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Chapter Two: TF Resolution
Posted By: Blue Jaguar<CrazyMAdsh33p@netscape.net>
Date: 1 September 2003, 12:13 AM
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CHAPTER 2
November 2, 2556
09:08 Local Time, Lanse Aux River Defense Base, Talos IV, Talos Prime Star System
Riyonus walked down the ramp of his personal pelican dropship. 2 Marine guards following him. An officer in the Talos defense forces came out from behind the blast shield on the edge of the landing pad and came up to meet him.
"Admiral Riyonus, I am Lieutenant Rennes. Colonel Lanson was wounded when one of our ground batteries malfunctioned and blew up, so I'll escort you to the debriefing room" The officer yelled, trying to out perform the loud roar of the aircraft flying overhead.
"All right lieutenant, just make sure it's a place a little more quiet. By the way, I like the ships you build for us, especially the shields." The admiral replied.
"Glad you liked our toys admiral. We're still getting live battle reports down in the base's CIC, so the debriefing will be a bit sketchy, but it looks like you really gave em hell up there." Rennes said as they walked through the first security door of the base.
"Yeah, again, those ships were a real big help, but I have a feeling your just trying to brag." Riyonus replied as they stepped onto the elevator to go down into the base.
"You know us admiral, always trying to suck up to daddy" The lieutenant smirked as he hit the button for Base sub-level 17.
The two remained quiet until they reached the designated level, it was a 30 second ride, down 340 feet. The Lieutenant stepped off of the elevator first and showed the admiral and his guards the debriefing room at the end of one of the hallways.
"I'm sorry admiral but the guards will have to stay outside, security reasons." Rennes finally said, breaking the silence.
"All right lieutenant, I understand. Just make sure this doesn't take to long. My command wants me to report to them after we are done here." Riyonus responded.
The two walked into the room while the marine guards remained outside the room. As the admiral entered he could see that the Talos Defense forces were really concerned about the battle. It was the first time the Covenant had entered their system, much less attacked them. Even worse, the Human warships were obviously designed by the TDF but had UNSC colors, the Covenant definitely would have reported this into command, TDF vessels would no longer be able to move freely about the galaxy.
"Admiral, as you know, the Covenant have not attacked us before, we find this a very big concern. Covenant forces had come into contact with our ships before but did not fire, we are unsure as to the cause of their recent aggression, but if we find that our involvement with the UNSC is the cause, I can assure you we will have nothing more to do with your operations against them." The chief officer at the head of the table said.
"Prime Councilor Eriks, I think it is obvious that the Covenant discovered that the Talos were in fact a colony of Earth and have decided that they should eliminate you. They do after all, seem to have somewhat of a grudge against humans." The admiral responded.
"Talos IV will not become a killing ground like Earth admiral, I can promise you one thing, if we discover that you intentionally allowed the Covenant to attack us we will break this alliance with you and take back our ships." The Councilor said angrily.
"Prime Councilor, the UNSC does not in any way wish to anger the Talos, you are vital to our resistance effort, and without your help we could never have found the Covenant Home worlds. It would be ridiculous to think we would try and harm our only ally." The admiral replied.
"All right admiral, but I am warning you, this incident will not go unchecked. As for the battle itself however, I must say you had little trouble getting used to our warships and technology." The Councillor said, while changing his tone to a more polite one.
"Yes admiral, I must say that the ships performed above our greatest expectations. I myself was greatly impressed with the boosted capabilities in the MAC rounds and the improved Archer missiles, and of course, the shield systems on the ships were nothing short of miraculous." The admiral said. In truth, he was completely overjoyed by the new ships, only 7 ships had completely obliterated a Covenant invasion force. UNSC command would be in complete awe of this, and would certainly work to improve the already shaky relations with the Talos.
The Talos were already angered by the UNSC's actions. Riyonus had to admit, the UNSC had treated them like children in negotiations, which is what the UNSC thought the Talos should be treated like. They were after all, just another colony. Although they did happen to develop completely separate from any UNSC planets and had grown completely self dependent, and far more advanced. But that is what happens when your colony loses contact with its home world for 200 years. Oh, and it happens to be on a planet with more resources than practically any other place in the universe.
The group finished the briefing of the battle, going over battle schematics and such. Finally they all rose, the Admiral and the Prime Councilor shook hands and the admiral boarded his Pelican and flew back to the Sashok Nayosha.
Before he even reached the bridge the cruiser slowly turned to starboard, broke orbit, and entered slipstream.
18:35 Talos IV Central Time
The battle group exited slipstream in the Lalande 21185 system. To Riyonus' sunrise, he was not sent down for debriefing, but rather the captain of the Sovia was. Apparently the UNSC wanted a source from someone besides the admiral, who had all ready been debriefed by the TDF. Although the admiral did have to write his debriefing report from the operation while they were en route.
As the admiral was finishing up typing his report, a flashing message appeared on his screen. He pressed the READ button on his screen and the letter icon opened up and the message appeared.
EMERGENCY ACTION MESSAGE: PRIORITY ALPHA
ORIGINATED
UNSC 17th FLEET, ADMIRAL ALEX LOUIS
11.01.56/14.07GST
RECEIVED AND FORWARDED
UNSC OFFENSIVE OPERATIONS COMMAND, GENERAL YOSHI TASATKA
11.02.56/07.29GST
RECEIVED
UNSC TASK FORCE RESOLUTION, ADMIRAL LARIN RIYONUS
11.02.56/07.56GST
ORIGINAL MESSAGE:
UNSC 17TH FLEET HAS ENGAGED MULTIPLE COVENANT BATTLE GROUPS, 1ST TASK FORCE WAS WIPED OUT IN OPENING SALVO. REMAINING 21 UNSC WARSHIPS NOW BEING PURSUED BY 5 COVENANT HEAVY TONNAGE WARSHIPS. REQUEST IMMEDIATE ASSISTANCE.
UPDATED MESSAGE: 11.01.56/14.15GST BY GENERAL TASATKA
17TH FLEET WAS IN THE COVENANT HOME WORLD SYSTEM DESIGNATED FOXTROT 17. NO KNOWN COVENANT FORCES WERE IN THE AREA UPON ARRIVAL. WE SUSPECT COVENANT MAY BE PREPARING TO LAUNCH AN OFFENSIVE FROM THAT SYSTEM. PROCEED WITH BATTLE GROUP TO FOXTROT 17 AND ACTIVATE PROTOCOL 318.
END OF MESSAGE
Riyonus read through the message, and then grabbed his code book. Protocol 318 basically meant: All hell had broken lose. Command obviously wasn't fooling around with this, they really believed the Covenant may be preparing to launch an offensive. Most of the commanders refused to believe the Covenant had enough forces left to mount a reasonable offensive, after their staggering defeat at Earth, and then later on at the 2nd Battle of Reach, and even again at Charlie 4, the Elite home world. The Covenant had lost over 400 vessels combined at those battles. The remaining Covenant home worlds had been falling like dominos since the 3 battles, now known as the Battles of Repulse, Revenge, and Reprisal, or the 3 R's Campaign.
If the Covenant were launching an offensive, they would catch the UNSC with their pants down, they had almost no ships left for Home world defense. The Covenant force destroyed over Talos IV was a complete exception, they had been tracked for weeks by the TDF, which had bugs on almost every Covenant fleet known to exist. Since nearly all of the fleets that were bugged had been tracked down and destroyed, it was thought that the Covenant were defeated. Obviously they were wrong.
Now Riyonus understood why the TDF was so angry with the Covenant force detecting the Talos Home world. The Talos must have known that there were Covenant fleets still remaining that they had not detected, and that the Covenant were bound to be launching an attack. Now they were on the main hit list for the Covenant, not a good place to be right before a massive strike.
Riyonus closed the message on his screen and called into the bridge.
"Riyonus to bridge, set course for Covenant home world Foxtrot 17. Have Sovia stay behind to pick up Captain Loshin, then rendevous with us at Foxtrot 17. Riyonus out." Riyonus clicked the comm system off. He submitted his debriefing report and then left his cabin for the officers club. Although most of the officers were his age, and some even older, they'd still let him win in poker. He was their admiral after all.
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