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As we stepped off the pelican, I took in the surrounding terrain. The area we had landed in was a fairly large plateau. There were few trees, and the occasional boulder. This was not easily defendable, but that did not matter. Once everyone was together, we got organized to move. All fifty marines, including myself, now had to hurry up and wait. We were on standby, and ready to move at a moment's notice. We set up communications with the space forces, and double checked all weapons and supplies. The pelicans stayed with us, marines stationed on the ships had life pods. I hated waiting, and I knew that we would loose the edge if we were idle to long. Little did I know we would not have to wait very long. It had been three days since the UNSC forces set up shop around Epsilon 5. The ground forces were all ready and waiting, the space forces doing the same. Running 24 hour long range scans, the fleet would only have a few minutes at most to prepare once the scanners picked up the Covenant. All ten ships were holding position, waiting, watching. It was the middle of first watch when a marine passed by a sailor stationed at a view screen. The marine looked over the man's shoulder and said " Hey what is that ?" referring to a large red blob on the screen. The sailor, looking up from the notepad he had been reading, dropped the pad. He stared at the screen like a deer caught in the headlights. Suddenly, training and discipline kicked in, and he immediately screamed into the comm. "Contacts ! Scanners show multiple Contacts !" Immediately the sleeping giants came to life. The captains and AI's of each ship giving out orders, preparing for the inevitable, the Covenant were on their way. It had only been three minutes, barely enough time to raise shields and charge the MAC cannons, when large, nebulous green clouds appeared in the middle of space. Nothing could have prepared the fleet for what they saw next. Seventy Covenant ships appeared, their sides glowing bright blue. No sooner had they arrived than the UNSC fleet unloaded every single MAC round from it's guns. A full broadside hit the Covenant fleet, which immediately returned fire. The Longswords swooped in on the incoming seraphs, and only ten seconds after the two fleets met, all hell had broken loose. The UNSC ships spread out, and the Covenant ships let go with volley after volley of blue plasma. The shields on the UNSC ships held just long enough for them to fire, move, and charge again. The Covenant ships began heading towards the planet. The UNSC fleet had only disabled ten cruisers, while one ship "The Firestorm" had been boarded by covenant forces. The nine remaining ships suddenly stopped as the covenant fleet sailed into the mines. The covenant had been so busy maneuvering to flank and broadside the few covenant ships, that many of them were immediately vaporized by the detonating mines. Even the Covenant's shielding could not withstand point blank nuclear explosion. Archer missiles and plasma exploded everywhere, Seraphs and Longswords darted about like small birds, while the cruisers thrashed around like whales. MAC cannons fired white hot rounds into covenant ships, tearing holes and punching gashes into into their hulls, plasma fire erupted into the sides of ships, causing shields to fail and melting away chunks of armor. Surprisingly enough, the sorely outnumbered UNSC was holding it's own. The Covenant's fleet admiral was at a loss, he could not understand why the pathetic human forces of this planet were not dying. He refused to accept the possibility that the humans had figured out to make shields. Suddenly a jackal manning a screen turned to him. "Admiral Dresgar, our dropships are progressing toward the planet unimpeded." This pleased the admiral little, as he still was losing too many ships. The covenant fleet of seventy, the mighty Dresgar fleet, had been cut in half, and for what, a mere successful boarding of one ship ? This could not be, no human had the right to stand before the Covenant and live. Absolutely irate at the human ship's ability to take fire, admiral Dresgar formulated a plan. " Order all our craft to fan out, then concentrate fire on one ship, which will be chosen in order of greatest threat." As the UNSC traded shots with the cruisers, both the captains and AI's wondered where the Covenant ships were going. Only thirty percent of the nuclear mines placed around Epsilon 5 were in a position to do damage to the covenant fleet. The mines were ordered to the other side of the planet where the fighting was going on. Some had small retro rockets, but that would take too long, the UNSC decided it best to lead the Covenant into the remaining mines, while moving the rest by pelican closer to the fray. In the midst of all this fighting, "The Firestorm" was dying, she had been boarded and nearly overrun, her captain made a final decision. Captain Arlan Silden of "The Firestorm" radioed the other ships to inform them of the plan. His voice had resolve, yet despair at the lack of damage they had done. " This is captain Silden, we have been boarded and are being overrun, we will jump away from here and take as many of the covenant with us, once they have come within range, we will load our HAVOC missiles into longswords, and autopilot them into the pursuing ships. We will abandon ship and have it self destruct, hopefully taking the pursuing ships with us." The remaining UNSC ships could only look on as "The Firestorm" jumped away, to the relief and surprise of both the captains and the AI's, ten of the covenant ships immediately sped off in pursuit, exposing them to fire. MAC rounds and Archer missiles pounded the Covenant cruisers from behind. Caught in the middle of trying to jump, all but one of the pursuing ships exploded, sending blue clouds of plasma and metal chunks everywhere. The Captain of " The Hellion" stood in amazement as the body of an elite smashed into the bridge window. The frozen body shattered into a million pieces, and a sailor manning a view screen let out a cry of pure joy. The captain could only smirk as one more murdering bastard was erased from the universe. We had been in contact with the fleet since the battle started, I was constantly informed with enemy movements and strength. As I predicted, most of the dropships were headed right for us, eighty was the count. The scales were slightly tipped in their favor, this meant that the ten squads of fifty marines would have to deal with 16 dropships. Most of the dropships would be carrying ghosts, wraiths, and there were also reports of banshees escorting the dropships. As I ordered the men to saddle up, I took shotgun in one of the warthogs. We took off, two pelicans and all ten warthogs, some marines riding shotgun had rocket launchers, others carried assault rifles. I overheard one marine as he hopped in the back and manned a LAAG scream " Let's give those Covenant bastards a head full of lead and a pile of our shit to die in !" I could feel the rush of battle overcoming me, This was it, I stood up from my seat and faced the marines taking formation. A little more public speaking from yours truly. "Kill everything you see !" |
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