) with a magenta beret, cyan hair that covers her eyes, and magenta earrings. She has a pale face with blush and rather tiny mouth. Around her neck she wore a giant lilac scarf with magenta lines at the tips. Her body is dressed in a purple coat covered in magenta dots.
She was made of clay just like the Waddle Dees she had seen before.
Honestly she looked like someone Adeleine would love to paint.
"Ah my old Partner Adeleine! Welcome."
"Oh- Hello there, are you the person the kindly king said would be helping us with his secret project."
"Oh um yes but-?"
Something flew infront of her, a...paintbrush?
"Your Adeleine right! I've heard so much about you and now I'm going to be working with you! Awesome!!!"
"Wait a minute! Your Elline aren't you?!" Adeleine turned to the clay person, "And that make you Claycia."
"Ooooo she already knows about us! I'm so excited!"
Claycia chuckled at Elline's antics, "settle down Elline. Yes we are how you think we are."
"Yeah Bandana Dee said alot of you 2, i must thank you Elline for helping Kirby."
"Think nothing of it."
"Well before you go off talking to eachother about your adventures, there's 1 more thing I want to give you Adeleine before we start." Dedede said making his presence known, and held out a brief case for Adeleine.
"Go ahead and open it kid."
With 2 clicks she did just that, and inside was a beautiful looking paint brush.

It's end was a rainbow of colors and it's handle was a pattern she had never seen before.
"Where did you get this?"
"I'll be the first to admit, I don't know. I just, found it in my castle and thought that if anyone could use it, it'd be you."
Adeleine didn't really know how to respond to the kind gesture, but, she accepted it all the same.
She reached out and grabbed the handle of the paintbrush, she swore she saw it glow for a moment. It fit perfectly in her hand, as if Adeleine was always ment to have it.
"Well then, what's our job?"
King Dedede had the biggest of grins, "have any of you ever made a space ship before?"

X

"Sheesh, that one got recked." Sailor Dee said as a decimated Heavy Lobster with a hole in it's face was brought through the holding area.
"This is gonna take a annoying long while to fix ain't it?" Spoke the Axe wielding Axe Knight.
"Not if we do it well, though, where are it's claws?" Sailor scanned the area seeing if the claws were being brought on a separate platform.
"Did we not recover it's claws?" Asked Sailor Dee to a nearby Bukiset.
"We looked sir, but we couldn't find a trace of them, un, I think the Covenant or whatever their called took them."
"What do you mean they took the claws! What use would they- apologize I'm stressed and angry, please continue on your way."
The Bukiset nodded and ran off to do other things.

"Greeeeat, we've got more work to do." Axe complained as he looked at the broken Heavy Lobster...then slowly and stealthily began moving away in the hopes Sailor Dee wouldn't hear him.
"It'll be quicker then you think, also don't try it, I can hear you attempting to make a run for it and leave me with all the work."
"Curses"
"Well maybe I should throw you overboard then Axe Knight?" In walked Meta Knight, his eyes a fierce red.
Sir!" Both Sailor Dee and Axe Knight jump back in surprise both at Meta Knight's sudden appearance and his harsh tone.
"I um, haven't done anything wrong sir!"
"Is something wrong sir?" Sailor Dee inquired.
"I'm am fine!"
"Yeah no."

Sailor Dee grabs Meta Knight by the shoulder guard and brings him aside and out of the way.
"What are you-"
"What's wrong sir, i- I haven't seen you like this since you tried to take over Dreamland-"
"Do not speak of that!"
"Sir you-"
"I will not-"
Meta Knight is interrupted as Sailor Dee grabs his mask and throws it aside.

"Look at me, you are okay, no metal or wire inside of you. You do not need to be the 'Strongest warrior in the Galaxy', you can be Meta Knight, beloved leader of the Meta-Knight's."
"I do not require reminding of my position, and you should not over step yours."
"I was recruited to help and keep you humble, I am doing my exact position."
Meta Knight grumbles in agreement.
"Listen, it is not mearly you that makes you strong, it's your friends and leadership skills that make you powerful. I have seen it again and again, so why don't you?"

Meta Knight is silent, and after several moments walks over to his mask and puts it back on.
"You are dismissed Sailor, go back to your business."
"Sir?"
Meta Knight walks away, leaving Sailor alone.

X

Susie moves through the space station that was brought in to study and hopefully remake the Covenant tech. One of her co-workers, Lucinda, brought it in hoping it would be of some use.

"How close are we to reflecting the Covenant tech, their shields would be quite beneficial as they do seem to be better then ours." Susie says as she looks at the internals of some Covenant weapons.
"Ehhh, I don't know. This stuff is very advanced but it looks...what I could only describe as cobbled together. Outwardly it doesn't look that way but internally? That's a different story, as if the Covenant reversed engineered this but didn't know how to most effectively use it."
Lucinda fiddled with some Covenant device as she talked, getting annoyed at how little progress she was making.

"How likely is it that the Covenant have reversed engineered their tech then?"
"I personally can't see it, this is just to advanced to be something they somehow gained through the usual means one acquires foreign equipment. And even if it's true it's not like it tells us anything."
"Fair fair, just keep working. I know the engineer core you manage can figure it out I'm sure."
"Thank you ma'am, we'll be sure to do our best and make you proud."
"I'm sure you will, speaking of, I'll be forced to return to the company. Need to organize a proper response to the Covenant, might hire some mercs, maybe I can get that famous Galactic Federation bounty hunter?"
"Hah! As if the Haltmann Works could afford her price at this point."
"You never know, besides I smell that there's money to be made soon."
"Well good luck then ma'am, see you soon."
"Good bye Lucinda."

X

UNSC Road Not Taken and Hannibal had arrived in UNSC space, being met by a fleet that was just about to go out and find the 2 with the help of a repaired and refueled Concorde.
Unfortunately there was no time for celebrating as they needed to inform high command of what had happened, not just the first contact, but that the battle had gone so well.

And so time passed and they were finally able to get information to the security council, with pictures and videos of the space battle over the Star shaped planet of Popstar.
Fleet Admiral Lord Terrence Hood spoke first on the matter, "we have some potential new allies here, and it might be at just the right time."
Admiral Margaret Parangosky of ONI, aka the Office of Navel intelligence, spoke next. "Certainly, but I'm more interested in their technology, look!"
They watch as the Halberd does a barrel roll and defects some Covenant fire away from it.
"That just shouldn't be possible with our understanding of science, I almost want to dismiss this as fake if the AI didn't have good records of it. Imagine what we could do if we had that."
"Maybe they'll be welcome to share it?" Piped up the Commander-in-chief of the Marines.
"Unlikey, we'll probably need to steal it from them, which I'm sure our specialists can do with ease right Musa Ghanem?"
"We'll need more information on what exactly that can do, but it is always a possibility," claimed Musa Ghanem the Commander-in-Chief of the Spartans.
"Anything to make our spaceships be able to do that," spoke the Commander-in-Chief of the air force.
"So it's unanimous then? That we get them to help us?" Said Margaret with a slight devious smile.
"We have to, with their assistance Operation Red Flag will be far more likely to succeed."
"Agreed," spoke the rest.
Now they just needed to convince those on Popstar to help, they didn't know how easy it would be.

Chapter Text

HALTMANN WORKS COMPANY

Susie teleported on-board the station orbiting the current head institution of the Haltmann Works Company.
Her work station was just as she left it, good, she didn't need a repeat of the last time she left for an extended period of time.
Sitting down at her nice wooden desk she opened up the computer for she had a lot of things to put in place.
Weapons and ship manufacturering, making more Robobot armours, and so much more that Susie was beginning to have a headache from it.
Well this was what she did best.
There was also the matter of armed forces.
The Covenant had a massive amount of systems under their control, holding any of it with what the Haltmann Works had would be impossible.
Thankfully she wouldn't be working alone, the U.N.S.C is would likely be more then happy to resettle or colonize both planets taken by the Covenant and those originally belonging to the Covenant.
They are certainly filled with refugees from the glassed planets that the U.N.S.C used to have.
And while she would be more then happy to relocate some of those refugees to their dimension (if they happen to work for her then what a great coincidence) it is safe to say they would likely want to stay in their own if it is possible.
She dearly hoped there's a way to salvage the glassed worlds cause the Haltmann Works doesn't have anyway to do that.
No one had even considered it! Who would be stupid enough to destroy an entire world instead of making use of it? It is an absurd notion at the best of times, and yet the Covenant were doing it off some religious nonsense.
She really hoped she wouldn't have to fight another god.
.
.
.
She was getting sidetracked.
Focus Susie focus.
How to bring in additional forces to combat the Covenant?
The easiest and riskiest answer would be mercenaries, they were already armed and could likely be outfitted with better equipment if needed with the only obvious problem being money which was a non-issue for the Company.
The actual risk is that most mercenaries aren't the most disciplined, being little more then bandits one could hire and for a delicate operation such as this?
That risk was unacceptable.
So mercenaries are out of the question, what next?
Robots come to mind, they could fit any role required and could be made as fast as the factories could produce.
The main problem is that the more specialized or powerful the robot was the more expensive they became in both materials and money, high quality bots are almost always very pricey and she wouldn't settle for less then top of the line.
So put robots on hold for now, at least till she can get a few more factories up and running.
Getting forces from other powers in the Gamble galaxy would be impossible as most despised Haltmann Works for the mechization projects.
Sure she had been working to reverse that negative PR but it was still to soon.
There was also the option of getting people from the U.N.S.C, but she would need Haltmann Works to look good so that could happen, and that wouldn't be immediate.

Susie racked her brain for ideas, she need cheep manpower that could do it's job yet not upset the local population.
Wait
Susie began typing on the keyboard of her computer feeling really stupid right now.
How could she forget, sure the Haltmann Works hadn't used it much in recent months but it could easily work.
Cloning.
They weren't sentient, only smart enough to do simple commands, mainly all forms of violence.
They were easy to distinguish from real people since they were all colored purple, but the main thing was that they kept most of the strength of those that were cloned.
...she should still have Dedede's biological signature right?
She'd need to ask the king for permission, but still it was likely the best option here.
With a direction chosen now all she needed to do was make some calls and set up some meetings.
"Oh how exciting," she thought dryly.

X

TARANZA AND THE THIEF

Royal Road was quite the desolate place at the best of times.
After Sectonia, queen of Floaralia, went mad due to the that blasted mirror she constructed the Royal Road for her and her most loyal subjects.
But after Kirby put her to rest it was quickly abandoned and left to rot with most of it's gems being looted by thieves (Aka the Squeaks).
However with in recent days it had seen quite a lot more activity and rebuilding, Taranza was hoping that it could serve as home to the human refugees.
He doubt he could support all of them, but would knew that he wouldn't be alone in the endeavor at least.
Fine Fields was thankfully quite bountiful, the refugees Floralia did take could be easily supplied with plenty of left over for the war.

His current worry was the aptly named glassed worlds that the Covenant created in their path of destruction.
All life, all plants and animals and everything that makes an ecosystem just....gone.
Magolor had claimed more then once that Taranza was good with planet based magics, and while that was debatablable, this? Helping a planet heal would take a *very* long time.
He had asked the people of Floralia to donate whatever plants they could to the cause, thankfully it seem the animosity they had for him was eclipsed by the desire to help the humans.
He had so many plants of many different types.
Taranza could only hope it would be adequate to help the humans.

....why was could he feel a presence next to him?
"Hay buddy whatcha-"
"AAHHHHH!"
After calming down from his impromptu heart attack and recognizing the person laughing at him, Taranza decided to address the subject of earlier thought instead of shooing him away.
"Oh hello there Daroach," Taranza said through gritted teath, "is the rest of your squad here?"
"Of course! Their down the street getting a nice cup of coffee while we do business," Daroach tugged on his cape with a beaming smile.
"Excellent, I don't have to be worried about being scared half to death again!" Taranza huffed as Daroach chuckled.
"What, I must wonder, have you called me to this fabulous abode?"
"I'll keep this to the point, the Covenant stole some important items and we need them back."
"Indeed, I assume you want me to do so?"
"Yes, I've already cleared this with Meta Knight and King Dedede, which means all I need is you to agree."
Daroach scratched his chin in thought.
"They did steal some Sunstones right?"
"Of course that's the first thing you think about."
"I jest I jest! I'll do it friend"
"And here I though I'd have to haggle with you," Taranza swiped some sweat from his head.
"No no, no haggling here. Also while we're here wanna go to the cafe with me? You look like you need a drink."
"A drink would be nice yes."

X

TALK ON GODS

"So found anything on these Forrunners?" asked Francisca as she flipped through old ancient books on gods and faith.
"Only that there's nothing in this one," Flamberge closed her book using all her mental strength to not burn it to ash.
"There must be something here, the ancients regularly traveled dimensions right Hyness?" Zan Partizanne asked as she placed her book down on the considerable and still growing pile of books.
"Jes and vun often, they did document the different gods they met"
"Well then," Flamberge began as she sat down to take a small break, "wouldn't you know of them Hyness?"
Hyness closed the book he was reading to face her, "it has been a vun time since I was an ancient, is it hard to believe that i...you know."
The silence in the room was almost audible, after all that had happened and the Void Termina stuff no one liked bringing up Hyness's memory.

Finally Francisca spoke up.
"I- I just mapop we don't have to fight another god, that these Forrunners can be reasoned with."
Flamberge attempted to comfort Francisca. "Oh you don't have to worry Franny! We beat Void Termina, I'm sure we can threaten them into stopping whatever evil their doing. Besides I doubt these Forrunners are great powers of the universe, probably just some new arrogant gods who need to be humbled."
"Even still," Zan Partizanne spoke next, "we should Mapop anyway, not just to stop the gods, but to also stop their followers."
Hyness nodded approvingly, "wise words Zan Partizanne."
He would never admit how hard saying her name was now, but she deserved to be addressed in such a way.

Flamberge waved her hands less as a meaningful gesture and more out of boredom, "well then oh great a wise mage sister Zan Partizanne. Since your clearly the smartest person here can we take a break? Feels like we've been doing this for hours."
Zan Partizanne gives Hyness a questioning look, and he nods his head.
"Fine, you both have things you wanna do anyway."
"Yes! Come on Franny!" Flamberge shot through the open door, Francisca following closely behind who said, "Hay don't be konjy and leave me behind!"

Hyness chuckled and turned back to his book, then realized a certain someone had not left.
"Well Zan Partizanne, do you have questions or otherwise just need me?"
"To be blunt sir, I'm worried about you."
Hyness couldn't help but turn his head in confusion.
"Juh? While I jamanke for your concerns last time I checked I doubt I'll be fighting on the frontlines."
"That's not what worries me sir."
Zan Partizanne looked away, as if trying to gather her thoughts into words.
"God's, fanatic worshippers of said gods. You get the general idea right?"
Hyness sighed, while he would never do the things he used to that doesn't mean that the trauma of being manipulated and literally treated as weapons was gone.
"I must admit i don't know what to tell you Zan Partizanne, what worries you I have no answer too."
"Then- Then perhaps a break would do you some good? To deal with my fears."
Hyness looked over his shoulder.
"Then why are you still here?"
"Maybe it would do you some good too."
"... is this your way of asking me out?"

"Hyness, with all due respect, Janno."
While Hyness did feel a little hurt at the insinuation, he knew that it was completely justified.
"Japologa," Hyness spoke with a spft voice, "but you are right it would be good for my health to take a break."
Hyness sets his book down and turns to Zan Partizanne.
"Well then, lead the way."
"Me?"
"Well your the one who has decided to pull me away from my work sooooo."
Zan can't help but chuckle, "alright then, hope you don't regret giving me that permission."
"Oh I definitely won't."
And even if he did, he probably deserved it.