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The Defense of the Colonies by Just Another 8th Grader
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The Defense of the Colonies: Chapters 1 and 2
Date: 27 October 2005, 8:33 pm
Authors note, I don't own an XBOX, And though I have beaten HALO and played Halo2 it is rare that I do have the luck of playing either. So forgive me if I am wrong about a date or name of a vehicle/ Weapon. That and the fact that this is my second story.
1900 Hours, March 20th 2552 (Military Calendar)
Planet Athena, Olympian system
In the corporate district of New Crete, intersection of 45th avenue and Chromos St
Second lieutenant Michael "Red" Louis's gaze was fixed on the GPS display in front of him. He was in the second Warthog of a large convoy, which consisted of twenty hogs, eight scorpions, and an old "Schwarzkopf" battle tank. It was a sizable task force. Red stood up in the passengers seat and hand signaled to his men further back. His and five other warthogs turned down Gaea Rd. Michael spotted his target, the ten story Marriott Hotel, from which they would defend there assigned section of city. The lieutenant dismounted first and walked into the ritzy Hotel, flanked by his four sergeants Bob Finch, Nathan Shoemaker, Lauren Winters, and Alexander Melekin. Louis was an imposing figure, standing at six' two, he was armed to the teeth, he had a BR-55 slung under his right shoulder, a shotgun secured to his A-Frame suspender, and an SMG tucked in the back of his waistband. To supplement that he had Ammo for all these weapons, plus five frag grenades and a plasma pistol he had found.
"Alright Bob, and I want your squad in that low rise apartment on the corner, Laury, that office building on the opposite side of the block, and Nate, I want you across from Luary. Alex, I want you to man the Warthogs and fixed MGs. I'll keep my squad in this building, and tell Connors I want him on the roof with plenty of ammo and a spotter," he said pointing out the localations with his combination GPS/Aerial photo Device. "I'll set up my CP in the third floor conference room. You all know how to deploy your men, and you are all well trained, I will keep in contact, Oh, and send Doc Hardy in," He said dismissing his squad leaders. They filed out to their respective squads, and Corpsmen Jonathon Hardy came in a few seconds later.
"What is it Red?" he asked. In any other unit that would be considered gross insubordination, and Hardy would be arrested, But Louis preferred a more casual relation ship with his men.
"Doc, where do you want to put up the wounded?" Red asked his Friend.
"I would say over there," John motioned to the large open Lobby.
"Alright Doc, inform the sergeants," Red finished he then walked back out to the large tank idling in the street. Louis climbed on top and hit the top of the hatch twice, then the commander popped up.
"I want you over in that intersection!" Joe yelled over the roar of the old diesel engine, as he motioned to an inter section.
"Alright!" the Warrant officer responded retracting back into his Titanium Shell. The second lieui then organized his warthogs into defensive positions and put up concrete barricades. By the time Michael had finished, it had turned from dusk to night, and the triple moons shone brightly in the sky. He and his squad retreated to the safety of the large hotel, from which he had his men positioned on the 3rd, 5th and 8th floors.
"All right, lets call it a night, I want guards in rotations of three hours, and two men at a time. He commanded his men before he found a wonderful luxury, comfortable beds. He pulled out another gadget he used frequently, a digital device called an "E-Book". It was also a military version, it could hold text docs, MP7s, Jpegs, and stream video over a hard encrypted wireless net work. At the moment he had the complete works of Tom Clancy, he was halfway through "Debt Of Honor", along with a large collection of 20th and 21st century rock. As he fished around for it in his pocket a photo fell out, It was of him, Joyce Weber, Doc Hardy, and Amanda Smith. Red's mind scanned back to that not so far off day. It was last March, his graduation from the Annapolis Military academy on Earth, and Hardy had just Finished his residency at Colon Powel military hospital. Both there girl friends were there for the joyous occasion. Him and Doc knew each other since they attended High school in Columbus, Ohio on Earth. The last time Michael had seen his love was when he left on the UNSC Fletcher. The reason Michael was on this colony was to repel a covie invasion, what He didn't know, was why the covenant would bother invading when it would be easier to just glass the planet. As he thought about this he fell asleep in the comfortable hotel bed.
0000 hours.
Red was awakened Three hours later by a small electrical shock to his wrist.
"Sonuvabitch" he muttered. It was a wrist band with a small needle in it that would awaken him if he received any urgent radio calls. Mike keyed the headset in his ear.
"Louis here," he answered groggily.
"Sir, it's Connors, we have phantoms approaching from baring 255," The sniper called.
"Rog that, alert the men, and fire at will," Michael responded, more alert. Red quickly placed his helmet on his red hair, grabbed his gear and beat it to a firing position.
"Sir, they are landing a block over, I count three elites, five grunts and a pair of hunters, wait, another six jackals,"
"Roger that Connors, you get that guys?"
The four sergeants responded, and readied themselves for the onslaught. The platoon consisted of five four man squads, and they were about to encounter the spearhead of an alien invasion. As Michael armed the NVG mode on his visor he heard Connors fire five shots from his high powered sniper rifle, which was returned by a blast of bluish green plasma. The plasma looked odd through the light amplifying sensors, it was larger and its edges were less defined. Red tried to open the window, but found it sealed tight so he just busted it open and started to fire at the covenant troops. He brought up his scope and picked off three grunts, who were rounding a corner a few blocks away. Red then darted up a flight to join the majority of his squad on a large balcony. They were glee fully picking off jackals, whom were preoccupied with the warthogs leaving their heads exposed. Earlier that day they had moved up a Bazooka, and a chain gun, and the latter was decimating grunts and jackals. a pair of Hunters came charging across a street, One fired off a shot which exploded a warthog.
"Rodriguez, take out those hunters," Red commanded a PFC who was near the rocket launcher. The PFC dutifully picked up the large weapon, sighted and fired both barrels. The hunters spotted the rockets screeching towards them, and raised their shields in defense. The twin missiles deflected off the shields into the wall of an office building, but it allowed a Gauss cannon to rip through the legs of the beasts, then they were finished off. Red had no time to rest on this though, a bolt of intense plasma swooshed past a foot left of his ear, and impacted on the marble behind him. He looked back and found that half of Rodriguez's face was missing, and the other half was melting away. The doomed private fell to the ground screaming in agony, Michael couldn't help but feel sick, He dropped on all fours and spilled his lunch over the edge of the balcony. He wiped away the excess from his mouth and continued to fire, stuck with the horrible taste of warm vomit. He noticed a group of Jackals standing in a group with interlocking shields, not unlike a roman legion. Red armed a frag grenade and tossed it a few feet ahead of the group, the three second fuse was armed on contact, and then it bounced again and exploded mid flight. The bodies of the jackals were strewn across the road, some un-identifiable. The plasma was now dieing down, it seemed as though the Covie was falling back, or so they thought. No sooner then one marine start to cheer, a mammoth plasma beam cut through a neighboring building like a knife through butter.
"Trojan 1, this is Persian 1, you have a massive walking tank in bound on your position, coming from baring 270," a call came over the radio.
Chapter 2
0110 Hours
Red knew the thing was getting closer, the ground was starting to shake with every step it took. A piece of marble fell down from above and landed on Michaels helmet.
"Alright Alex, as soon as we have a visual, I want you to pop a smoke, and hide those wart hogs," Michael called to his sergeant.
"Roger that,"
"Falcon food, falcon food, this is Trojan one, I have a large walking armored vehicle approaching my position from baring 270, requesting fire mission, Over," Red called over the radio. Falcon food was the call sign for the UNSC Jessica Lynch, an aging destroyer in geo-synchronize orbit above the city. It had been attached to the defense force for the explicit purpose of supporting the troops with it's compliment of four old Mk-1 MAC turrets.
"Trojan one, Fire mission approved, locating target, out,"
Middle exosphere, Aboard the UNSC Jennifer Lynch CIC
On the bottom of the Lynch a large reflection telescope came to life. It began to point down on the city of New Crete.
"There it is sir," an ensign said, his display showing a large spider-like machine rampaging through the city.
"Roger Jacobs, lock in target speed and calculate solution," Captain Bartholomew Felts responded, he was the commander of the ship.
"Aye Aye cap'n, solution calculated and ready, transmitting to batteries alpha, Bravo, Charlie, and Delta," the Ensign answered as he dutifully typed at his console, The four twin turrets rotated into position.
"all batteries commence fire,"
"Aye, commencing fire," the eight guns unleashed eight 56mm high explosive shells, which spiraled into the atmosphere.
0117 hours.
The "Scarab" was now only half a click out. Red had already hidden his men inside, they had nothing that could deal with something that large. Just then the lieutenant heard an odd sound, like some one frying bacon. He chanced a peek outside just in time to see an octuplet of MAC rounds impact the mammoth tank. The rounds easily penetrated, aided by gravity, and detonated inside. The beast collapsed in between two sky scrapers, creating a million ton road block.
"Falcon food this is Trojan one, good shooting tex, rounds dead on. You just gave us one hell of a road block," Michael called into his radio
"Roger that Trojan one, happy to oblige, Falcon food over and out," Capitan felts responded. Red then gave the "all clear" signal to his men, and they returned to their vantage points.
"All Trojans, report in casualties,"
"Trojan 2, one casualty,"
"Trojan 3, no casualties,"
"Trojan 4, Sergeant Shoemaker is dead, and we have three other wounded,"
"Trojan mobile, two dead,"
"Roger that Trojan 4, Trojan mobile send a warthog to pick up the wounded," Red commanded
"Rog that Trojan 1," Red then bounded down three floors to alert Doc Hardy, taking them four at a time.
"Doc, we got three wounded inbound, be ready,"
"Alright Mike, thanks for the heads up," Hardy responded. As Red bounded back up the three stories he heard the Chain gun open up. As he got there he heard lance corporal Timothy Jackson cursing at the covenant, as they were climbing the burning hulk of the massive tank.
"You Sons-a-Bitches, what the holy hell will it take to stop you!?" the man rhetorically asked as he hammered away at the jackals scaling the wreck. Red dropped his Trusty BR-55, and picked up the rocket launcher, still laying by Rodriguez's now lifeless body. He loaded a two round canister and took aim at a mass of grunts trying o descend the wreck. HE fired both barrels with deadly effect, the rockets hit one grunt square in the head, then penetrated into a jackals shield. The energy detonated the warhead killing the jackal and a group of grunts it was using as a sort of "shield"
"Ah, god damn it, I'm hit!" Jackson said as he fell back from the gun, clutching his left arm.
"You can still walk marine, take this and go see Doc Hardy!" Red yelled as he hoisted the Marine up and handed him an SMG in a single motion. Red then took up the chain gun, and started to mow down countless grunts ascending the peak of the wreck. Then, there were no more, fodder stopped appearing over the wreck, and fire stopped suddenly.
"This is Trojan three, there pulling back,"
"Trojan two, same here,"
"Roger Trojans stay alert," Red cautioned as he returned in doors.
"Covenant zero, us one," Red though as he went to get some shut-eye, it would be different, because the second sun was just starting to peak above the horizon.
Defense of the colonies: Prologue
Date: 6 November 2005, 3:08 am
0700 Hours, May 14th 2552 (Military Calendar)
Fort George Robinson,
Restricted Planet name/ System
2nd Lieutenant Michael Louis walked briskly walked across the parade grounds to Barracks Five. He had just been transferred in from the Annapolis naval academy to fill a vacant command position in the newly formed 365th airborne Calvary Division, 4th battalion, Fox Company, 3rd platoon to be specific. He had received his orders from the CP, and was heading towards his new twenty-six man platoon, most of them fresh from boot camp. He reached a concrete building that read 5 on the side. He walked in and got his first look at the men he would command. Louis's presence went unnoticed, some men idly chatted, a lance corporal was cleaning his sniper rifle, and another five were playing Texas hold'em. Only one noticed his presence, a small female sergeant. She hopped of her bunk and straightened her back
"Officer on deck!" she yelled, snapping a salute towards Louis, the other men followed.
"At ease men," Louis answered, returning the salutes. A grizzled sergeant walked up and eyed him over,
"With all do respect sir, who the hell are you," he asked, his voice had a strange pitch to it.
"I, sergeant, am Lieutenant Michael Louis, your platoon leader, who are you?"
"Gunnery sergeant Jacob," he spit out a dip of tobacco "Ferdinand, and I've been in marines since 2445,"
"Alright, glad to be in your presence gunny," With that Michael walked down the rows of bunks and chose an open one between the female sergeant and the lance corporal with the rifle. He shoved his foot locker under the bottom bunk and sat down.
"Lauren Winters," the Teen said, extending her hand "and that's Patrick Connor," she said pointing to the sniper, who still hadn't taken his eyes off the S2 AM.
"Michael Louis, glad to meet you Lauren," Louis responded shaking her hand.
"When did you get here?" he asked
"A good twelve hours before you, where did you come from?"
"Straight from Annapolis, got my orders twelve hours after I got my silver bar," he said pointing to his insignia. "How'd you get to sergeant so fast, you can't be more than eighteen," he asked staring at the teen.
"Dropped out of high school with Connors, and after we got out of boot camp, they promoted me from private to buck sergeant, and him to lance corporal,"
"well if you don't mind sergeant, I didn't get much sleep in slip space or the pelican, I'm going to catch some shut-eye,"
Three weeks later
In the last few weeks Louis got to know his comrades as they learned to drive, and properly dismount a pelican. The twenty six men were all loaded into the back of a pelican speeding over a thick pine forest, heading towards a small clearing about a click ahead. It was their final exercise, where they, and the rest of Fox Company, would take on Bravo Company. All the men were armed with replicas of their normal weapons, only loaded with darts instead of bullets. The pilot throttled down the engines as they quickly approached the LZ, then pointed the thruster down, entering a hover. The men jumped the remaining five feet and set up a defensive perimeter around the clearing, Louis being the last off. Louis's pelican was followed by another three, ferrying the rest of the company in. As the last landed Captain Williams rushed out and signaled his four lieutenants over. He had a small aerial map of the target, a mock orbital gun generator facility.
"Alright men, this one isn't going to be easy," the Captain started. "I want platoon one and two here and here, providing covering fire for platoon three and four. Louis, I want you to use the woods to flank around to the back of the facility, Gomez I want you to flank to the side, and draw their fire," he said pointing to the map.
"Move out, bravo formation," he ordered. The four lieutenants scurried back to their men, explained and then the group set off. They marched routinely through the thick forest, until Sergeant Winters collapsed a red dart in her neck.
"Ambush!" Louis yelled diving to the ground. A swarm of red darts flew over, like a swarm of angry yellow jackets. Michael brought up his MA5B and scanned for targets. He spotted a man in a tree and fired a dart into his chest. Then he found another hiding behind a large Douglas Fir, fired and knocked him out.
"That's all of them," Connors yelled, peering down his scope.
"They might have radioed our position, double time it," Williams called over the radio. Louis ran to winter's limp body, threw her gun to Gunny Ferdinand, and hefted her lean 130 pound body over his shoulder. The hundred man group ran through the forest until they reached a huge clearing, in the center of which was a cluster of concrete buildings.
"All right, Louis and Gomez, it is now 1655 hours, we will open fire at 1710 hours, Louis and Gomez Attack at 1711 hours, and Louis, leave the casualty with us," Williams instructed, as he looked at his watch. The two second lieutenants ran to their men, updated the situation, and then started to sprint to their respective spots in the forest.
1705 Hours
"Connors, where do you think you can cover us best?" Louis asked, still panting from running two miles in ten minutes
"Uh, one of those trees, sir" he responded, equally as flustered from carrying the heavy S2 AM sniper rifle on his back.
"OK, make it happen, everyone else, I'll go first and throw a smoke grenade to cover you, when it pops I want the rest of you to follow. When we get their clear the bunkers, then finish off anyone else," the next five minutes felt like an eternity to Michael. His watch read 1710 hours,
"Go time," he muttered. He popped up and began to run across the field, about halfway he pulled the pin out of a cylindrical can and tossed it ahead of him. He reached the first building and stopped at the first wall, he peeked out and the compound was empty space a single sentry. The sentry dropped suddenly, with a dart in his neck, the work of Connors. Louis popped out and sprinted to the first pill box. He found two men in it firing at Gomez's platoon, he brought up his MA5B and fired two darts into each of them. He then continued to the second pill box, and threw in a flash bang, then popped into the door way and shot the two riflemen. His men had reached the compound now and were clearing buildings. Michael was clearing his fourth bunker when he felt his left arm go numb, a dart had grazed it. He turned around to find two of the enemy firing at him. He dove into the insta-crete bunker and stuck his gun around the corner, firing into the direction of the aggressors, his left arm completely limp. He dropped his rifle, prepped a flash grenade and tossed it outside, then waited. He heard a popping sound then popped out putting two darts in each of the stunned soldiers. Then privates Gonzalez and Jackson cleared the remaining two bunkers, effectively ending the resistance. All around his men Started yelling Clear!, stating that all enemies had been neutralized. The other men in the company had already cleared the field, bringing the wounded with them.
Captain Williams walked up with a grin on his face.
"Good job Louis, expertly accomplished," he exclaimed.
"Thank you Sir, any idea when I can use my arm again," Louis responded, gesturing to his motionless arm.
"Never, we'll have to cut it off," Williams responded with a chuckle.
"and the, um, KIA?" Louis asked referring to the people who had been darted.
"The antidote is in the "Generator" Gomez is getting it now," Williams answered referring to the large concrete building at the back of the enemy base. A minute later the man returned with a large wooden box. Over the next half an hour the antidote was distributed through out the "KIA".
June 7th
Michael "Red" Louis, stepped of the back of the pelican, and admired the cavernous hangar. It turned out that Gunnery Sergeant Ferdinand enlistment had ended, and he had already served the maximum for enlisted men, He would be on his way home. The short hop from planet to ship ended in Hangar 1A, on the Destroyer Fujikawa, named for the co-creator of the Shaw-Fujikawa trans-light drive. His unit was to help defend the inner colonies. Word was they were headed to the Olympian system of colonies to defend against any attacks.
the defense of the colonies: part 3
Date: 6 November 2005, 3:37 am
Authors note, as I earlier stated I don't get to play the game much and am not familiar with dates. I just got my hands on a copy of First strike, and now realize that the fall of reach, halo, and discovery of the earth by the covenan, and the chief destroying the unyielding hierophant all happened between August 30, and september13, thus march is way the heck off, so I changed the date of the combat to September 15th. I apologize for the inconsistency.
Chapter 3
0800 hours, September 15th (Military Calendar)
Planet Athena, Olympian system
Corporate District Marriott hotel, New Crete
Second Lieutenant Michael "Red" Louis was awakened by a strange noise outside his door.
"Damnit Mike, that's second time you've let your self fall asleep," He scolded himself. It was probably just a marine shuffling about, Red was wrong. A single Elite busted the door open and began to scan the room. Red fawned sleep and grabbed the plasma pistol by his bed in an instant, The Elite didn't buy it. The monstrous alien walked over and began to strangle the marine. Red pulled the trigger on the pistol and prayed he would have enough time for it to charge, luckily it did. Michael moved the now burning pistol into the Sangheili's gut, causing it's shield to spark, and fired, It blew the alien back a few paces and killed its shield. Red then rolled from on top of the bed, and grabbed the M-90 shotgun lying on the en table next to him. He flicked off the safety, jacked a round in the chamber and fired a shot into the Elite. Mike than got back on to his feet, walked over to the alien and fired another shot into it at point blank. Then another thought entered his mind, the wounded downstairs. He darted down the hall, then down a flight of stairs, it was as Michael feared. The lobby Aid station was over run with grunts, the Elite must have been their leader. One cried out, and began to fire at him. Red dove behind a sofa and waited for the first batch of needles to hit, he then popped up fired into a grunt and ran to front desk. From behind the heavy mahogany fix he pulled a frag grenade from his breast pocket, pulled the grenade and chucked it into the squad of grunts. The explosion through corpses in every direction, purple blood splashed every where and stained the ornate carpet. Red dared to poke his head up to survey the damage and found utter death. The grunts that hadn't been killed instantly lay on the ground suffocated from their pierced methane tanks.
"Did these bastards know how to duck and cover?" Michael said aloud as he rifled through the bodies, looking for survivors.
"Must have been conscripts," Doc Hardy answered rhetorical question,
"Jesus Doc, where were you?" Red asked his friend
"I went to take the Wounded for evac earlier, just got back, what happened here?"
"No clue, woke up being strangled by an elite, killed him, came down stairs and found this little party, and by the grace of god killed them. Was just going to call my patrols to see what the hell is going on,"
"All Trojans, this is Trojan one, report in," There was static.
"I repeat, all Trojans report in," again no answer.
"Damnit," Red said aloud. By now Michael 's squad was coming to see what the commotion was.
"Garnet, you and Doc are with me, the rest, hold down the fort," he said pointing to the first man he saw.
"Sir yes Sir," the private responded.
"doc, what did you see as you came in?"
"Nothing, I used the alleys getting back, came in the back door," Michael powered out of the building, wondering where the hell his men went, praying they weren't dead.
"I gotta stop falling asleep," he muttered as he ran across the street. Louis sprinted first to Sergeant Finch's building.
"Marine!" he yelled out side the door, waiting for a response, there was nothing. Red kicked in the door, shotgun at the ready, and stormed in, just like the urban combat drills. He ran up a flight of stairs to find the four men lying on the floor, and a single rock in the middle.
"Shit, Doc, Garnet, check for pulses," He commanded the men who had just made it to the top of the stairs. The two did as commanded
"Got one," Garnet yelled, as he gingerly grasped a fellow marine.
"Same here Red, I'd say they've been drugged" Hardy announced.
"Alright lets try and wake them up," Red commanded. First he pulled of his one of his leather glove, and smacked a marine across the face, to no avail. Suddenly Louis had an idea, he took off his message alert wrist band and put it on Sergeant Finch's wrist, then turned it on.
"Damn, what was that?" Finch asked, suddenly awake
"What the hell happened Bob?" Michael interrogated as he threw the band to Garnet.
"Can't say, some one threw a rock through the window, and it exploded into a ball of green gas, after a few seconds we were all down for the count," The Sergeant answered groggily.
"Great, Covie knock out gas," Michael muttered. He, Doc hardy, and Garnet spent the next half an hour going from post to post waking up Red's sleeping platoon. Then Louis got to Sergeant Winter's building, on the other side of the block. Michaels strolled in casually, no longer conscious of the prowling covenant. What he saw was horrific, there were four Marines lying on the floor, though Winters was missing. All had burn holes all over them, one was disemboweled, and another unrecognizable. Once again Red felt the uncontrollable urge to vomit, he did so on the corpse of PFC Frederic Ozakowa. As he wiped the excess form his mouthhe had been trained in CQC*, as a reflex he turned as he fell, rolled and came to a knee, shotgun ready.
"Get away you covenant Bastard!" Sergeant Lauren Winters screamed.
"Whoa Lauren it's me, Red," Michael cautioned, lowering his weapon.
"Oh Gawd, Sorry' she started, then collapsing to the floor.
"Jesus, Doc! Get your Ass in here!" The Doctor rushed in, and saw the carnage.
"Jesus H Christ," he muttered, Louis noticed he was twitching slightly.
"I know, Lauren just tried to attack me, but then collapsed,"
"Better get her back to the CP Red,"
"No arguments here," Red responded, as he hoisted his fallen comrade over his shoulder. The group double timed it back to the hotel, Red panting half the way from the extra hundred and thirty three pounds. The patrol of sorts made it back to the Hotel, just as the covenant decided to attack again. Red set her down on a cot and double timed it back to the second floor to grab all of his gear, and thirty seconds later he was on the balcony firing away at a pair of hunters.
"Connors, can you give me an idea of what we're dealing with?" Red called to his Sniper on the roof, who sniper was all to happy to hear from someone.
"Uh we have a large mass of troops coming from the west and, what the, a pelican from due north,"
"Roger Connors," Red responded as he shot a jackal in the head. A minute later he heard the pelican land on the roof.
"Who the hell could that be?" He muttered. After another few minutes he felt a hand on his shoulder.
"Lieutenant, I'm Sergeant Major Jones, the Colonel sent me to re-enforce your positions, I have an additional fifteen men with me," the man said as Louis turned to greet him.
"Roger sergeant, I want you to leave four of your men here, send one to that building, and take the rest to that office over there," he said pointing to the positions.
"Alright Sir," the sergeant yelled over the deafening fire. Michael was slightly relieved, he was running short on men. After a few seconds a pair of PFCs, a private and a lance corporal came through the door, one holding a long tube that resembled a potato gun he used to own.
"What is that private?" Red asked
"Air canister powered grenade launching unit," he answered.
"Right, well use it on them," he said pointing to the group of grunts still trying to climb the wreck of the scarab tank. Red watched as the marine pulled back a slide and inserted a frag grenade. He then pushed a button and the tube made a popping sound as it used air to propel a spherical explosive down range. It exploded on contact killing three jackals, Michael followed this by firing at a grunt, and missing. To correct this, he dropped to a knee, then zeroed in on the Grunt. He took a breath then fired, the 9.5mm bullet traveled slightly faster than the speed of sound, on a collision course with the mall fodder's brain. Red continued the process until the thirty one rounds left were expended, then he mechanically dropped the plastic clip, reached into his ammo pouch, grabbed another and inserted it into the rifle, and continued to fire. Soon the aliens were retreating as before.
"Check call, check call, this is minor one, we are happy to report that the covenant seems to be pulling back. We seem to be winning this one, we have only suffered a thousand casualties as of now, and inflicted roughly three thousand, minor one out," Colonel Stevens called over the radio.
1200 hours
aboard the battleship Cleansing Wind, flagship of the covenant fleet
"Sir reports from the planet are not good, we've lost thirty five hundred troops, while only taking one point six thousand of theirs, mostly civilians," Executive ship commander Relg Ortam read to his captain.
"This is futile, recall troops and prepare planet destroying procedures, The data is not that overwhelmingly important, alert the fleet and drop into lower orbit," Ship commander Sulgo Rulee answered
"Roger captain, powering up weapons, and alerting the fleet," the executive officer responded, questioning the Commanders sudden conservativeness.
1200 hours
Aboard UNSC Jessica Lynch
"Sir they're recalling their troops, looks as if we're winning," the ensign called cheerfully.
"Oh shit Sir, massive heat readings in the weapon bays of that big battle ship, Reactor usage increasing, orbit dropping, Oh Jesus H Christ, they're going to glass the planet,"
"Calm down Ensign," Captain Bartholomew Felts answered calmly.
"Engineering, increase to flank speed, make your course two-eight-zero, Gunnery, ready all Weapons, target is that battleship," he ordered coolly. All along the ships hull weapons came to life. Eight double barreled MAC turrets came to life and locked onto the covenant ship, ARCHER missile pods and 50mm rotary guns did the same, and soon every gun was armed and targeted. The captain knew that the Old MACs were no match, and the bridge crew knew that Course two-eight-zero was a intercept course for the enemy goliath.
The Cleansing Wind
"Sir, a Human Destroyer has appeared on sensors, increasing speed and is heading towards us," Relf called out reading the report.
"What? Where was it?" the captain asked.
"It was drifting so the reactor didn't show on thermals, and we though it was orbiting junk, taken out by the first wave,"
"No matter, launch the seraphs,"
"Will do sir, foolish Humans,"
The Lynch
"Sir fighters inbound,"
"Increase power, fire archers at the seraphs and launch the longswords, All MAC batteries fire at reactor sector of covenant ship,"
"Sir range to cruiser one click, we going to collide!"
"You heard me ensign,"
"Aye, ramming speed,"
The Cleansing Wind
"Sir, human vessel is a kilometer out, and increasing speed, they have launched fighters to counter ours, as well as anti ship missiles, wait, multiple contacts moving a high speed,"
The Lynch
The first three rounds were absorbed by the shields, but the after that the older MACs penetrated into the hull of the cruiser. The smaller older rounds powered through many decks, but failed to make it to the Reactor. Fortunately, however, the concussion of the rounds ripping through the titanium halls jarred loose a coolant hose, causing the reactor to over heat.
The captain commanded "Sound collision," He wanted to be sure that the large ship that dwarfed his was dead, and the bow was strong enough to make due. "Tell the crew to abandon all the bow sections," he ordered, His ship was at full speed heading for the massive ship ahead of him, and Felts had no intention of slowing down.
The Cleansing Wind
"Sir, sector 5 is open to space, and the reactor is at critical heat level, we must abandon ship,"
"Negative Relm, if we die, we die with honor, not scurrying from these apes,"
a few seconds later the hard, blunt bow of the Jessica Lynch penetrated the dying hulk. The life support systems failed and most compartments were venting atmosphere, the Engineers that had been scurrying around to repair the engines suffocated as the wound was pried open by the destroyers nose.
The Lynch
"Captain, all batteries ready,"
"Commence fire,"
"Roger, commencing fire," the large guns came back to life, unleashing a second volley into the ship from point blank. This group of shells detonated the engines, causing massive explosions through out the ship, killing the crew. they had collided with the now crippled ship. The Lynch's inertia kept it going forward, Grinding into the thick hull of the mammoth enemy ship, destroying its life support.
"Oh Shit, compartments 7 alpha through fox are decompressed, venting into space, damn we just lost Engine two,"
"Reverse power to engine one and three, and fire one last volley into the ship, I want to be sure," The captain responded "Its going to be a long week," the he thought.
Aboard the UNSC Light battle ship Caspian Sea, opposite side of the planet.
"Sir, the Lynch reports they have crippled a covenant battleship on the opposite side of the planet," Lieutenant J.G. William Powel read to the commander of the UNSC defense fleet, Rear Admiral Jonathon Stewart spit out his coffee.
"What?" he asked, the Lynch was a twenty year old relic, it was a miracle it could even fire its weapons, much less take down a Covenant capitol ship. This fleet was an antique display, mostly older cruisers that had been considered to obsolete to defend Reach. The only modern ships were his flag ship, Caspian Sea, and the heavy cruiser Merrimack. The only reason they weren't decimated at Reach was the fact that they we're in a ship yard on Mars being refitted after getting caught in an asteroid belt when evading a Covie fleet. The Lynch, Roberts, and Fujikawa, were all twenty year old Kennedy class destroyers, using almost obsolete MK-1 MAC, much less powerful then the newer Super MACs. The Chicago, St. Lo, Shangri-La, and Anchorage, were all ten year old Austin class heavy cruisers, the first to be mounted with four Mk-2 MACs, about 25% less powerful than a Super MAC. Stewart's thoughts were broken with the sound of an explosion. He searched the monitors for the source, and watched as the UNSC Fujikawa's engines exploded. It began listing heavily to port as the atmosphere vented from the starboard side, smashing into a covenant cruiser, crushing it. The dying carrier intern began to rotate being pushed by the dead body of the Fujikawa, causing it's rear section to arc into the bottom of a Covie cruiser. The ships shields valiantly attempted to hold off the incredible mass of the two ships, but failed allowing the hulk to smash its engines, crippling it.
"Hot Damn," the admiral said aloud, getting evil looks from his crew "That dead ship just killed two covenant ships," he said, realizing how over zealous he was over the death of hundreds of his men. The Merrimack moved in to finish off the immobilized cruiser, gutting it with it's massive MAC guns.
"Sir the two remaining covenant Frigates are setting a course for the surface,"
"Acknowledged, fire a volley, all guns, then a pair of Shiva missiles, its time to get the point across to these bastards," All guns moved to track the small ships, and then at once fired. The four fat MAC rounds, flanked by a mass of 60mm cannon rounds, quickly closed the distance and easily over powered the shields of both ships. Then, a kilometers behind were a pair of Shiva, nuclear armed missiles, tracking flawlessly to their targets. both impacted in a brilliant white explosion, blinding every one within eight kilometers. When the flash subsided, there was nothing there, both ships were completely vaporized by the fusing of a pair of hydrogen molecules.
0800 Hours, next day
Marriott hotel.
The battle was a stunning victory, the ground forces fought with both valiance and brilliance, and Captain Felts charge on the Cruiser would probably get him a Flag**. It was incredibly hard to believe that the Covenant had been stopped, and that the Antiques defending the planet had even been a challenge to the Covie. The fleet had lost the Fujikawa, the St. Lo, and the Lynch had an imploded bow. The fact that the Covenant had sent such a small fleet was also puzzling, so close after Reach the UNSC thought they'd have and Armada prowling the inner colonies for targets. Sergeant winters was now up and alert, she kept asking for coffee, a scarce luxury. Doc said she fainted from shock, and an internal wound caused by a fragment of concrete. Although the marines had successfully defended the city, the covenant had destroyed shelters in which civilians were hiding, killing them. The transport ship UNSC Hamira had arrived from slip space a hour earlier to relieve the battered forces and take the marines back to a staging area.
"Mount up" Red motioned to his troops. They all climbed on to their wart hogs and began to move towards a designated LZ, a few miles away. From there they would board pelicans, then the Hamira, and the rumor was that they would be heading back to earth for refitting.
*CQC is short for Close-quarters-combat
** Each admiral has a battle flag, so it was implying that the captain was going to be promoted to an admiral
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