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Halo: The Scythe of Death Part Three
Posted By: LordofDestruction<Exwing4123@aol.com>
Date: 17 June 2003, 3:43 AM
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Halo: The Scythe of Death Part Three
Location: United Nations/Covenant Empire disputed territory
Date: April 4th, 2578 Military Calendar, 09:50 Zulu Time
Commander Nimitz walked to the main tactical display, and surveyed the destruction he had just created. He had destroyed two light cruisers and a stealth ship, and fatally wounded and assisted in killing two more light cruisers, quite a good haul for one ship. The three battalions of Marines quickly secured the battlecarrier without any trouble, which amazed him thoroughly. He finished his coffee, and sat down at his command chair. The Hades-class battlecarrier looming in front of his ship was simply gigantic, being more than twice the size of his ship. He couldn't help but be awed by its size. The only ships bigger than it were the five ships of the Clayemore-class super dreadnoughts that had first come into service seven years earlier during the taking of the Covenant capital planet. The only reason why it was the capital is because all of the home worlds of the different races of the Covenant were all an equal distance away from it. Now the UNSC was attacking the Scion province in their efforts to take the Prophet home world. Eleven hundred worlds in all, it was the richest and most strategically important of the seventy-odd provinces in the Covenant Empire. The UNSC invasion slowed down after the taking of the capital, mainly due to men and equipment losses. The UNSC took this chance to deploy next generation combat soldiers and weapons. All Marines wore ODST style battle dress uniforms, now equipped with personal shielding systems. The mediocre M-808C Scorpion was replaced by the new and excellent MBT-1A Dragon Main Battle Tank. The MBT-1A was a completely new design, being wider and taller than the Scorpion and, with its crew of three, driver, commander and gunner, was better able to harness the power of its M123 155mm smoothbore cannon. The three-man crew was placed in its large turret, behind 1.3 meters of TUCAS (Titanium depleted Uranium and Ceramic Armor System) could safely stop anything the Covenant could throw at it short of a bombing raid. Other new weapons heading into combat were new Lotus II anti-tank mine. The mine had eleven 77mm armor piercing rockets, which shot up into the center of the vehicle the moment the mine was tripped. As soon as the rockets detonated, a fifteen-kilogram charge of C-12 detonated, tearing the vehicle into shreds while lifting it in the air. Best of all, the Angel of Death was carrying all of these new little war goodies. She also had two combat hardened ODST divisions onboard, the 1756th Armored Division and the 704th Infantry Division. Eighty thousand combat ready personnel in between them, the two divisions were among the fiercest ever trained. On top of that, the ship had a company of Spartans, under the command of Captain Michael Patton, a Spartan-795. After becoming and officer right out of his standard Spartan training, he was given back his surname, and allowed to live a semi-normal life. He was also transferred to the Marine Corps, it fitting his love of fighting better. Like his namesake, General George S. Patton, he was a brilliant battlefield tactician. His company annihilated an entire brigade of enemy troops one year earlier on Rigel Omicron.
The Angel of Death was no longer on combat alert, and was out of stealth mode. She steamed about fifty km away from the CCS Zealot, matching her velocity. Nimitz's engineers estimated that she would be ready for slipspace travel in one hour, so most of the two ships' respective crews were already in cryo. They were heading to Vega Prime, the same planet he had fought over as fighter pilot seven years earlier. It was approximately one week away, so all personnel except command and engineering were going into cryosleep. The ships weapons and shields were powered down and the ship was rigged for silent running, as Covenant ships still frequently patrolled the disputed territory. Nimitz felt a promotion coming in the future, he could almost feel it. He got up and strolled about the bridge, keeping a watchful eye on everyone. Everything was running perfect, very unusual for a new class of ship. He yawned and sat back down, satisfied that everything was under control. He was happy, happy that he had won this engagement, happy that his crew was safe, and happy that he had helped a Covenant Ship Master defect.
---
Covenant Ship Master Selphar looked at his command crew. A few hours ago, they had been scared for their life, now they were relaxed. Everyone knew how unforgiving the Prophets were, especially in this late stage of the war. No one wanted to screw up, if they did, their life was in jeopardy. He clicked his mandibles with satisfaction, he may have lost the battle, but he saved his neck and the neck of every other warrior aboard his ship. The humans had mercilessly attacked the other ships, sparing no one in their almost divine wrath. Some religious factions saw humanity as punishment for their wrongdoings, and had sparked this karma by trying to annihilate them. The humans and their UNSC had gone from the laughing stock of the galaxy, even to races not involved in the Covenant's jihad, to the scourge of the gods. They had captured several hundred Covenant worlds now, and had millions of defectors and liberated Covenant fighting with them. There was a prophecy told many thousands of years ago that the race that achieved interstellar travel without the Prophets would be their undoing, and ironically, this was true. In order to quell superstition and assert their dominance, the Prophets proclaimed their jihad on humanity. This caused the humans to fight back and slowly start the Prophets' demise. Selphar laughed out loud at this irony when he thought about it, causing his command crew to look at him suspiciously. He didn't care, they owed him one.
To be continued in: Halo: The Scythe of Death Part Four
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