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The Last Encounter: Chapter 1: The Fall of Earth
Posted By: Jessica and romac1991<flirtychickenjessica11@hotmail.com, romac1991>
Date: 10 July 2004, 4:35 AM
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1343 Hours November 9, 2552 (Military Calendar)/
3 AU's from Mars
Sol System
Earth sat majestically, a blue sphere floating magically through the unending blackness of space. The picturesque scene was soon distorted. A gigantic ripple appeared near Mars, still invisible to the unknowing citizens of Earth. A sleek purple shape glided out of the ripple and was followed by dozens more. Flagships, Cruisers, Destroyers, Frigates Carriers, poured out from an invisible hole in space.
As the last titanic Flagship sailed out of the ripple, space was then returned to its normal blackness, and there Earth sat, innocent and unaware. The hundreds of ships slowly turned, then with an eerie silence, glided past Mars and on to the blue planet.
1345 Hours November 9, 2552 (Military Calendar)/
Orbital Platform 36, In High Orbit over Earth
Sol System.
Lieutenant Calvin Herndon sat with his legs comfortably kicked up on his workstation. He leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling, glad to have some rest. He started to close his eyes to get some sleep, when he was jolted awake. The Alert Alarm blared loudly as a red light flashed intensely at his workstation. He quickly looked over the various monitors and found the one in question. The Mars Space Station picked up contacts within thousands of kilometers of them. He opened a channel and spoke to them.
"This is Lieutenant Calvin Herndon, on OP 36, what is your status, over." Calvin listened closely, screaming was faintly heard in the background. "Repeat, do you read?" Calvin was now confused.
"...Oh...God...they're...here...Repeat...Massive Covenant Fleet is taking over Mars Colony They...took out the Orbit...Platform! Oh Jesus, they're gonna glass it! You gotta...help...us.. We.." The line went dead. Calvin called his superiors and frantically went to work at his station, trying to bring the platform to Full Alert.
The massive purple swarm arranged themselves around the Red Planet. There was a blinding flash, as hundreds of Plasma Batteries warmed up, lighting up the scene. The light ceased, and hundreds of balls of plasma were discharged and sent towards the helpless planet. The red hellfire burnt its way towards the planet. On the ground, people shielded their eyes as an ungodly intense red lit up the skies, not knowing what to do, a panic erupted and chaos broke out. The Hell touched the ground, and there was a silence as ground was glassed, buildings were wrecked, and people were brutally fried. Humongous columns of smoke rose up into space, only to disappear.
As the dust and smoke cleared, Mars appeared reborn. Where once stood a beautiful red sphere, only stood a gigantic mirror. It didn't reflect the pain and suffering that had just happened when billions of innocent lives were lost. The ships reformed, then started their march to Earth. The purple ships then viewed the proportionally small Human Fleet, and warmed up their Plasma Cannons. The people of Earth sent out their fleet, a respectable five hundred ships. But was literally dust under their feet compared to the Covenant Armada that charged towards them. This was their final encounter.
The black and purple masses raced towards each other, like charging Calvary in the Old Age of Earth. Hundreds of MAC rounds warmed up, then fired. There were hundreds of flashes as MAC rounds were spit out. About half of them veered of in odd directions and missed. The ones that did hit slammed into about a hundred ships. A hundred shields flared, then failed as Plasma burnt through their decks and gutted them bow to stern. The Covenant Fleet tried to regroup and fire back, they desperately fired off Plasma Torpedoes, hoping that they would distract the UNSC armada while they were charging up their Plasma Cannons. The Plasma Torpedoes did more than just distract the UNSC armada. It wiped out nearly 1/5 of their fleet. As battle-torn armada was trying to re-group, the Covenant Ships let their Plasma Cannons loose, and decimated the UNSC forces, leaving only a few heavily-damaged ships that escaped by doing a random slip-stream jump
The Human Fleet tried to regroup and fire back, they pulled off a few hundred MAC rounds and dismantled a hundred Covenant ships. Covenant Flagships warmed up, then released their lightning quick Plasma. The few hundred remaining ship's shields were bypassed completely as the white-hot plasma passed straight through them disable several more.
The scene was pitiful, the Human Fleet was in disarray, and the Human side was turned into a burning junkyard, full of hundreds of charred ship skeletons. There was a moment of silence, as the Covenant Fleet stood still, and the remains of the Human Fleet floated endlessly. The Covenant prepared to move into defeat position. They advanced forward and set their sights on Earth. Orbital Platforms sprang to life, and quickly shot out gargantuan rounds, which absolutely tore apart dozens of Covenant ships. For a few seconds, it looked as though the Humans might turn the tide of the battle, until the smaller and faster enemy ships pulled behind the Flagships and Platforms began to fall. Explosions ripped apart space as MAC rounds and super heated plasma were exchanged by the two forces. Dozens of Platforms began to fall and the Fleet moved in for the kill. The last three Platforms unloaded on the ships, giving no mercy as they ripped them open to the vacuum of space. As the Covenant warmed up their guns for the kill, a ripple in space appeared next to the Covenant Fleet.
Over a hundred Cruisers and Carriers poured out like water as the Covenant struggled to turn the right way. Thousands of Longswords were ejected outwards to the almighty fleet. MAC rounds hummed to life, and ships shuddered as white hot projectiles were spit at the ugly purple ships. The charging MAC rounds slammed into ships and ripped them to pieces. The Covenant was down to only three hundred ships, but they weren't done yet.
Plasma heated, and discharged towards the newfound Human Fleet. The Humans quickly performed evasive maneuvers, causing some to miss. Then, finally the Longswords reached the ships and began causing trouble. Covenant launch bays opened, and Seraphs poured out. But before they closed, thousands of missiles launched into them, causing a chain reaction of internal explosions. Carriers exploded from within and the Covenant numbers dwindled to a mere seventy-five. The remaining covenant ships heated up and released their angry red plasma upon the Humans, dozens of mighty ships flared and fell apart, leaving only fifty Human ships left.
The second volley of MAC rounds heated up, then hundreds of white-hot slugs slammed into the shields of Covenant ships. The follow up rounds then cut the ship into purple pieces, eliminating all but ten Covenant ships. Seraphs swarmed around Human ships, only to be ripped to scrap by the thousands of Longswords now dominating the space between the two Fleets. Some of the Flagships fired off rounds, and their super swift projectiles, cut through the decks of helpless Cruisers.
The third volley of MAC rounds, heated up. There was a unified shudder, as the ships moaned and creaked as the heavy slugs exited the ship. Hundreds of streaks of fire, raced towards the pitiful Covenant remains. Most of the remaining ships were unshielded, allowing the MAC rounds to smite them unmercifully.
Plasma blossomed along the hulls of the dying ships, and the battlefield fell silent. All eyes settled on the remaining ship, as it took its last breath, then exploded into scrap and plasma.
And all over the Sol System, to those who had been watching the final battle, there was a unified cheer. And even from space, it seemed you could hear the joyous uprising, as Earth was full of people laughing and smiling. The people of Earth let out the breath it had been holding for decades and finally felt at peace. The Covenant had thrown their best, and mankind had beaten them back. While the people of Earth were busy cheering and setting off fireworks, something unexpected happened.
On Earth, the Moon looked distorted and wavy, like something was distorting it. They realized it all too late.
Dozens of purple crafts poured out like ants. Hundreds more swarmed out creating an ugly purple bulge visible from the ground. As the hole closed, and the moon was visible, fifteen hundred Covenant ships stood there, menacing and ugly. The Human Fleet was destroyed in seconds, they didn't even have a chance to move. The plasma enveloped them before they could know what's happening. A junkyard remained where the Fleet once stood, proud and mighty.
The unified cheer abruptly turned into mass chaos.
The Covenant swarmed around Earth and settled into orbit. Armageddon appeared to be here, but that was not what the Covenant had in mind. Launch bays opened, and tiny purple ships swarmed out by the thousands.
On Earth, a Spartan looked up too see tiny purple crafts soaring down towards Earth. This was it, their last stand, the Last Encounter.
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