Desperate Measures (Revised) Part 1
Posted By: Jack Lang
Date: 3 June 2009, 6:31 am
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The sleek, black aircraft flew overhead forming loose, "finger four" formations.
Silhouetted against the blue-green background the fighters rose, breaking orbit.
In the bleak deadly vacuum they flew silent, blending with the inky blackness.
Inside his Longsword the pilot known as Hawk 49 turned to his co-pilot.
"Anything?"
"Quiet as hell mate…I don't like it"
Hawk frowned inside his helmet and glanced at the digital screen again.
"Spin up the weapons and stay sharp, this will get ugly quick."
Acting on reflex Hawk turned to look at the two empty seats in the cockpit, then stopped, remembering. The UNSC was so stretched that his spare men had been taken away to be retrained as pilots themselves. He would have to do their tasks himself.
"Seraphs incoming."
On the viewscreen Hawk could see a horde of Seraphs emerging from bowels of the Assault carrier, forming a mass of three-fighter V formations.
"About 200 Seraphs sir," the co-pilot said, reading his thoughts.
"Hmm two to one, best odds we've had this week!"
"Hawk Four-Niner to all Swords, prepare full missile spread and split on my mark."
Hawk touched the photo attached to the panel and once again felt the rage that had filled him every time he remembered her. Knife two-six had given him this photo just days before the Battle of Reach, he had really thought…. No matter. It was done. She wasn't coming back.
"Mark."
The fifty Longswords fired off five hundred ASGM-10 missiles in a full spread, increasing the targets for the Covenant defences ten-fold. Most of the missiles would probably miss the Seraphs-lacking the time needed to lock on properly-but the main point was allow the Longswords to close with that Carrier.
The Longswords split into combat pairs with perfect timing, and tracer fire started puncturing the darkness as the rotary and ventral guns spat death at the Seraphs.
The fight was far from one sided. Longswords spun away spewing smoke and brief bouts of flame while others exploded silently in the darkness.
A Seraph shot past as Hawk spun the 'sword in a loose corkscrew to dodge incoming fire.
A short burst from the massive 110mm rotary cannons and the shields of the next Seraph was down, and as it turned to fly by the 120mm ventral guns swivelled and blasted it into oblivion.
More fire was streaking past and a plasma burst gouged a chunk from the Titanium A just beside the viewscreen, if it had just been a few more centimetres to the right…
The remaining Longswords burst through the debris and wreckage just as the remaining ASGM-10 missiles were being picked off, and more Seraphs launched from the bays to face the Longswords. But with this the Shipmaster had blundered-the Longswords were now too close, and although accurate the Covenant weapons were not accurate enough to fire into the whirling melee that was getting closer and closer to the Cruiser.
More and more inbound fire and then… they were through! Hawk and the survivors had a clear line of sight, now the real plan could go ahead.
Modified Explosive warheads attached backwards in their bays were released and immediately began a full burn to decelerate to near zero speed. Amongst the mass of fire and dogfighting ships they went unnoticed by the Carrier as they crawled closer and closer.
Hawk's wingman peeled away with smoke billowing from the port engine.
"Just a scratch sir but that's us out of it."
Hawk allowed himself a quick glance at his co-pilot; they both knew that 67 wouldn't make it-yet no fear had shown in the voice as it made the statement.
The Longswords were retreating, seemingly defeated. They left wreckage and bodies behind but their job was done and now the plan could go ahead.
Under cover of the fighting a Destroyer and two Frigates had moved into position; concealed by the dark side of the moon they had uploaded target coordinates based on tactical data from the Longswords and now they emerged, firing as they went.
Four MAC rounds struck the ship; the shield stopped three and most of the fourth but it burst through the weakened defence to rip through the hull and trigger several secondary explosions. The Carrier turned slowly under the force of the blows but it momentum was quickly countered.
Then came the missiles-proximity detonated at a set distance-a series of explosions against the near non-existent shield, then more hit against the plating and melted through part of the hull, exposing the outer decks.
As the Carrier struggled to compensate another hammer blow struck, the Frigate braved counter fire to perform a flyby and as it did so black pods flew from its underside and sped towards the damaged ship…
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