The ship was in slip-space, Six and his AI were heading to the edge of the system to potentially destroy the Phantom fleet. Six sat in the c[i]o[/i]ckpit, looking out into the slipspace stream. His AI spoke up. “We’ll be there in one minute and thirty seconds.” “Okay, good. *sigh* How many ships are in that fleet, again?” “About 10.” “10? The fleet that destroyed the other offtopic was 500 times that size.” “Yes, it was..... Coming out of slipspace.” Six flipped a switch and the ship went invisible. Words flickered on the control panel. [i]Active camouflage: online. Weapons systems: online. Void reactor: stable.[/i] Six looked up, and saw the fleet. It consisted of 9 spherical ships, surrounded by 30 autonomous tetrahedral ships. There was another spherical ship, but it was twice as big as the others. It also had a tall watchtower-like structure, most likely the bridge. “Something’s wrong. The fleet should be bigger.” “Maybe they suffered heavy casualties?” “Maybe.... Get the reactor ready.” He brought the ship to a halt, 30 kilometers away from the edge of the fleet. “Keep an eye on the fleet for me, also.” Six left the c[i]o[/i]ckpit, walked over to the reactor. He pressed a few buttons on a small panel, and the reactor came to life. Black void energy could be seen swirling around inside the pillar-like machine. Six walked to the glass case containing the crystal, and opened the container. He finally put a code into a panel on the wall. “Jess, you have flight and weapons control.” “Why?” She sounded confused. “This will bring the stealth drive offline. The fleet may see us, you’ll have to evade them.” “You fly the ship, I can take care of the reactor and crystal faster than you. And you can fly the ship better than me.” “Good point.” Six entered a code into the panel, and gave her access to the core. He ran to the c[i]o[/i]ckpit and sat down, he flipped a few switches and the engines spun to life. “Alright, begin the procedure.” The core began to hum, and the ship became visible to the Phantoms. The 30 autonomous tetrahedral ships Immediately turned in Six’s direction. “Ah shit.” [spoiler]Post theme #1: https://youtu.be/PUrsOQanozo[/spoiler] He activated the targeting systems, and a reticule appeared on the ship’s HUD. The Phantom squadron began firing on him, he preformed a barrel roll and destroyed 3 with the ship’s arc cannons. One of the ship’s exploded, also destroying the one next to it. Six looked back. His AI spoke. “Beam 15% ready.” Another ship fired a missile at Six, siva nanites quickly formed a barrier which blocked the missile. It exploded, sending out a shockwave which sent any small ships nearby tumbling, including Six’s. He regained control of the ship, and noticed that one of the smaller ships has collided with the large, spherical ship, leaving a hole in it’s hull. A phantom flew towards him, opening fire. He destroyed it, but it still landed a few hits. “Shields at 93%.” His AI said. “But the beam is at 33%.” He began flying the ship towards a group of 11 ships and, once in the middle of the group, pressed a button. The ship emitted a shockwave which destroyed the ships. 2 ships flew head-first towards him. He destroyed one, but the other didn’t stop, he rolled his ship to the left, and shot a few arc bolts at the ship, destroying it. “Beam at 50%.” The core began vibrating. Six could feel it from the c[i]o[/i]ckpit. He destroyed 6 more ships, and His AI spoke again. “Beam ready.” “Do it.” The core emitted a beam into the crytal, and the ships stopped moving. They were just drifting in space. “I think it’s working.” One by one, the ships started detonating. Except one- the largest spherical ship. “Dammit. Something’s preventing us from destabilizing the core.” “So, are you going to board it and destroy it, like last time?” “Yeah.” He got up from his seat and, again, equipped his propulsion device, and exited through the airlock. He moved through the graveyard of ships, and could see the bodies of Phantom pilots and soldiers. “Any life signs?” “No. All dead.” He approached the ship, and entered through the hole caused by the ship colliding with it. He put another bubble shield in the hole to prevent more air from being sucked out. This time, the hole led to what looked like a maintenance shaft. The shaft was much like a ventilation shaft, except it had ladders leading between floors. “Got the layout of this ship?” “Yes. Marking the core on your HUD.” After about 3 minutes of crawling through the shaft, Six could hear a conversation between 2 Phantoms. “Jess, can you translate?” “Yes.” [quote]The conversation went as follows: “Captain, the fleet has been destroyed.” “Destroyed? Explain.” “Laid waste. By a [i]single[/i] ship.” “*grunt of frustration* Any survivors?” “No, sir.” “Hmm. Can’t change what’s already happened. We continue our work here.” “Sir?” “You heard me.” “Yes sir.”[/quote] “So that’s their captain...” He continued to the core. “The core is on this floor.” Six scanned for heat signatures. There were 6 Phantom’s guarding the entrance to the room. And there were 3 Phantoms talking at the end of the hall. Six shrunk down and activated his active camouflage. He got close to the group, and quickly killed them all with his sword. He entered the room and closed the door behind him. He walked over to the access console. “Can you hack the core, and overload it?” “Yeah, yeah. Oh wait- no, I can’t. Can’t get past their security system.” Six’s machine gun turning into a grenade launcher. “Well, looks like I’ll just have to blow it up.” He fired 6 grenades into the core. “It’s working, the core is destabilizing.” He fired 24 more into the core, and it erupted into a series of flames and sparks. “Run! I’m bringing the ship!”[quote]Post theme #2: https://youtu.be/-7KMUgC-flo[/quote] He blasted the door open and ran through the corridors, toward the hangar. There were small explosions all around them. “We have 4 minutes before the ship detonates.” “That should be enough.” The hangar was on this floor, luckily. Six ran around a corner and beheaded two Phantoms. “The hangar should be 30 meters ahead. We have, uh, 3 minutes left!” Six entered the hangar, Phantoms were taking off in escape shuttles. His ship became visible and opened its airlock. As he was about to enter, a voice stopped him. He turned around, and there was a Phantom. “Yeah, I can talk english. But that’s beside the point, you destroyed my ship. So I challenge you to a duel!” He pulls out a staff. Six’s sword materialized into his hand. “Look, I don’t have time for this. It would be better for both of us if you just leave with your friends.” “No... The captain goes down with his ship.” Both tips of his spear lit up. A ball of arc energy appeared on each tip. “So be it.” Siva nanites pieced together to create another sword in Six’s other hand. “Let’s dance.” He sprinted towards Six and swung. Six ducked and elbowed him in the face, then proceeded to swing at his stomach. The phantom blocked, but was knocked back a distance. He grunted, and charged again, this time knocking Six to the ground. He attempted to stab six, but he shrunk down and appeared behind him. Six cut his achiles tendons, then stabbed him in the back of the head. “Some duel. I respect it, though.” “30 seconds left!” He boarded the ship, and flipped a few switches. The ship took off and entered slipspace. “That was close. Well, I think the Phantoms might be gone now. Still, something doesn’t feel right. There should have been at leat 500 times more than that.” “But, the the threat’s gone. That’s the main thing.” “True. Well, now we can go back to normal. Whatever that is.” See? Told you this one would be long lol Previous story: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/252606548/0/0