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Chapter Eight: Rise of the Phoenix
Posted By: Blue Jaguar<MADsh33p@netscape.net>
Date: 3 November 2003, 2:17 AM
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CHAPTER EIGHT
02:29 (ATLAS Time) Dropship Aires 1-1
Captain Brown took his seat in the room next to the other tank commanders. Several were missing he noticed, probably wounded or dead from combat. On the opposite side of the table were the infantry commanders, and the special operations commander, Major Rashon. At the head was General Ross.
"Please gentlemen, we must hurry, time is critical." Ross said, and the rest of the room settled in and became silent.
"During the battle one of our starships received an EAM stating that Atlas was under attack. We were supposed to follow the fleet into slipstream 10 minutes after they had left, but we had difficulties and are at least 15 minutes behind schedule. We have received little information about the situation on Atlas, but we have gathered information, and decided to deploy troops according to where the Covenant are most likely to be attacking. Units will be sent in to reinforce defenses at vital targets. Before we land, fighter aircraft from the 91st Strike Wing will saturate any Covenant forces in our landing zones. We cannot land until they have completed their mission, Covenant ground batteries will simply rip us to pieces. On the screens in front of you, is the landing sites for your group, I suggest you download them to your own personal data banks and begin preparations for landing." Ross said, concluding his pre-mission lecture.
"General, is there any word from Admiral Louis fleet? Without them all of our ships are useless, since most are heavily damaged." Rashon asked.
"We have been unable to contact Admiral Louis, we can only hope that he received the same message that we did. We are still trying to get a message through to him, but have been unable to contact him in realspace, or slipstream." Ross paused. "Any more questions?"
The room remained silent.
"All right, all officers are to report back here at 20:00. Dismissed."
The officers stood up and filed out of the room.
03:15 (ATLAS Time) UNSC Juan de Fucas
"What do you mean you don't know what it was?" Louis demanded.
"Sir, we were just traveling through slipstream, following the Covenant fleet, and then we were redirected."
"Redirected or just exited?"
"Redirected sir, we are not were we should be, even if we were going the complete wrong way through slipstream at maximum speed, there is no way we could have arrived here."
"So you are saying we were teleported to some other place?"
"It would appear that way sir."
"Can you get a lock on your location?"
"Analyzing local stars.....None match up sir. Wait a second, I am picking up multiple warships on an approach vector, unable to identify."
"Distance?"
"140,000 kilometres and closing extremely fast!"
"Prepare for evasive maneuvers, all crew general quarters!" Admiral Louis yelled. Around him klaxons began blaring.
"Sir! Enemy warships are opening fire!" One of the crewmen yelled. Seconds later the ship was split in half by a powerful beam. The fusion reactors went critical, vaporizing the ship. All other ships followed suit, but not before the frigate Reprisal could get off one last message.
UNSC REPRISAL
EMERGENCY ACTION MESSAGE
17th FLEET ARRIVED IN ANDROMEDA GALAXY AT 03:11 ATLAS TIME. UNIDENTIFIED WARSHIPS HAVE OPENED FIRE. SITUATION CRITICAL. ALL INFORMATION ENCLOSED WITH MESSAGE.
END OF MESSAGE
09:18 (ATLAS Time) Lis Ain Apj'dos RAFB, Talos IV
"Incoming UNSC traffic, relaying.....here it is." The Lieutenant in charge of the comm station looked over the sergeants shoulder as he said this. On the screen flashed a message written in Terran language, below, it has been converted as best as it could into his native tongue. He looked at it for a second, trying to make sense of the message and then realized what it was saying.
"Sergeant Majaki, get head quarters on the line now, we have a serious situation." The lieutenant shouted.
"Aye sir, to General Kalson or all the way up?" Majaki replied.
The officer paused for a second. "All the way up."
"Yes sir, patching it through now." Majaki flipped a switch on the panel in front of him.
"Communications Centre, Lis Ain Apj'dos to Central Command, we have a level one emergency."
"What is your situation Lis Ain Apj'dos?"
"We have a intercepted a Black Night, the coordinates are from unknown location, suggest activation of Protocol L-7-C."
"One second."
There was a pause from the other controller, then he spoke back in.
"Roger, activating protocol L-7-C, fleet will be mobilized, all units have been informed."
Majaki turned around and faced his commander.
"What the hell is going on sir?" He asked.
"I know everyone in here is wondering what is going on, but to be honest, the message didn't say, that is what is wrong. The message was short, abrupt, and to be honest, is scary as hell."
The Lieutenant put the message on the main screen in the room, so that all could see just what he meant. If the Covenant had a fleet that powerful, no human would be safe, anywhere.
09:27 (ATLAS Time) RLNS Reshiya, orbiting Talos IV
"Well looks like we're in for it now." Captain Samara said.
"What is it?" His Executive officer, Lieutenant Sanski asked.
"L-7-C, the entire fleet is to rally at these coordinates." As Samara said this he pushed a button in on his command console. In front of him a map of the system appeared and zoomed in on their home planet. A dot flashed showing the location of the rally point.
"Looks like we are in luck, no long hard trip." Sanski said.
"Yes, now we just have to wait for the rest of the fleet to get here, and then wait even longer for orders."
21:59 (ATLAS Time)Checkmate 1-1, over Mois an' Rabet, Minerva (Only moon of ATLAS)
"Sir we've been hit! I can't hold her steady!" The pilot yelled.
"All right, all crew men get strapped down!" Rashon yelled, as he buckled in himself.
The fast moving dropship had been hit in the starboard wing by a Covenant flak round, ripping a massive hole in it. The dropship had been held steady due to the fact that the pilot still had wing surface controls, but when a banshee had hit the wing again with a fuel rod cannon, severing the control wires, the craft began tumbling to the starboard.
The dropship came barreling down through the city, heading north, the craft crashed into the Lan -Beroka River. Both pilot and navigator were killed on impact, as their canopy was unable to stop a million pounds of river water followed by a massive bridge support.
In back most of the troops had died, only five remained. Rashon, who had been strapped in with his seat facing away from the rest of the troops, so that when the seats began colliding, the back of his seat was the only thing damaged. The four others were all just really lucky.
Rashon unstrapped himself from his seat, and immediately fell forward into the door leading to the cockpit. He landed on a body, he tried to roll off of it but only hit another body, this one in a seat. He began feeling around, he thought he felt something like water, he reached up to smell it. Blood. A pool of it on the bottom part of the space craft. He reached to his side and pulled out flashlight and turned it on. He pointed it around the cargo bay, everywhere was miscellaneous items, a few bodies and equipment, mangled about. Blood was stained on the walls, bodies, and then the large pool of it on the bottom.
"Anyone else alive?" He said loudly.
A soldier still strapped in his seat, which was still miraculously strapped onto the wall, raised his hand.
"All right, you ok son?"
"Yes sir, got the wind knocked out of me though."
"All right, just hang tight."
Rashon found three other soldiers still alive, nearly all of them practically unscathed. But how were they going to get out of this place, the only way out was through the main cargo bay door, none of them knew how deep the river might be.
He walked into the airlock, and then closed the door behind him. He took one deep breath and then opened the outer hatch. Water immediately rushed in to him, slamming him back into the steel door behind him, rendering him unconscious.
22:19 (ATLAS Time)Hammer Flight, over Mois an' Rabet
A pair of Sabre fighter jets flew above the small bomber group. Ready to destroy any threat. The last flight to attempt to penetrate enemy air space had been obliterated by Covenant Anti-Air batteries. This time the bombers had a pair of Sabre jets which could perform SEAD missions if any Covenant defenses fired at them.
"Hammer 1 to Halo 1, we are being painted, you see anything?"
"Negative Hammer 1, turn on your ECM, we will move in front of you and check it out."
"Roger Halo 1."
The Sabre jets accelerated past the bombers, immediately Covenant ground batteries opened up on the two jets.
"Halo 2 break left now!"
The two jets broke off in separate directions. Both performed a half loop downwards, lined up side by side, and then strafed a Covenant ground battery. The Covenant flak batteries were protected at close range by about twenty Shade emplacements, but the jets were traveling too fast for the Shades to track them. The two jets opened up on the batteries with AGM-461 Phoenix IV missiles, blasting the shades, as well as the ground battery, into oblivion.
"Nice shot Halo flight."
"Roger that, path is clear, commence bombing run Hammer flight."
"Tally-Ho! Hammer flight engaging, cut to the deck, full throttle Hammer flight."
The four hammer bombers dove towards the ground, weaving to avoid ground fire. Small arms fire shot by the bombers, rarely hitting them, and even then, causing little or no damage. As they approached the target area, a damaged bridge crossing the Lan-Beroka river, the enemy fire became more intense. Covenant vehicles were scrambling to clear the target area, the North Lan-Beroka Bridge, but the enemy Wraiths were too slow. The bombers unleashed their fury. From under each craft, 4 five-thousand kilogram bombs dropped in towards their target. Each plane had two targets, each target was one of the pillars supporting the bridge. And with 10 metric tons of explosives assigned to each support, it was more than enough to knock it out.
The bombs all struck their targets, obliterating the bridge. It disappeared in a giant fireball as the bombers passed overhead.
Adrian looked in horror as the bridge exploded. He had just awoken from his unconsciousness and was beginning to realize where he was. Half a mile upstream was a giant fireball, where his few remaining soldiers where. As the bombers passed overhead he saw multiple plasma flak batteries open up, scoring a hit on one of the fighters flying high escort. The pilots both ejected, and began their descent to the ground. Adrius thought that even if his men were gone, maybe he could try and get to the pilots before the Covenant did.
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