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The Fall of Reach: Battle for Reach Ch. 2
Posted By: Bob 121<elektron@wideopenwest.com>
Date: 15 April 2006, 1:51 pm
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Ok, this is the second of six chapters. Sorry if the spacing in the story is a little whack, I can't really help it.(Believe me, I tried.) Anyway, hope you enjoy reading and hope it doesn't suck too much. (Please Review)
Ch 2: Juggernaught
0502 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)
Orbital MAC Station Validus in orbit over Reach
The entire station shuddered as the MAC cannon released another salvo into the Covenant fleet. Twenty MAC rounds tore into the five Covenant Cruisers completely destroying them, but not before the Cruisers fired their own weapons. Commander Alvarez watched helplessly as the five plasma rounds tore into the orbital stations, leaving only wreckage and debris.
"Shit!" Alvarez glanced at the NAV board just as five icons, each representing an orbital MAC station, disappeared from the screen. Alvarez turned to the Comm. Officer "Get me FLEETCOM immediately, tell them we need some cover here or we're screwed." The Comm. Officer complied and an instant later the majority of the nearby UNSC vessels had driven the Covenant back a comfortable distance away, suffering heavy losses in the process. Alvarez grimaced, using the UNSC ships as a shield was a necessary evil; the Orbital MACs were the backbone of the navy's plan, if they lost any more then they would lose Reach and with it leave Earth open to attack. They might be a shield but no defense can hold the enemy at bay forever. Alvarez turned to the Weapons Officer, "Well? What are you waiting for? Get us another target. Those navy boys saved our Asses, now its time to return the favor."
0502 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)
UNSC Destroyer Argive inside Reach Battle Zone
Captain Marshall stared at the NAV board in shock as five Orbital MAC Stations disappeared from the screen. Christ! We just lost a quarter of our Orbital MACs! How the hell could we let them slip through this easily?
The Comm. Officer ran up to Marshall's side and blurted out "Sir, FLEETCOM has ordered that all nearby ships to keep the Covenant Fleet back to a minimum distance of thirty-six thousand kilometers from the orbital stations."
Easier said than done, a voice whispered from somewhere in the back of Marshall's mind. "I agree, we need to get those ships away from the MACs, otherwise they're done for." Marshall turned to the NAV board and saw the trio of enemy Carriers and a host of support vessels that had been giving his fighter screen an extremely hard time, "Weapons control, I want a targeting solution on the Carrier that we've damaged already, synchronize our fire with the Lancer and Durus. We'll need to help out our fighters if we're going to survive this."
The Argive's MAC round tore through space and impacted the side of the damaged Carrier, joined seconds later by those of the Lancer and Durus, shorting out the shields and destroying the Carrier entirely. The Tactical Officer confirmed the kill and Marshall smiled with grim satisfaction. "Prepare another MAC round and then get us into range with the archers, I want to shove a whole broadside down the bastard's throat. Mr. Jansen, please inform the Lancer and Durus that we're going to charge the Carriers, tell them we'll need them to tie up the support vessels long enough for us to get into range."
The Argive fired its MAC again, destroying a nearby support ship and charged headlong into the Carrier formation.
0502 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)
Halo Flight Squadron near UNSC Destroyer Argive
Rowan cursed as he threw his Longsword into an insanely tight turn, just missing one of his pursuers plasma bursts. The second wave of Covenant fighters had decimated Sierra squadron, killing five more Longswords and severely damaging another with only two losses of their own. Alpha squadron had fared far better, losing only two Longswords and managing to destroy eight Covenant fighters. As for his own Squadron, he'd lost Halo six, nine, and twelve, the worst part was hearing the helplessness in six's voice just before they killed him. "Seven I'm going to need you to cover me here I can't shake these two."
Seven replied almost instantly; "Negative one, I can't get to you I've got three on my tail, you'll have to deal with you're yourself, sorry."
In front of Rowan's fighter the trio of Destroyers began to speed towards the two remaining Carriers, and it was then that Rowan got a crazy idea, "Roger that, seven I think I've found a way to get them off me" Rowan put his engines on maximum and sped towards the Argive's underbelly at full speed.
Rowan saw the Argive's 50mm turrets locking onto his fighter and flew straight towards them, jerking his Longsword out of the way milliseconds before they filled the area his fighter had just vacated with 50mm rounds. His two pursuers weren't as lucky; one was destroyed outright as the bullets punched through the cockpit and detonated his engines, and the other fighter veered hard left, right into a wall of bullets from a second 50mm cannon. Rowan didn't notice any of this since the Argive's guns were still trying to shoot his fighter; a 50mm round missed his cockpit by barely six inches, those idiots are trying to kill me! Rowan banked his Longsword around and hit the throttle sending the Longsword back towards the engagement zone.
0518 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)
UNSC Destroyer Argive inside Reach Battle Zone
The Argive's MAC round punched through the Carrier's portside hangar bays tearing a chunk out of the Carrier and destroying countless bombers and fighters in the process. "Alright open up with a full broadside to the exposed section. Throw everything we have at them."
A full broadside of Archer missiles erupted from the Argive sending a wall of death hurtling towards the wounded Carrier. Dozens of missiles penetrated in the very heart of the vessel, taking out vital systems and tearing up the insides of the ship. Virtually powerless, and leaking oxygen in over two-dozen places, the Carrier would become a tomb to any Covenant unfortunate enough to have survived the pounding their vessel had weathered.
Marshall turned to the Weapons Officer, "Target the next Carrier with the MAC and get those Archer pods reloaded immediately."
The Weapons Officer looked at Marshall with a puzzled expression, "Sir, we aren't going to finish off the Carrier?"
Marshall looked at the crewman with an irritated look on his face; "No, we aren't. There isn't enough ammunition to completely destroy something that is nearly dead already" he replied motioning towards the lamed vessel that filled the Argive's viewport. "Navigation, take us close to the final Carrier long enough for us to unload our ordinance and then get us the hell out of there." He turned back towards the Weapons Officer. "When we get to optimum range open fire with everything we've got, Archers and 50mm, I want those bastards dead in one pass. Understand?"
The Weapons Officer nodded "Yessir." His fingers flying over the controls, preparing the Argive's external ordinance racks for the massive barrage that Marshall had requested.
Marshall looked through the viewport and saw the final Carrier through the debris of its two sister ships. His Longswords were still dog fighting with the Covenant fighters and bombers through the wreckage. Despite their initial success the fighters had been hit hard by the secondary waves of fighters and to his knowledge, Marshall had roughly two-thirds of his fighter screen left. I guess that rules out a strike, too bad, those fighters could've been really useful against those carriers.
The Weapons Officer snapped Marshall out of his thoughts. "Captain, we're in maximum range of the Carrier, permission to open fire?
Marshall nodded. "Permission granted, target their engines if possible, the faster we are the harder the target."
A rumble sounded throughout the ship as the Argive's MAC fired at the Carrier's engines. The MAC round speed through space at several hundred kilometers per second impacted the Carrier's engines dead on. The Carrier's shields flickered and died as the massive projectile overloaded its generators, punching through the port engine array and into the stern-most fighter bays.
Marshall looked on with dismay. Damn. I'd hoped that we'd have been able to cripple the Carrier; it'll still be able to move. Our chances of coming out of this undamaged are pretty slim now. I should've held off until we reached a closer range. He glanced towards the Weapons Officer, "Good work Mr. Crawley. Now prepare to fire a massed broadside on my mark." A panicked voice filled the bridge; Marshall heard it coming from the Comm. terminal and made his way over to the console. "Mr. Jansen what's the problem?"
The Comm. Officer cast a nervous glance at the Captain and stammered, "Sir two more Covenant Cruisers and their escorts have arrived to reinforce the Carrier. Lancer and Durus are trying to hold them off but they don't think they can for long."
"Well I guess we've got to take that Carrier out quickly then. Tell the Lancer and Durus to hold them off as long as possible and to meet us back at the docks to rearm." We're gonna have to make this quick, Lancer might be able to hold out for a while but Durus is damaged, we take too long on this and all three of us are going to end up dead. "Navigation! Take us in full speed, cut power to the engines down to fifty percent when we reach the target and then get us out as fast as you can."
The Tactical Officer called out to Marshall; "Sir! The Carrier has launched its bombers!"
"How long until they reach our fighter screen?"
"Approximately six minutes sir. I've alerted the fighter squadrons already. But they're pretty beat up."
"Inform the fighters that we'll need them to cover us while we make our run on the Carrier. Tell them to stay close to our guns, we'll try our best to give them some cover with our 50mm's." May God help them, I'm not sure we can.
0523 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)
Halo Flight Squadron near UNSC Destroyer Argive
Halo seven let out a cheer as the enemy fighter in front of him exploded. He didn't even have time to dodge out of the way before the second fighter loosed off a plasma volley right into his fighter's midsection, burning completely through the engines and destroying the ship.
Rowan saw seven's immolated fighter and let out a curse. Seven's loss had brought Halo Flight down to half-strength. Aside from Rowan only five of the original twelve Longswords of Halo Flight were left. "Ok we've got to stay together. Two and three are with me, five, eight, and eleven form up. We're following the Argive in towards the Carrier, there's no way we'll last out here without nearby support."
Ahead of Halo Flight Sierra Squadron was in trouble, having lost nearly three fourths of their number they were being swamped by enemy fighters. Even Alpha Squadron, one of the best fighter squadrons in the entire system, was having difficulty dealing with the sheer number of Covenant fighters. Yet regardless of the losses the trio of squadrons had suffered none proposed falling back, they all knew what would happen if the bombers managed to overwhelm the Argive's defenses then the Destroyer was finished. The remnants of all three squadrons braced themselves as a fresh wave of fighters and bombers closed the gap.
0534 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)
UNSC Destroyer Argive inside Reach Battle Zone
Argive moved into position and opened up on the Carrier with everything she had; dozens of Archer missiles poured into its shields and hundreds 50mm rounds chipped away at armor each passing second. Finally the shields gave way and a second and third volley of Archers punched into the Carrier alongside a continuous rain of 50mm rounds. A few missiles punched deep into the Carrier's heart and impacted its generators causing a chain-reaction, which blew off the entire stern side of the ship. As the Argive pulled away from the dying Carrier towards the rendezvous point the Covenant Cruisers did not attempt to follow; instead they turned back and started to move away from the battle, as did every other able Covenant ship in the system.
Marshall stared at the Tact. Display with disbelief. Marshall overheard one of the bridge crew, he wasn't sure who, probably a Lieutenant, exclaim "Ha, that's right, we beat em' back. We've defeated the Covenant!" No, no no, this isn't right. The Covenant aren't known to run from a battle, especially when they're on the brink of victory. Why didn't they move in and finish us? Marshall glanced back towards the Tact. Display and winced inwardly.
Approximately twenty UNSC vessels were left in operational condition. Durus had been destroyed holding off the Cruisers long enough for Argive to take out the Cruiser and Lancer was drifting powerless some distance away leaking oxygen from numerous rents in her hull. Over a hundred destroyed UNSC vessels littered the space around Reach and an unknown number of Covenant craft accompanied them.
There's no way the Covenant are just giving up. We need to get back and rearm before they decide to come back. Marshall turned to the Nav. Officer; "We need to get to the rendezvous point with the rest of the fleet." If you can still call it a fleet.
The Nav. Officer stared at Marshall for a moment with a look of shock plastered on her face. "Captain what about Lancer? There could still be crew trapped inside. We need to help them."
Marshall didn't look at the woman who had just voiced what his conscience screamed at him to do. "Negative, we can't help them, we need to get to the rendezvous point before the Covenant come back at us.
Once again Marshall heard the officer speaking to him, this time there was a tremble in her voice, whether of anger or sorrow he couldn't tell. "The Covenant have retreated sir! They lost almost a hundred ships! Nobody would ever keep coming against the MAC platforms! We have to help the Lancer!
Marshall turned towards the Officer; rage temporarily taking over at the fact that he wholeheartedly agreed with what his Nav. Officer wanted to do but knew he couldn't save the Lancer's crew. "That is a negative! We need to return to the rendezvous point before the Covenant return again. Think about it, why would the Covenant retreat from a battle that they could have easily won? We have twenty ships left; even with the Orbital MACs they could still get this planet if they really wanted to. They're up to something and are going to be coming back at us twice as hard as before. We can't help the Lancer's crew if we're dead, once this battle is over then we'll be able to help them, not any sooner."
The bridge was dead silent save for the electrical hum of machinery and the Nav. Officer's strangled sobs, then the Comm. Officer broke the silence. "Sir, message from FLEETCOM! Enemy dropships have been spotted near the northern and southern poles! They're trying to land on Reach!
Somewhere deep in Marshall's subconscious an antagonizing voice sprung into existence, I told you so. "How many are there?"
"Unknown. At least a thousand, probably more."
A chill ran up Marshall's spine. They're going for the generators! If we lose those then Reach is wide open for attack! "Take us to the nearest pole, we need to destroy as many of those dropships as we can. Send out our Longswords too, tell them to keep on those dropships until they're out of targets or ammunition."
The Argive reached the northern pole along with several other UNSC vessels. Most were Marathon-class Cruisers or Frigates but there was a light Carrier, The Bismuth, and a Halcyon-class Cruiser, The Pillar of Autumn. The combined efforts of the nine UNSC vessels destroyed hundreds of dropships but hundreds more survived long enough to descend to the surface of Reach. Marshall looked out the viewport at the surface of Reach with a feeling of pity for the men and women on the planet. They're gonna be in for a hell of a fight.
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