This is a Star Wars/Halo x-over, as challenged by, um, someone...
---
“Captain, we’ve arrived!”
“What’s the status of the Drive?”
“Yes sir! Engineering reports that the Jump Drive has performed almost exactly as they predicted it would.”
“Very good. Start mapping the local space. Notify me if there are transmissions from the locals.”
“Aye sir.”
---
Fleetmaster Essa‘Fusolee looked over his assembled fleet with pride and supreme confidence. He had been given the honor of leading these ships in the strike against the rest of the so called “Inner Colonies” of the humans. It was a much better position than a lowly ship captain in any other fleet, even the one tasked to destroy the humans’ largest shipyard. He suspected that his uncle, who was on the Elite High Council, had pulled strings to get him command of this fleet, Essa’Fusolee was no brilliant tactician like some of the other fleet commanders. He surely would not have been granted this command by virtue of his service record alone.
“Fleetmaster? The fleet is ready for your orders.”
Essa turned to look at his assistant, and replied curtly, “Inform the captains that they will be following my lead.”
“Yes Fleetmaster, right away.”
The other Elite scurried off, leaving the Fleetmaster alone on the observation deck, among his ships and the stars.
---
Marianas was a strange world. The original explorers had named it after the deep-ocean trench back on Earth, probably for fun. The planet contained about forty small continents scattered in the worldwide ocean, which was hardly deep enough to be considered an ocean. This unique make-up, plus the slightly warmer than Earth climate and the lower gravity, made Marianas an ideal vacation spot, and also good for mining and ship construction. The vacations had ended long ago though, and the shipyards were now working around the clock, repairing damaged warships and constructing new ones. The formerly stealthy mining operations had been discarded in favor of large, ugly looking complexes that produced much more ore than before. This was a planet gone to war, and the inhabitants were well aware of that.
Overhead, the planet’s Super-MAC platforms orbited high, clearing the lower orbits for the shipyards and other stations. They were a main part of this system’s defenses, along with the stationed fleet and the sensor arrays. Still, if a concentrated Covenant effort was made against this system, few had doubts that it would fall just like the rest of the Covenant-attacked planets. The war was growing desperate, and not even ONIs propaganda could hide the fact.
---
“Blue 1, this is Blue 2, my work here is done. Proceeding to rendezvous point, over.
“Copy Blue 2, I’ll take it from here. Comm silence from now on, over.”
Grace checked the connections one last time, then activated the failsafe and grabbed her assault rifle. The stealthy part of this mission was almost over, all she had to do was get out. Now unencumbered by the backpack, she moved easily through the darkened complex, unnoticed by the guards and security sensors that would have plagued her. The exfiltration was much easier than the infiltration had been, and within a few minutes, she was out and in the clear.
Finding a large piece of cover near the rendezvous point, Grace waited for her teammate to show up. She didn’t have to wait long before Anton appeared out of nowhere and gave her a nod.
Sending the signal, Grace counted down on her fingers to Anton. Three fingers, then two, and then one. At zero, fully half the sky exploded.
Dawn of Day
Moderator: LadyTevar
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CaptainChewbacca
- Browncoat Wookiee
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They probably named Marianas after the Marianas islands, a tropical island chain in the Pacific. 
Stuart: The only problem is, I'm losing track of which universe I'm in.
You kinda look like Jesus. With a lightsaber.- Peregrin Toker
You kinda look like Jesus. With a lightsaber.- Peregrin Toker
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Trooper TK12746
- Padawan Learner
- Posts: 422
- Joined: 2005-05-20 09:20pm
- Location: Unknown Regions
A dozen Covenant cruisers sat silently in space, flanked by two carriers and another dozen frigates. At the center of the pack, the flagship Divine Flame sat just as motionless as the rest. The ships were dark, with no exterior lights, no engine emissions, no capital-scale energy readings at all. For all intents and purposes, they were dead.
-----
“Admiral, here is the preliminary starmap of this area.”
Admiral Braxton turned to face the junior sensor officer presenting him a datapad. He reached out and received it, then nodded to the officer, dismissing him. Without waiting to see him go, Braxton plugged the datapad into the main holo display and watched as a starmap appeared. These constellations were unfamiliar to him, yet some of them looked tantalizingly familiar. Pushing thoughts of home aside for the moment, the admiral pushed a button on the holodisplay, calling up his task force commanders.
After a short wait, a group of four faces appeared floating in front of him. Addressing them all, Braxton said “I am assigning each of your task forces a direction. Your orders are to proceed in that direction, continue mapping the space, and make contact with the locals. Find out their technology level, industrial and military capabilities, and the current state of affairs here. You are to leave as soon as you are ready. Understood? Good.”
Braxton closed the link and announced to his first officer, “I will be in my office, notify me if anything important happens.”
-----
Divine Flame led the charge, first taking out the sensor buoys, then the remote outpost on the edge of the system. Tidal waves of plasma boiled away armor and melted the interiors of the UNSC stations, destroying them completely, with no messy explosions or possibility of escape.
As the Covenant formation raced towards the planet, the system fleet was scrambling to group and engage. Rally points had been set up for the ships, and they were making their best speed towards them. Dozens of UNSC frigates, destroyers, and several cruisers were now readying themselves for a defense, or a counterattack.
Meanwhile, the Super-MAC guns were opening up, delivering their ordinance of solid slugs at a tremendous speed, impacting within seconds of being launched. As they impacted, the shields on the targeted ships flickered out and the metal slugs tore through the bodies of the ships, leaving them truly dead in space.
The rest of the Covenant fleet continued on, unfazed by their losses. The Fleetmaster stood back and watched the battle unfold from the command podium. There was no need for further direction to his forces. Despite the humans’ efforts, this planet was as good as conquered by the Covenant. This battle was just a chance to rid the humans of more of their pathetic warships. It was also a good chance to see how his ships reacted to their new Fleetmaster.
-----
The UNSC defense of the planet was going as well as anyone had expected. The Super-MAC guns were firing at full speed, and had taken out a fair number of the enemy’s warships. They were now approaching the optimal range for the ship-based MAC guns. Just a few more seconds, and the twenty-odd UNSC warships would open up with a wall of depleted uranium and lead.
On a repeater station at the edge of the system, an automated emergency message was being broadcast over all channels. It finished playing, then repeated, “This is the UNSC garrison at Marianas. We are under attack from a Covenant fleet. Requesting any and all human forces in range to assist. Rally points follow.” A datastream followed, encrypted with a standard interstellar communications code. It was simple enough for proper human computer systems to decrypt easily, but secure enough that the Covenant codebreakers would have to spend quite a bit of computing power and time to break it.
As the message repeated again, the UNSC capital ships opened fire. Missiles and solid slugs sped towards the Covenant line, crossing paths with the plasma fireballs headed in the opposite direction. The significantly faster MAC rounds impacted the shields of multiple Covenant ships, bouncing off and heading for deep space. More MAC rounds followed, some striking ships had had already been hit, others missing and speeding past the formation. Several ship’s shields were downed, and they were left vulnerable enough for the Archer missiles to do their work. Despite point-defense fire from the Covenant capital ships, enough missiles got through to disable another destroyer. Several nukes were camouflaged in with the Archer missiles, and they detonated, taking out another frigate and leaving it nothing more than a radioactive navigational hazard.
The Covenant ships were recharging their plasma turrets, all but one. The flagship mounted a different weapon as it’s main gun. It fired, sending a needle-thin blade through a UNSC destroyer and cutting it cleanly in half. The dorsal half of the destroyer floated away from the ventral half, now no longer connected. The blast doors on both halves shut, saving the crew from a quick death. The ventral half, still having power in it’s MAC gun capacitors, fired both guns, sending out it’s last salvo for the battle. Several seconds later, the fusion reactor’s containment failed and the reactor blew, destroying the half of the destroyer it was attached to.
New missiles fired from nearly all of the UNSC ships. They were large and slow, compared to Archer missiles, but their payload was much larger, and much more important. At a predetermined distance, the precise formation of missiles detonated, releasing their payload of metal dust into space. The jury-rigged ordinance was the invention of a weapons officer stationed on the Super-MAC stations. The theory went that the plasma torpedoes would get caught up in the large cloud of metal and disperse or be absorbed. If it worked, it would be a fairly good defense against the Covenant plasma weapons.
As the plasma torpedoes plowed into the field of dust, it became apparent that the crude defense actually worked. No plasma torpedoes came out, and the field was glowing orange and yellow as a result of the superheated scrap metal. The downside was that the UNSC was now sensor blind in the direction of the cloud, but that was also true for the Covenant ships. It was beginning to look like the UNSC defense fleet had a chance. They had suffered no losses yet, and had taken out a fair number of Covenant ships.
The UNSC ships continued firing their main guns, extrapolating likely courses from the most recent sensor data available. Sensor drones were launched around the cloud to provide targeting data. It soon became unnecessary however. The Covenant fleet plowed through the cloud, firing torpedoes as soon as they were clear. The MAC guns returned fire, then the human ships broke and dispersed, trying to escape the plasma. They fired more metal dust missiles, causing come of the torpedoes to be swallowed up, or loose track of their targets.
Then the plasma hit. Multiple fireballs impacted on the UNSC ships, boiling away the armor and starting superhot fires inside the ships. Screams of agony filled the comm channels until AIs or communications officers on other ships filtered them out. It was simply too much useless noise taking up the tactical channels, and nobody wanted to hear their comrades dying either. In a single volley by the Covenant ships, the number of UNSC ships had been cut in half. With no reinforcements looking likely, the possibility of the UNSC holding onto the planet and defeating the Covenant fleet had shrunk to very near zero. A pair of plasma torpedoes hit one of the cruisers, blinding all who were looking in that direction.
-----
As the light from the explosion faded, Grace looked out from behind her cover to examine her handiwork. The base was now cracked open, a perfect opportunity for someone to go in and mop up the rest of the forces inside.
Just as she was thinking this, the two other members of her team appeared and started firing. Anna and Malcolm appeared from out of their hiding place and bounded towards the base, weapons ready. Nodding to Anton, the two Spartans started jogging to the remains of the base, scanning for any hostiles. As they reached the place where the entrance used to be, they split up. Anna and Malcolm had gone inside, leaving Grace and Anton to sweep the perimeter. Sounds of gunfire and explosions could be heard from the inside, indicating that the other two Spartans had located enemies and were dealing with them. A few seconds later, all four of them met on the other side of the base. Malcolm reported, “Objective accomplished. Move out to the extraction point at top speed. We need to get this to the analysts back at base.”
Nodding, the Spartans headed for the treeline.
-----
Captain Caleb, commander of Task Force Storm, had a similar record to the rest of the command staff with the Imperial 1st ExGal fleet. They were all competent commanders, with solid records and unquestionable loyalty to high command, while in the presense of others. Privately though, they learned, and thought, and watched what was happening. High command had determined that they were doing too much thinking for their own good, and had assigned them to this fleet, where they could do no damage to the New Order. It wasn’t a horrible post either. Hunting Rebels was only so much fun when you spent weeks guarding convoys or patrolling obscure systems with not so much as the smallest sign that there were Rebels about. Here, this was a whole new galaxy to explore, for better or for worse.
-----
“Sorry Spartans, we have to make a course change. We’ll get your intel to Fleet command, don’t worry. Right now we’re en-route to Marianas, they’ve come under attack.”
“Yes sir.”
Closing the connection, Malcolm turned to the others and confirmed their suspicions. There wasn’t anything they could do right now, but perhaps, when they got into battle, the Spartans could assist in some way. The UNSC destroyer was a powerful warship, but a team of Spartans onboard made it much deadlier. Hopefully they would be able to make an impact in the battle.
-----
Currently staring blankly at his main viewscreen, Captain Caleb was caught off-guard when the starlines turned into points of light again, signaling their exit from hyperspace. Almost immediately, the comm. officer reported, “Sir! I’m receiving a lot of traffic from a nearby system, most of it is jumbled and decayed, but there’s one that’s still recognizable.”
Curiousity piqued, Caleb ordered, “Let’s see it.”
“It’s an audio message sir, putting it up.”
A voice came on the main bridge speakers. It was speaking an alien language, but was instantly recognizable as the powerful voice of a human male with some experience giving orders. Though the message was one of desperation, the voice gave no indications of it.
“This is the UNSC garrison at Marianas. We are under attack from a Covenant fleet. Requesting any and all human forces in range to assist. Rally points follow.”
Dumbfounded, Caleb caught the attention of his science officer and started to ask, “Was that…” before trailing off.
The science officer nodded slowly and said, “Vocal patterns are human sir. I’m running it through the translator now.”
The translation came on the speakers a few seconds later. The programmers were indeed good, the voice was nearly the same, but this time speaking Basic. Turning to his diplomat, he asked, “Analysis?”
The diplomat thought for a moment, then replied, “Well sir, They are obviously having a battle, it seems to be between human forces and whatever these ‘Covenant’ are. I would say that it’s not a civil war, given the fact that he calls on all human forces to assist. There appears to be a war happening right now, as the speaker doesn’t seem surprised that they are being attacked. I can’t tell you much more than that.”
Nodding, Caleb said to the navigation officer, “Can you make sense of these coordinates? I’d like to find out more.”
“I think so sir, let me see what I can do.”
“Make it quick.”
As his crew went off to their tasks, Caleb debated what to do. His mission was primarily exploration, and he had a bad feeling about getting into a battle this early in the mission. It could limit their choices later, especially if they brought the wrath of an entire spacefaring race down on the Imperial fleet. And what if they were more powerful? That was a nearly treasonous thought among the Imperial officer’s corps, but it was a possibility that Caleb had to consider.
In other circumstances, Caleb would have asked Admiral Braxton what to do. After all, he was in overall command of the expedition, and had the main diplomatic team onboard his ship. However, they were out of range of the command ship, and this galaxy had no Holonet to transmit along. He considered his options. He could jump into the system and pick a side, which would probably be with the humans in this galaxy. Or he could ignore the call, and probably miss an opportunity to instantly gain the trust of one of the sides.
His diplomat addressed him, saying “Sir, either of your choices at this point have positive and negative consequences. Without further information, I would say that they are about equal. This is a command decision, and therefore yours to make.”
Looking out at the stars, Caleb made his decision. Braxton had trusted his judgment enough to put him in command of a task force, now was the time to use it.
“Nav, do you have the coordinates?”
“Yes sir!”
“Take us in.”
-----
“Admiral, here is the preliminary starmap of this area.”
Admiral Braxton turned to face the junior sensor officer presenting him a datapad. He reached out and received it, then nodded to the officer, dismissing him. Without waiting to see him go, Braxton plugged the datapad into the main holo display and watched as a starmap appeared. These constellations were unfamiliar to him, yet some of them looked tantalizingly familiar. Pushing thoughts of home aside for the moment, the admiral pushed a button on the holodisplay, calling up his task force commanders.
After a short wait, a group of four faces appeared floating in front of him. Addressing them all, Braxton said “I am assigning each of your task forces a direction. Your orders are to proceed in that direction, continue mapping the space, and make contact with the locals. Find out their technology level, industrial and military capabilities, and the current state of affairs here. You are to leave as soon as you are ready. Understood? Good.”
Braxton closed the link and announced to his first officer, “I will be in my office, notify me if anything important happens.”
-----
Divine Flame led the charge, first taking out the sensor buoys, then the remote outpost on the edge of the system. Tidal waves of plasma boiled away armor and melted the interiors of the UNSC stations, destroying them completely, with no messy explosions or possibility of escape.
As the Covenant formation raced towards the planet, the system fleet was scrambling to group and engage. Rally points had been set up for the ships, and they were making their best speed towards them. Dozens of UNSC frigates, destroyers, and several cruisers were now readying themselves for a defense, or a counterattack.
Meanwhile, the Super-MAC guns were opening up, delivering their ordinance of solid slugs at a tremendous speed, impacting within seconds of being launched. As they impacted, the shields on the targeted ships flickered out and the metal slugs tore through the bodies of the ships, leaving them truly dead in space.
The rest of the Covenant fleet continued on, unfazed by their losses. The Fleetmaster stood back and watched the battle unfold from the command podium. There was no need for further direction to his forces. Despite the humans’ efforts, this planet was as good as conquered by the Covenant. This battle was just a chance to rid the humans of more of their pathetic warships. It was also a good chance to see how his ships reacted to their new Fleetmaster.
-----
The UNSC defense of the planet was going as well as anyone had expected. The Super-MAC guns were firing at full speed, and had taken out a fair number of the enemy’s warships. They were now approaching the optimal range for the ship-based MAC guns. Just a few more seconds, and the twenty-odd UNSC warships would open up with a wall of depleted uranium and lead.
On a repeater station at the edge of the system, an automated emergency message was being broadcast over all channels. It finished playing, then repeated, “This is the UNSC garrison at Marianas. We are under attack from a Covenant fleet. Requesting any and all human forces in range to assist. Rally points follow.” A datastream followed, encrypted with a standard interstellar communications code. It was simple enough for proper human computer systems to decrypt easily, but secure enough that the Covenant codebreakers would have to spend quite a bit of computing power and time to break it.
As the message repeated again, the UNSC capital ships opened fire. Missiles and solid slugs sped towards the Covenant line, crossing paths with the plasma fireballs headed in the opposite direction. The significantly faster MAC rounds impacted the shields of multiple Covenant ships, bouncing off and heading for deep space. More MAC rounds followed, some striking ships had had already been hit, others missing and speeding past the formation. Several ship’s shields were downed, and they were left vulnerable enough for the Archer missiles to do their work. Despite point-defense fire from the Covenant capital ships, enough missiles got through to disable another destroyer. Several nukes were camouflaged in with the Archer missiles, and they detonated, taking out another frigate and leaving it nothing more than a radioactive navigational hazard.
The Covenant ships were recharging their plasma turrets, all but one. The flagship mounted a different weapon as it’s main gun. It fired, sending a needle-thin blade through a UNSC destroyer and cutting it cleanly in half. The dorsal half of the destroyer floated away from the ventral half, now no longer connected. The blast doors on both halves shut, saving the crew from a quick death. The ventral half, still having power in it’s MAC gun capacitors, fired both guns, sending out it’s last salvo for the battle. Several seconds later, the fusion reactor’s containment failed and the reactor blew, destroying the half of the destroyer it was attached to.
New missiles fired from nearly all of the UNSC ships. They were large and slow, compared to Archer missiles, but their payload was much larger, and much more important. At a predetermined distance, the precise formation of missiles detonated, releasing their payload of metal dust into space. The jury-rigged ordinance was the invention of a weapons officer stationed on the Super-MAC stations. The theory went that the plasma torpedoes would get caught up in the large cloud of metal and disperse or be absorbed. If it worked, it would be a fairly good defense against the Covenant plasma weapons.
As the plasma torpedoes plowed into the field of dust, it became apparent that the crude defense actually worked. No plasma torpedoes came out, and the field was glowing orange and yellow as a result of the superheated scrap metal. The downside was that the UNSC was now sensor blind in the direction of the cloud, but that was also true for the Covenant ships. It was beginning to look like the UNSC defense fleet had a chance. They had suffered no losses yet, and had taken out a fair number of Covenant ships.
The UNSC ships continued firing their main guns, extrapolating likely courses from the most recent sensor data available. Sensor drones were launched around the cloud to provide targeting data. It soon became unnecessary however. The Covenant fleet plowed through the cloud, firing torpedoes as soon as they were clear. The MAC guns returned fire, then the human ships broke and dispersed, trying to escape the plasma. They fired more metal dust missiles, causing come of the torpedoes to be swallowed up, or loose track of their targets.
Then the plasma hit. Multiple fireballs impacted on the UNSC ships, boiling away the armor and starting superhot fires inside the ships. Screams of agony filled the comm channels until AIs or communications officers on other ships filtered them out. It was simply too much useless noise taking up the tactical channels, and nobody wanted to hear their comrades dying either. In a single volley by the Covenant ships, the number of UNSC ships had been cut in half. With no reinforcements looking likely, the possibility of the UNSC holding onto the planet and defeating the Covenant fleet had shrunk to very near zero. A pair of plasma torpedoes hit one of the cruisers, blinding all who were looking in that direction.
-----
As the light from the explosion faded, Grace looked out from behind her cover to examine her handiwork. The base was now cracked open, a perfect opportunity for someone to go in and mop up the rest of the forces inside.
Just as she was thinking this, the two other members of her team appeared and started firing. Anna and Malcolm appeared from out of their hiding place and bounded towards the base, weapons ready. Nodding to Anton, the two Spartans started jogging to the remains of the base, scanning for any hostiles. As they reached the place where the entrance used to be, they split up. Anna and Malcolm had gone inside, leaving Grace and Anton to sweep the perimeter. Sounds of gunfire and explosions could be heard from the inside, indicating that the other two Spartans had located enemies and were dealing with them. A few seconds later, all four of them met on the other side of the base. Malcolm reported, “Objective accomplished. Move out to the extraction point at top speed. We need to get this to the analysts back at base.”
Nodding, the Spartans headed for the treeline.
-----
Captain Caleb, commander of Task Force Storm, had a similar record to the rest of the command staff with the Imperial 1st ExGal fleet. They were all competent commanders, with solid records and unquestionable loyalty to high command, while in the presense of others. Privately though, they learned, and thought, and watched what was happening. High command had determined that they were doing too much thinking for their own good, and had assigned them to this fleet, where they could do no damage to the New Order. It wasn’t a horrible post either. Hunting Rebels was only so much fun when you spent weeks guarding convoys or patrolling obscure systems with not so much as the smallest sign that there were Rebels about. Here, this was a whole new galaxy to explore, for better or for worse.
-----
“Sorry Spartans, we have to make a course change. We’ll get your intel to Fleet command, don’t worry. Right now we’re en-route to Marianas, they’ve come under attack.”
“Yes sir.”
Closing the connection, Malcolm turned to the others and confirmed their suspicions. There wasn’t anything they could do right now, but perhaps, when they got into battle, the Spartans could assist in some way. The UNSC destroyer was a powerful warship, but a team of Spartans onboard made it much deadlier. Hopefully they would be able to make an impact in the battle.
-----
Currently staring blankly at his main viewscreen, Captain Caleb was caught off-guard when the starlines turned into points of light again, signaling their exit from hyperspace. Almost immediately, the comm. officer reported, “Sir! I’m receiving a lot of traffic from a nearby system, most of it is jumbled and decayed, but there’s one that’s still recognizable.”
Curiousity piqued, Caleb ordered, “Let’s see it.”
“It’s an audio message sir, putting it up.”
A voice came on the main bridge speakers. It was speaking an alien language, but was instantly recognizable as the powerful voice of a human male with some experience giving orders. Though the message was one of desperation, the voice gave no indications of it.
“This is the UNSC garrison at Marianas. We are under attack from a Covenant fleet. Requesting any and all human forces in range to assist. Rally points follow.”
Dumbfounded, Caleb caught the attention of his science officer and started to ask, “Was that…” before trailing off.
The science officer nodded slowly and said, “Vocal patterns are human sir. I’m running it through the translator now.”
The translation came on the speakers a few seconds later. The programmers were indeed good, the voice was nearly the same, but this time speaking Basic. Turning to his diplomat, he asked, “Analysis?”
The diplomat thought for a moment, then replied, “Well sir, They are obviously having a battle, it seems to be between human forces and whatever these ‘Covenant’ are. I would say that it’s not a civil war, given the fact that he calls on all human forces to assist. There appears to be a war happening right now, as the speaker doesn’t seem surprised that they are being attacked. I can’t tell you much more than that.”
Nodding, Caleb said to the navigation officer, “Can you make sense of these coordinates? I’d like to find out more.”
“I think so sir, let me see what I can do.”
“Make it quick.”
As his crew went off to their tasks, Caleb debated what to do. His mission was primarily exploration, and he had a bad feeling about getting into a battle this early in the mission. It could limit their choices later, especially if they brought the wrath of an entire spacefaring race down on the Imperial fleet. And what if they were more powerful? That was a nearly treasonous thought among the Imperial officer’s corps, but it was a possibility that Caleb had to consider.
In other circumstances, Caleb would have asked Admiral Braxton what to do. After all, he was in overall command of the expedition, and had the main diplomatic team onboard his ship. However, they were out of range of the command ship, and this galaxy had no Holonet to transmit along. He considered his options. He could jump into the system and pick a side, which would probably be with the humans in this galaxy. Or he could ignore the call, and probably miss an opportunity to instantly gain the trust of one of the sides.
His diplomat addressed him, saying “Sir, either of your choices at this point have positive and negative consequences. Without further information, I would say that they are about equal. This is a command decision, and therefore yours to make.”
Looking out at the stars, Caleb made his decision. Braxton had trusted his judgment enough to put him in command of a task force, now was the time to use it.
“Nav, do you have the coordinates?”
“Yes sir!”
“Take us in.”
-
Trooper TK12746
- Padawan Learner
- Posts: 422
- Joined: 2005-05-20 09:20pm
- Location: Unknown Regions
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Losonti Tokash
- Sith Devotee
- Posts: 2916
- Joined: 2004-09-29 03:02pm
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Trooper TK12746
- Padawan Learner
- Posts: 422
- Joined: 2005-05-20 09:20pm
- Location: Unknown Regions
Just a note: I've taken liberties with firepowers and stuff, notably making Imperial stuff weaker. Cause it makes a better story than "The imperials hyperspaced in and wiped out the entire system with massed turbolaser fire, easily demolishing the paltry resistance mounted by the ships currently in the system."
---
Fleetmaster Essa was having a good day. The battle for this planet would be over in a few minutes, and the cleansing of the planet would take only a few minutes more. Within the next standard time-section, they would be moving on to the next planet. As he looked around at his crew and the displays, he noticed something unusual on the Slipspace sensor screen, currenty unattended. Dismissing it as something trivial, he turned his attention back to the battle outside.
---
Task Force Storm dropped out of hyperspace 5 light-minutes from the coordinates provided in the transmission. Sensors were activated, readings were taken, and a summary of the battle was presented to Captain Caleb. At this range, the firepower estimates of the ships were sketchy, but definitely below the levels of Imperial ships. If the sensor readings he was getting were right, none of the weapons fired there would be too much of a threat to the Imperial ships. Massed fire could surely take them down, but none of the ship captains were that stupid or overconfident to allow that to happen to them.
The diamond formation of ships aligned themselves with their destination, and made a quick hyperspace hop to the coordinates.
---
Slipspace travel was always hard on the Spartans, mainly because that they were basically useless on a starship, unless it was a hostile starship and their objective involved killing the enemy. All they could do right now was the same thing that they always did while travelling. They cleaned and repaired equipment, caught up on news, exchanged messages with other Spartans deployed elsewhere, and rested. The rest was arguably the most important part. Spartans could fight for days on end, but eventually their bodies would tire and refuse to go on, and not all the will power afforded to them by their years of training and experience could overcome that. Fatigue was a harsh enemy, and it was better to avoid it than to fight it. This trip was short, however, and there was no time for sleep. They would have to do with a mental clearing and some food. They also prepared for ship boarding actions, the most likely kind of combat that they would be seeing in the upcoming battle. Not that it was likely they would be used. Most likely they would arrive in-system too late, and make a quick dash away to "safe" territory, surviving to fight another day. Not the most glorious situation, but the most likely.
---
Milliseconds after they jumped, the diamond of ships found themselves very near the battle, and just behind the Covenant line, not a good position. The sudden appearance of four alien ships certainly drew a lot of attention, from both sides. At first glance, they were obviously not Covenant ships, which favored long, curved lines and smooth edges. The Imperial ships, especially the Carrack Cruisers, very much resembled the ships of the UNSC.
Initial shock passing, the Covenant ships found themselves sandwiched in between two small forces of Human ships, nothing they couldn't handle.
Caleb surveyed the ships, both alive and dead hulks, that littered local space. The ships of the Covenant looked strangely elegant and deadly at the same time, there was no doubt that they were warships. The UNSC ships were much more function than form, and their boxy, gunmetal-gray appearances suggested that they meant business. All this didn't change Caleb's first order though.
"Standby fighters, prepare to launch. Let's see their reaction. Comm, see if you can translate some of the battle chatter."
Shortly after the order was given, the speakers on the bridge started playing some of the translations, mostly consisting of astounded statements, untranslated words that Caleb suspected was swearing, and general confusion. So far the voices were all human, and the comm board readouts showed that the translated transmission were all from the UNSC ships.
Caleb started to ask the comm officer to try to translate the messages from the other side's ships when the tac-display screeched a warning of incoming fire. Plasma torpedoes were racing towards the Imperial ships, far more than those being directed at the UNSC ships. Apparently they were more interested in fighting a new enemy than ones that were already beaten.
---
Fleetmaster Essa was a bit surprised by the appearance of the four ships, but not overly so, and he did not show it. He was surprised, however, when the sensor readings said that they used technology like the Ancients. When the sensors said that humans were onboard those ships, that just made him angry. Opening a channel to all the ships in his fleet, he said "The humans have defiled the ships of the Ancients! We must retake them and clean their corridors of the unworthy filth! Send your boarding parties, our first target is the lead ship!"
Closing the transmission, he saw his ships shifting formation and launching their boarding craft. Plasma torpedoes spewed fire onto the ships, only to have it repelled by the Star Destroyer's shields. Seeing that they were having little effect, Essa ordered, "Turn the ship! Fire the main weapons at the defiled ship! We will down their shields, clearing the way for our warriors to capture the vessel."
A few of the gunnery officers started to voice protests before catching their tongues and obeying orders. They thought, it was better to destroy an Ancient ship than to have it in the hands of the infidels.
---
"Sir, they're all firing on us, shields are draining."
Caleb could indeed see that the shields were weakening from the assault. It was definitely enough excuse to launch a full assault. He ordered, "All ships open fire! Target the closest ones first, make a barrier!"
Lances of green death poured out fromm the Imperial ships, focused on several Covenant cruisers which were unlucky enough to be nearest the diamond of ships. The first cruiser fell after roughly a minute of fire, comparable to the defensive capabilities of the Carrack cruisers. It was a good chance to gather information on the capabilities of the ships.
Without warning, a single bolt of fire impacted the shields of the Imperator, downing them instantly and causing warning alarms to go off all over the ship. The incoming plasma suddely stopped, veered off in other directions, or similarly missed the Imperator-II.
"What are they doing? Sensors, report!"
"Incoming ships sir, lots of 'em! I think they're boarding craft!"
Sighing deeply, Caleb flicked a comm switch and said, "All hands prepare for boarders! Stormtroopers to your sections! Prepare to repel boarders!"
The 9700 stormtroopers aboard would be a formidable enemy, but there were thousands of boarding craft among the enemy fleet, and none would want to miss this action.
---
Fleetmaster Essa was having a good day. The battle for this planet would be over in a few minutes, and the cleansing of the planet would take only a few minutes more. Within the next standard time-section, they would be moving on to the next planet. As he looked around at his crew and the displays, he noticed something unusual on the Slipspace sensor screen, currenty unattended. Dismissing it as something trivial, he turned his attention back to the battle outside.
---
Task Force Storm dropped out of hyperspace 5 light-minutes from the coordinates provided in the transmission. Sensors were activated, readings were taken, and a summary of the battle was presented to Captain Caleb. At this range, the firepower estimates of the ships were sketchy, but definitely below the levels of Imperial ships. If the sensor readings he was getting were right, none of the weapons fired there would be too much of a threat to the Imperial ships. Massed fire could surely take them down, but none of the ship captains were that stupid or overconfident to allow that to happen to them.
The diamond formation of ships aligned themselves with their destination, and made a quick hyperspace hop to the coordinates.
---
Slipspace travel was always hard on the Spartans, mainly because that they were basically useless on a starship, unless it was a hostile starship and their objective involved killing the enemy. All they could do right now was the same thing that they always did while travelling. They cleaned and repaired equipment, caught up on news, exchanged messages with other Spartans deployed elsewhere, and rested. The rest was arguably the most important part. Spartans could fight for days on end, but eventually their bodies would tire and refuse to go on, and not all the will power afforded to them by their years of training and experience could overcome that. Fatigue was a harsh enemy, and it was better to avoid it than to fight it. This trip was short, however, and there was no time for sleep. They would have to do with a mental clearing and some food. They also prepared for ship boarding actions, the most likely kind of combat that they would be seeing in the upcoming battle. Not that it was likely they would be used. Most likely they would arrive in-system too late, and make a quick dash away to "safe" territory, surviving to fight another day. Not the most glorious situation, but the most likely.
---
Milliseconds after they jumped, the diamond of ships found themselves very near the battle, and just behind the Covenant line, not a good position. The sudden appearance of four alien ships certainly drew a lot of attention, from both sides. At first glance, they were obviously not Covenant ships, which favored long, curved lines and smooth edges. The Imperial ships, especially the Carrack Cruisers, very much resembled the ships of the UNSC.
Initial shock passing, the Covenant ships found themselves sandwiched in between two small forces of Human ships, nothing they couldn't handle.
Caleb surveyed the ships, both alive and dead hulks, that littered local space. The ships of the Covenant looked strangely elegant and deadly at the same time, there was no doubt that they were warships. The UNSC ships were much more function than form, and their boxy, gunmetal-gray appearances suggested that they meant business. All this didn't change Caleb's first order though.
"Standby fighters, prepare to launch. Let's see their reaction. Comm, see if you can translate some of the battle chatter."
Shortly after the order was given, the speakers on the bridge started playing some of the translations, mostly consisting of astounded statements, untranslated words that Caleb suspected was swearing, and general confusion. So far the voices were all human, and the comm board readouts showed that the translated transmission were all from the UNSC ships.
Caleb started to ask the comm officer to try to translate the messages from the other side's ships when the tac-display screeched a warning of incoming fire. Plasma torpedoes were racing towards the Imperial ships, far more than those being directed at the UNSC ships. Apparently they were more interested in fighting a new enemy than ones that were already beaten.
---
Fleetmaster Essa was a bit surprised by the appearance of the four ships, but not overly so, and he did not show it. He was surprised, however, when the sensor readings said that they used technology like the Ancients. When the sensors said that humans were onboard those ships, that just made him angry. Opening a channel to all the ships in his fleet, he said "The humans have defiled the ships of the Ancients! We must retake them and clean their corridors of the unworthy filth! Send your boarding parties, our first target is the lead ship!"
Closing the transmission, he saw his ships shifting formation and launching their boarding craft. Plasma torpedoes spewed fire onto the ships, only to have it repelled by the Star Destroyer's shields. Seeing that they were having little effect, Essa ordered, "Turn the ship! Fire the main weapons at the defiled ship! We will down their shields, clearing the way for our warriors to capture the vessel."
A few of the gunnery officers started to voice protests before catching their tongues and obeying orders. They thought, it was better to destroy an Ancient ship than to have it in the hands of the infidels.
---
"Sir, they're all firing on us, shields are draining."
Caleb could indeed see that the shields were weakening from the assault. It was definitely enough excuse to launch a full assault. He ordered, "All ships open fire! Target the closest ones first, make a barrier!"
Lances of green death poured out fromm the Imperial ships, focused on several Covenant cruisers which were unlucky enough to be nearest the diamond of ships. The first cruiser fell after roughly a minute of fire, comparable to the defensive capabilities of the Carrack cruisers. It was a good chance to gather information on the capabilities of the ships.
Without warning, a single bolt of fire impacted the shields of the Imperator, downing them instantly and causing warning alarms to go off all over the ship. The incoming plasma suddely stopped, veered off in other directions, or similarly missed the Imperator-II.
"What are they doing? Sensors, report!"
"Incoming ships sir, lots of 'em! I think they're boarding craft!"
Sighing deeply, Caleb flicked a comm switch and said, "All hands prepare for boarders! Stormtroopers to your sections! Prepare to repel boarders!"
The 9700 stormtroopers aboard would be a formidable enemy, but there were thousands of boarding craft among the enemy fleet, and none would want to miss this action.
-
Ford Prefect
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Setesh
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I foresee a grunt yelling 'I want his helmet.'Ford Prefect wrote:Excellent Hawkings, very well written indeed. I can't wait for the Stormies to try their hands on the Covenant.
That aside the battle should prove interesting. Stormtroopers don't fight much like colonial marines, their more like budget spartans. That and E-11's are far more powerful than UNSC battle rifles. I'd say moreso than the covenant plasma rifle as well but its hard to gauge as the plasma weapons the covenant use don't do much damage to inert targets like walls.
All in all its pretty even, the elites have shields, but the stormies tatics and absurd battle dicipline will surprise them.
"Nobody ever inferred from the multiple infirmities of Windows that Bill Gates was infinitely benevolent, omniscient, and able to fix everything. " Argument against god's perfection.
My Snow's art portfolio.
My Snow's art portfolio.
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Ford Prefect
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That Grunt thing made me fall off my chair.
I wonder if the battle will feature endless blast doors for the Covenant to cut through. The sheer frustration would give them untold strength! But more seriously, I want to know how well an Elite Commander would do with a plasma blade in the close confines of a battleship's corridors (I am forcibly reminded of Truth and Reconciliation on Legendary *shudder*). Afterall, boarding actions are one of the few times I can justify my all time favourite past time of close combat.
I wonder if the battle will feature endless blast doors for the Covenant to cut through. The sheer frustration would give them untold strength! But more seriously, I want to know how well an Elite Commander would do with a plasma blade in the close confines of a battleship's corridors (I am forcibly reminded of Truth and Reconciliation on Legendary *shudder*). Afterall, boarding actions are one of the few times I can justify my all time favourite past time of close combat.
What is Project Zohar?
Here's to a certain mostly harmless nutcase.
Here's to a certain mostly harmless nutcase.
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Losonti Tokash
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Ford Prefect
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Sidewinder
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Considering that the Covenant are trying to exterminate the human race, and the Empire is dominated by humans, will the Covies attack an Imperial planet-- maybe Tattoine-- to achieve their goals, stupidly starting a two-front war in the process?
I can imagine Grand Admiral Thrawn being ordered to teach the Covies a lesson. He'd probably BDZ the planet housing the Grand Council, then take advantage of the resulting chaos to make Tartarus an offer he can't refuse: to join the Imperial Army with the rank of Colonel, or join the Prophets in death.
The Arbiter might end up allying with the Rebel Alliance, his hatred of humans overcome by desperation in the face of an Imperial-UN pact. Meanwhile, Master Chief might get the same offer as the late Jango Fett, with enhanced armor-- shields resistant to plasma weaponry and low-velocity blows, e.g., a butt stroke from a battle rifle-- to boot.
By the way, are the Gravemind and the Flood going to get involved?
I can imagine Grand Admiral Thrawn being ordered to teach the Covies a lesson. He'd probably BDZ the planet housing the Grand Council, then take advantage of the resulting chaos to make Tartarus an offer he can't refuse: to join the Imperial Army with the rank of Colonel, or join the Prophets in death.
The Arbiter might end up allying with the Rebel Alliance, his hatred of humans overcome by desperation in the face of an Imperial-UN pact. Meanwhile, Master Chief might get the same offer as the late Jango Fett, with enhanced armor-- shields resistant to plasma weaponry and low-velocity blows, e.g., a butt stroke from a battle rifle-- to boot.
By the way, are the Gravemind and the Flood going to get involved?
Please do not make Americans fight giant monsters.
Those gun nuts do not understand the meaning of "overkill," and will simply use weapon after weapon of mass destruction (WMD) until the monster is dead, or until they run out of weapons.
They have more WMD than there are monsters for us to fight. (More insanity here.)
Those gun nuts do not understand the meaning of "overkill," and will simply use weapon after weapon of mass destruction (WMD) until the monster is dead, or until they run out of weapons.
They have more WMD than there are monsters for us to fight. (More insanity here.)
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Ford Prefect
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Sidewinder
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I didn't read the word "wormhole" in the story, and assumed the Imperials simply hyperdrived out of the known borders of their galaxy to enter the Halo galaxy. That means no wormhole is necessary-- travel can be done both ways if given enough time-- and the Covies are on their way to Imperial Japan/Nazi Germany-style self-destruction.
Please do not make Americans fight giant monsters.
Those gun nuts do not understand the meaning of "overkill," and will simply use weapon after weapon of mass destruction (WMD) until the monster is dead, or until they run out of weapons.
They have more WMD than there are monsters for us to fight. (More insanity here.)
Those gun nuts do not understand the meaning of "overkill," and will simply use weapon after weapon of mass destruction (WMD) until the monster is dead, or until they run out of weapons.
They have more WMD than there are monsters for us to fight. (More insanity here.)
The Covenant aren't stupid. And what's with all the Thrawn attention? There *are* other fleet admirals you know, and even other Grand Admirals! Besides, Tartarus would never take the offer to join the Imperial Army, and Thrawn would never give the offer.
BTW, I must say that writing First Contacts that aren't "Surrender or die" is pretty strange.
---
Task Force Storm, the "lightest" Task Force in the fleet, consisted of just four ships. The command ship was a fully modern Imperator-II class Star Destroyer. Accomplanying it were two Bayonet-class cruisers, tough little ships that resembled monitors more than anything else. The last ship to round out the group was a Modular Taskforce Cruiser, with a recon module attached. All had been modified in some ways, notably the Modular Taskforce Cruiser had traded its 15 medium turbolasers for a balanced mix of anti-fighter and anti-capital ship weaponry. They were not a combat-oriented task force, but against the locals, they were a formidable force.
Now, all lighter weapons were trained on the boarders incoming on the Star Destroyer. Newly-launched TIE interceptors chased after boarding craft, while being pursued by the Covenant Seraph fighters. Imperial pilots soon found that the Seraph fighters were similar in speed and maneuverability, and required several laser cannon blasts to down. The beam weapons mounted on the Seraphs also required several hits to down the TIE craft, but the minature plasma torpedoes were very deadly. They were fast, accurate, and powerful, capable of downing a TIE in just one direct hit. They were also plentiful, as ammunition did not seem to run out. The fighter pilots would be in for a challenge in this battle.
Alongside the larger boarding craft were insertion pods, used by the Elites to gain quick access to enemy ships. They were much faster and smaller targets, making them nearly impossible to shoot down. They were also space-black, which made them impossible to identify amid the jamming. Dozens had already landed on the Star Destroyer, and vac-suited Elites were already crawling over the hull, looking for an entry point. They soon found one, an airlock with the Star Destroyer's contingent of Spacetroopers pouring out and engaging the elites. As the airlock opened, bright blaster bolts emerged and hit Elites, who reeled under the impacts, alive but surprised and weakened. Single shots from the spacetroopers' rifles would not kill a fully-shielded Elite. As the imperial troops figured this out, massed fire started heading in their direction, both plasma bolts and physical projectiles. The plasma was shrugged off by the heavy space armor, but needles would lodge in the suits, exploding and creating large holes from which atmosphere would jet out, sending the trooper flying off the ship and into space, quickly dying. Grenades from the Brutes' native weapons were even worse. The flat trajectory mde it much easier to aim the heavy projectiles, and a direct hit would blast a large hole in the armor where it struck. The shrapnel from the explosion could potentially puncture other suits, making it an extremely effective weapon in the situation.
In comparison, the Spacetroopers were having a hard time. The newest model of Spacetrooper armor was lighter and sleeker than previous lines, making the troopers far more mobile. However, they sacrificed armor for this, the effects of which were quickly becoming evident. On the weapons side, Covenant Elites took at least two hits to down, and that was if one aimed carefully. However, that was only for the standard trooper blaster. Larger weapons, and automatic weapons were much more effective in clearing enemies. This version of the armor also did not include the built-in blaster cannon, but did have the miniature proton torpedo launcher. However, the launcher was not used, for fear that it would damage the ship and possibly breach the exterior armor. Even so, the two platoons of spacetroopers were more than holding their own in the defensive operation.
Then the boarding craft arrived.
Some of the craft immediately started cutting into the hull while other discharged their troops on the "surface" to fight. This meant very bad news for the spacetroopers, as fuel rod cannons were now in play. the glowing green beams meant certain annihilation for stationary forces, which was a lesson very quickly and painfully learned as the first volley came in. The spacetrooper commander gave the retreat order, painfully aware that the outer surface of the ship now belonged to the Covenant. They had done their job though, the Covenant had been significantly delayed by the spacetroopers, and inside the Star Destroyer, crewmen had been arming and setting up fixed-weapon emplacements. The battle for the interior of the ship would be bloody work.
---
The UNSC cruiser Halcyon, with Captain Courtney Kerrigan, was now in command of the UNSC defenders. The other cruiser had been gutted and burned by plasma torpedoes, leaving little wreckage and few bodies. Her old ship had been hit by quite a few torpedoes as well, but true to reputation, the ship was mostly functional. The same could be said about most of the crew, including the captain, who had been thrown against a protruding console by a torpedo hit. Thankfully, the circuit breakers prevented electrical overloads from reaching bridge consoles and displays, preventing any major fires or electrical burns.
Captain Kerrigan's fleet was a sorry mess when the alien ships had jumped in. They had been scattering, launching occasional rounds at Covenant ships, and trying to protect the transports that were escaping the planet. The battle was already lost when the four unkonwn ships jumped in and proceeded to annihilate the Covenant fleet. Within a space of one minute, the had downed three of the remaining two dozen cruisers, not to mention damaged nearly all of them. The detroyers and frigates had been ignored for now, but they would surely be targeted soon enough. This was divine intervention at it's best, and Courtney was almost going to give the order to stop and watch before coming to her senses.
Signalling the comm, she opened up communications with the rest of the remaining fleet and said "All ships, regroup at rally point Bravo. Prepare to jump to slipspace if these alien ships turn out to be hostile to us as well."
The remaining half-dozen destroyers, frigates, and the Halcyon started towards the rally point, distinctly aware that a maelstrom of battle was taking place, and they were not in it.
---
"Captain, spacetroopers report they are falling back. The outer hull of the ship is swarming in these aliens, there must be at least a thousand already."
"Call the gunboats back, tell them to fire on the boarders with low-powered shots, maybe we can take out some more of them before they all come crawling in there."
"Aye sir, Skiprays are incoming."
At their lowest setting, the turrets on the Skipray Blastboats could fire in a nearly continuous stream, and were still more than enough to vaporize the Covenant troops. The dozen gunboats came in with guns blazing, carving great swaths through the Covenant forces still outside the hull. Some of them fired on the boarding craft that were cutting through the hull, but most of them had already unloaded their troops and were fleeing. The only targets available were Covenant massing at cut-open entrances or airlocks. Before long, there weren't enough targets for the Skiprays to be effective, and they were ordered to other tasks.
The capital ship battle was still going strong during all of this. It looked like the Covenant fleet would be completely destroyed if they didn't retreat quickly. Indeed, some of the ships were already fleeing, not wanting to commit suicide by engaging the Imperials. The battle was much like engaging a group of Rebel capital ships, or those of pirate groups. Both had under-par ships, which had no chance against the ships of the Imperial Navy. With one notable exception.
The command ships was still intact, a ways away from the battle. It's main gun had crushed the Star Destroyer's shield, and another shot would surely gut the ship. However, it was not firing, even at the other Imperial ships.
---
Fleetmaster Essa having a bad day. His fleet was being decimated by the overwhelming firepower of the Ancient ships, and if he remained here, he would surely loose his entire fleet. He would have to retreat, call for reinforcements, and hope that the boarders from his fleet would take control of the ship and use it to force the humans on the other ships to surrender. Praying that the Prophets would not take his head, he signalled the fleet to retreat. None questioned him, even those that were the most fanatical he had ever met, or even the one that he suspected was a spy sent by the Hierarchs. Continuing the battle was madness, and could even be interpreted as being incompetent and stupid. No, he would fall back, make his report, and hope that he would have a prize for his superiors at the end of the day.
---
"I don't believe it. The Covenant are retreating..."
Captain Kerrigan nodded and said "They know that they have lost this battle. They are more outmatched by these new ships as we were outmatched by them. Get me some utility drone readings of those ships, we may be able to learn something about them from here."
Just a few seconds after the order was given, the sensors officer said, "Ma'am, there's gotta be hundreds of boarding craft over there, and by the looks of it, they're already inside. Utility drone feeds are coming in, hold on."
The main viewscreen filled with pictures of the Star Destroyer and the immediate space. Instantly visible were hundreds of Covenant bodies, floating around the massive ship like a cloud of death. Also visible was one of the spacetroopers, blasted off the ship by a concussion wave. The armor was battered, but did not seem to be breached anywhere.
"Sensors, what can you tell me about that alien soldier?"
"Hold on ma'am, that armor is reflecting our scans. Ok, I've got it. Whoa..."
Courtney walked over to the sensor station and asked, "What?"
The sensors officer stared unbelievingly at the display and said "Those are human lifesigns, that person is still alive..."
Courtney's mind reeled with the possibilities. Had a scout group discovered these alien ships? If so, why hadn't they received any communications from them? What if they were pirates? Pirates were not unheard-of in these times, though they were shunned and typically didn't go near planets.
The science officer now spoke up, "Ma'am? They're not any humans from around here, that's for sure. Joy says their language makes no sense, she's working on translating it now."
Courtney acknowledged her science officer, then said "Drag that person back here, and send more drones. More may have survived, and we can get more sensor readings too."
"Aye ma'am."
---
The stormtrooper tapped Captain Caleb on the shouder, then pointed to his hip.
"With respect sir, your gun isn't big enough."
Captain Caleb turned to look at the stormtrooper, and asked "What do you suggest I do about it then?"
The stormtrooper produced a crate of weapons and said "All crew are to be armed with at least Class Four blaster pistols or Class Three rifles as ordered by the security commander. As you are an officer, you have trained in basic operation of both pistols and rifles. Please make a selection sir."
Cocking an eyebrow, Caleb obliged and picked out a large pistol. The stormtrooper began reading off statistics. "Razor Pistol, Class Five pistol, armament preferred by the ISB. 30 shot clip, 50 meter reccomended range. It will kill your enemies nicely sir."
"Thank you trooper. you're dismissed."
They exchanged salutes, and Caleb wondered how bad the situation was going to get.
During all of this, the science station had been compiling the vocabulary from the UNSC ships, and creating a dictionary. With some quick programming, a protocol droid could be modified to speak and understand the language used by the UNSC. The battle chatter provided a large variety of terms, most of them combat related, but some others as well. The dictionary contained thousands of words, enough to carry on a ridumentary conversation, but for diplomatic negotiations, more data would be needed.
"Sir, the human ships are initiating communications. Audio only."
"Route it through the translator and put it up. I'd like to hear what they say."
A few seconds later, the translated message came though.
---
"Joy, how is the language translation going?"
Halcyon's AI appeared at it's pedestal and said "I've gotten a lot of communications from their little fleet, pretty well-encrypted but nothing I can't handle. Compared to Covenant religious speaking, their language is a piece of cake. I don't have enough info yet to carry on a conversation though."
Courtney nodded and said "Alright then, we'll just send an untranslated message. They've probably been doing the same thing we have, and we've sent a lot more messages than they have."
"Channel's open for you ma'am, speak away."
Composing herself, Courtney spoke, "This is Captain Kerrigan of the UNSC cruiser Halcyon, please respond."
---
"I think 'captain' is one of their ranks, sir. Either someone who commands a ship or commands a fleet of ships. 'Kerrigan' is obviously her name, and the rest of the message the translator got."
"Are you fairly sure that it's correct?"
Laughing a bit, the science officer replied, "Can't be sure sir, They might be ordering us to surrender or they'll fling frozen hot-dogs at us. I'm fairly sure that the translation software is good though."
Frowning at the joke, Caleb asked "Can you translate a message that I send?"
"Better send it in basic sir, they'll probably be doing the same thing we are."
"Send an untranslated and a translated version of my transmission. Hopefully they'll get my meaning."
---
"This is Captain Caleb of the Imperial Star Destroyer Rampage, responding to your message. We have no intentions of engaging in hostile actions against you."
"Well that's certainly a relief, assuming we translated the message right."
Joy appeared on her pedestal again and said "They sent us an untranslated message too. Looks like their translation software is pretty good, no errors. Of course, maybe we both made the same errors, can't tell for sure."
"Alright, do the same thing with my next message."
"Ready for you ma'am"
"Thank you for assisting in the defense of this planet. We notice that your ship is being boarded by Covenant forces, would you like assistance in defending your ship?"
Several seconds later, the response came in, "Assistance would be appreciated."
The sensors officer spoke up, saying "Ma'am? The Firebrand is back, they've arrived 200,000 km behind the alien fleet."
"The Spartans are back too?"
"Yes ma'am, they report that the Spartans have finished their mission, and that they were going to report back to REACH before hearing our call for help."
"Tell them to prepare for anti-boarding work, and send them in."
BTW, I must say that writing First Contacts that aren't "Surrender or die" is pretty strange.
---
Task Force Storm, the "lightest" Task Force in the fleet, consisted of just four ships. The command ship was a fully modern Imperator-II class Star Destroyer. Accomplanying it were two Bayonet-class cruisers, tough little ships that resembled monitors more than anything else. The last ship to round out the group was a Modular Taskforce Cruiser, with a recon module attached. All had been modified in some ways, notably the Modular Taskforce Cruiser had traded its 15 medium turbolasers for a balanced mix of anti-fighter and anti-capital ship weaponry. They were not a combat-oriented task force, but against the locals, they were a formidable force.
Now, all lighter weapons were trained on the boarders incoming on the Star Destroyer. Newly-launched TIE interceptors chased after boarding craft, while being pursued by the Covenant Seraph fighters. Imperial pilots soon found that the Seraph fighters were similar in speed and maneuverability, and required several laser cannon blasts to down. The beam weapons mounted on the Seraphs also required several hits to down the TIE craft, but the minature plasma torpedoes were very deadly. They were fast, accurate, and powerful, capable of downing a TIE in just one direct hit. They were also plentiful, as ammunition did not seem to run out. The fighter pilots would be in for a challenge in this battle.
Alongside the larger boarding craft were insertion pods, used by the Elites to gain quick access to enemy ships. They were much faster and smaller targets, making them nearly impossible to shoot down. They were also space-black, which made them impossible to identify amid the jamming. Dozens had already landed on the Star Destroyer, and vac-suited Elites were already crawling over the hull, looking for an entry point. They soon found one, an airlock with the Star Destroyer's contingent of Spacetroopers pouring out and engaging the elites. As the airlock opened, bright blaster bolts emerged and hit Elites, who reeled under the impacts, alive but surprised and weakened. Single shots from the spacetroopers' rifles would not kill a fully-shielded Elite. As the imperial troops figured this out, massed fire started heading in their direction, both plasma bolts and physical projectiles. The plasma was shrugged off by the heavy space armor, but needles would lodge in the suits, exploding and creating large holes from which atmosphere would jet out, sending the trooper flying off the ship and into space, quickly dying. Grenades from the Brutes' native weapons were even worse. The flat trajectory mde it much easier to aim the heavy projectiles, and a direct hit would blast a large hole in the armor where it struck. The shrapnel from the explosion could potentially puncture other suits, making it an extremely effective weapon in the situation.
In comparison, the Spacetroopers were having a hard time. The newest model of Spacetrooper armor was lighter and sleeker than previous lines, making the troopers far more mobile. However, they sacrificed armor for this, the effects of which were quickly becoming evident. On the weapons side, Covenant Elites took at least two hits to down, and that was if one aimed carefully. However, that was only for the standard trooper blaster. Larger weapons, and automatic weapons were much more effective in clearing enemies. This version of the armor also did not include the built-in blaster cannon, but did have the miniature proton torpedo launcher. However, the launcher was not used, for fear that it would damage the ship and possibly breach the exterior armor. Even so, the two platoons of spacetroopers were more than holding their own in the defensive operation.
Then the boarding craft arrived.
Some of the craft immediately started cutting into the hull while other discharged their troops on the "surface" to fight. This meant very bad news for the spacetroopers, as fuel rod cannons were now in play. the glowing green beams meant certain annihilation for stationary forces, which was a lesson very quickly and painfully learned as the first volley came in. The spacetrooper commander gave the retreat order, painfully aware that the outer surface of the ship now belonged to the Covenant. They had done their job though, the Covenant had been significantly delayed by the spacetroopers, and inside the Star Destroyer, crewmen had been arming and setting up fixed-weapon emplacements. The battle for the interior of the ship would be bloody work.
---
The UNSC cruiser Halcyon, with Captain Courtney Kerrigan, was now in command of the UNSC defenders. The other cruiser had been gutted and burned by plasma torpedoes, leaving little wreckage and few bodies. Her old ship had been hit by quite a few torpedoes as well, but true to reputation, the ship was mostly functional. The same could be said about most of the crew, including the captain, who had been thrown against a protruding console by a torpedo hit. Thankfully, the circuit breakers prevented electrical overloads from reaching bridge consoles and displays, preventing any major fires or electrical burns.
Captain Kerrigan's fleet was a sorry mess when the alien ships had jumped in. They had been scattering, launching occasional rounds at Covenant ships, and trying to protect the transports that were escaping the planet. The battle was already lost when the four unkonwn ships jumped in and proceeded to annihilate the Covenant fleet. Within a space of one minute, the had downed three of the remaining two dozen cruisers, not to mention damaged nearly all of them. The detroyers and frigates had been ignored for now, but they would surely be targeted soon enough. This was divine intervention at it's best, and Courtney was almost going to give the order to stop and watch before coming to her senses.
Signalling the comm, she opened up communications with the rest of the remaining fleet and said "All ships, regroup at rally point Bravo. Prepare to jump to slipspace if these alien ships turn out to be hostile to us as well."
The remaining half-dozen destroyers, frigates, and the Halcyon started towards the rally point, distinctly aware that a maelstrom of battle was taking place, and they were not in it.
---
"Captain, spacetroopers report they are falling back. The outer hull of the ship is swarming in these aliens, there must be at least a thousand already."
"Call the gunboats back, tell them to fire on the boarders with low-powered shots, maybe we can take out some more of them before they all come crawling in there."
"Aye sir, Skiprays are incoming."
At their lowest setting, the turrets on the Skipray Blastboats could fire in a nearly continuous stream, and were still more than enough to vaporize the Covenant troops. The dozen gunboats came in with guns blazing, carving great swaths through the Covenant forces still outside the hull. Some of them fired on the boarding craft that were cutting through the hull, but most of them had already unloaded their troops and were fleeing. The only targets available were Covenant massing at cut-open entrances or airlocks. Before long, there weren't enough targets for the Skiprays to be effective, and they were ordered to other tasks.
The capital ship battle was still going strong during all of this. It looked like the Covenant fleet would be completely destroyed if they didn't retreat quickly. Indeed, some of the ships were already fleeing, not wanting to commit suicide by engaging the Imperials. The battle was much like engaging a group of Rebel capital ships, or those of pirate groups. Both had under-par ships, which had no chance against the ships of the Imperial Navy. With one notable exception.
The command ships was still intact, a ways away from the battle. It's main gun had crushed the Star Destroyer's shield, and another shot would surely gut the ship. However, it was not firing, even at the other Imperial ships.
---
Fleetmaster Essa having a bad day. His fleet was being decimated by the overwhelming firepower of the Ancient ships, and if he remained here, he would surely loose his entire fleet. He would have to retreat, call for reinforcements, and hope that the boarders from his fleet would take control of the ship and use it to force the humans on the other ships to surrender. Praying that the Prophets would not take his head, he signalled the fleet to retreat. None questioned him, even those that were the most fanatical he had ever met, or even the one that he suspected was a spy sent by the Hierarchs. Continuing the battle was madness, and could even be interpreted as being incompetent and stupid. No, he would fall back, make his report, and hope that he would have a prize for his superiors at the end of the day.
---
"I don't believe it. The Covenant are retreating..."
Captain Kerrigan nodded and said "They know that they have lost this battle. They are more outmatched by these new ships as we were outmatched by them. Get me some utility drone readings of those ships, we may be able to learn something about them from here."
Just a few seconds after the order was given, the sensors officer said, "Ma'am, there's gotta be hundreds of boarding craft over there, and by the looks of it, they're already inside. Utility drone feeds are coming in, hold on."
The main viewscreen filled with pictures of the Star Destroyer and the immediate space. Instantly visible were hundreds of Covenant bodies, floating around the massive ship like a cloud of death. Also visible was one of the spacetroopers, blasted off the ship by a concussion wave. The armor was battered, but did not seem to be breached anywhere.
"Sensors, what can you tell me about that alien soldier?"
"Hold on ma'am, that armor is reflecting our scans. Ok, I've got it. Whoa..."
Courtney walked over to the sensor station and asked, "What?"
The sensors officer stared unbelievingly at the display and said "Those are human lifesigns, that person is still alive..."
Courtney's mind reeled with the possibilities. Had a scout group discovered these alien ships? If so, why hadn't they received any communications from them? What if they were pirates? Pirates were not unheard-of in these times, though they were shunned and typically didn't go near planets.
The science officer now spoke up, "Ma'am? They're not any humans from around here, that's for sure. Joy says their language makes no sense, she's working on translating it now."
Courtney acknowledged her science officer, then said "Drag that person back here, and send more drones. More may have survived, and we can get more sensor readings too."
"Aye ma'am."
---
The stormtrooper tapped Captain Caleb on the shouder, then pointed to his hip.
"With respect sir, your gun isn't big enough."
Captain Caleb turned to look at the stormtrooper, and asked "What do you suggest I do about it then?"
The stormtrooper produced a crate of weapons and said "All crew are to be armed with at least Class Four blaster pistols or Class Three rifles as ordered by the security commander. As you are an officer, you have trained in basic operation of both pistols and rifles. Please make a selection sir."
Cocking an eyebrow, Caleb obliged and picked out a large pistol. The stormtrooper began reading off statistics. "Razor Pistol, Class Five pistol, armament preferred by the ISB. 30 shot clip, 50 meter reccomended range. It will kill your enemies nicely sir."
"Thank you trooper. you're dismissed."
They exchanged salutes, and Caleb wondered how bad the situation was going to get.
During all of this, the science station had been compiling the vocabulary from the UNSC ships, and creating a dictionary. With some quick programming, a protocol droid could be modified to speak and understand the language used by the UNSC. The battle chatter provided a large variety of terms, most of them combat related, but some others as well. The dictionary contained thousands of words, enough to carry on a ridumentary conversation, but for diplomatic negotiations, more data would be needed.
"Sir, the human ships are initiating communications. Audio only."
"Route it through the translator and put it up. I'd like to hear what they say."
A few seconds later, the translated message came though.
---
"Joy, how is the language translation going?"
Halcyon's AI appeared at it's pedestal and said "I've gotten a lot of communications from their little fleet, pretty well-encrypted but nothing I can't handle. Compared to Covenant religious speaking, their language is a piece of cake. I don't have enough info yet to carry on a conversation though."
Courtney nodded and said "Alright then, we'll just send an untranslated message. They've probably been doing the same thing we have, and we've sent a lot more messages than they have."
"Channel's open for you ma'am, speak away."
Composing herself, Courtney spoke, "This is Captain Kerrigan of the UNSC cruiser Halcyon, please respond."
---
"I think 'captain' is one of their ranks, sir. Either someone who commands a ship or commands a fleet of ships. 'Kerrigan' is obviously her name, and the rest of the message the translator got."
"Are you fairly sure that it's correct?"
Laughing a bit, the science officer replied, "Can't be sure sir, They might be ordering us to surrender or they'll fling frozen hot-dogs at us. I'm fairly sure that the translation software is good though."
Frowning at the joke, Caleb asked "Can you translate a message that I send?"
"Better send it in basic sir, they'll probably be doing the same thing we are."
"Send an untranslated and a translated version of my transmission. Hopefully they'll get my meaning."
---
"This is Captain Caleb of the Imperial Star Destroyer Rampage, responding to your message. We have no intentions of engaging in hostile actions against you."
"Well that's certainly a relief, assuming we translated the message right."
Joy appeared on her pedestal again and said "They sent us an untranslated message too. Looks like their translation software is pretty good, no errors. Of course, maybe we both made the same errors, can't tell for sure."
"Alright, do the same thing with my next message."
"Ready for you ma'am"
"Thank you for assisting in the defense of this planet. We notice that your ship is being boarded by Covenant forces, would you like assistance in defending your ship?"
Several seconds later, the response came in, "Assistance would be appreciated."
The sensors officer spoke up, saying "Ma'am? The Firebrand is back, they've arrived 200,000 km behind the alien fleet."
"The Spartans are back too?"
"Yes ma'am, they report that the Spartans have finished their mission, and that they were going to report back to REACH before hearing our call for help."
"Tell them to prepare for anti-boarding work, and send them in."
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Sidewinder
- Sith Acolyte
- Posts: 5466
- Joined: 2005-05-18 10:23pm
- Location: Feasting on those who fell in battle
- Contact:
WW2 German soldiers weren't stupid. Unfortunately, they were stuck with a raving fanatic as their military/political leader. Considering the Elites' attitudes towards humans-- which gives an indication of the Prophets' attitudes-- I wouldn't put much confidence in the rationality of the Covie leadership.Hawkwings wrote:The Covenant aren't stupid.
Thrawn isn't popular in the Imperial Court-- getting sent to explore the ass end of the galaxy seemed to prove Palpatine didn't like the Chiss, although the Emperor actually wanted him to conquer the outer region planets, and Thrawn used this as an opportunity to build a power base there-- so sending Thrawn on a wild goose chase with ExGal seemed like something Palpatine would do.Hawkwings wrote:And what's with all the Thrawn attention? There *are* other fleet admirals you know, and even other Grand Admirals! Besides, Tartarus would never take the offer to join the Imperial Army, and Thrawn would never give the offer.
Besides, Vader's overkill, although it would be fun if the Sith Lord showed up in High Charity to demonstrate human superiority over the Prophets and Elites-- in the most graphically violent manner imaginable.
Please do not make Americans fight giant monsters.
Those gun nuts do not understand the meaning of "overkill," and will simply use weapon after weapon of mass destruction (WMD) until the monster is dead, or until they run out of weapons.
They have more WMD than there are monsters for us to fight. (More insanity here.)
Those gun nuts do not understand the meaning of "overkill," and will simply use weapon after weapon of mass destruction (WMD) until the monster is dead, or until they run out of weapons.
They have more WMD than there are monsters for us to fight. (More insanity here.)
just a note, I'm not planning on including any characters from Star Wars in my fic. I figure we've already heard about them, time for some new characters!
Plus, the Covenant may be religious fanatics, but in my opinion, the Great Journey is more important to them than exterminating humans. Also, If the Prophets decided to wage war against a whole Galactic Empire... That'll jump-start the Covenant civil war by however long that is.
I'm not looking to write a GE domination story here. But the exploration fleet will be able to start a nice little empire with the stuff they've brought along...
Plus, the Covenant may be religious fanatics, but in my opinion, the Great Journey is more important to them than exterminating humans. Also, If the Prophets decided to wage war against a whole Galactic Empire... That'll jump-start the Covenant civil war by however long that is.
I'm not looking to write a GE domination story here. But the exploration fleet will be able to start a nice little empire with the stuff they've brought along...
Malcolm was the Spartan team's ship boarding specialist. As such, it was very lucky he was in this squad just now. Donning EV thuruster packs and loading equipment into a Pelican, the Spartans moved quickly, knowing that seconds were crucial in this kind of operation. They had taken nearly everything in their private weapons locker, and tranferred it onto the Pelican. Within five minutes of receiving the orders, the Spartans were in space, flying towards the alien ship.
The team was silent as they mentally prepared themselves, but all knew the question they were asking. What was that ship, and where did it come from?
A report came in from the fleet, information on the defending forces. The Spartans weren't surprised that they were human, the surprise was that they had over 9,000 of these "Stormtroopers" on board that well trained, very well equipped, and had a variety of powerful energy weapons that they had never seen before.
Sitting at the controls, Anna quickly glanced over the report, then returned to piloting the ship through the assorted debris that littered this battlefield. Glancing at the hulks that were covenant cruisers, she wondered why that fleet commander had sent them in to assist. If their ground-based weapons were as good as their space weapons, and Anna had no doubt they were, the Spartans would be of very little use in assisting with the anti-boarding work. She suspected it was more of a diplomatic move than anything else. Show a gesture of goodwill to someone else, no matter how small it was, and you gained their trust, at least for a short while. In a war, diplomacy could be as useful, and deadly, as the sharpest knife or the biggest bomb.
The pelican soft-landed on the hull of the Star Destroyer, near an airlock. The airlocks of the two craft were obviously not compatible, so they would have to make a short walk to the airlock. As Anna finished setting the auto-defense systems, she opened a squad-wide channel and said, "Blue 1, tactical command of the squad is now yours for the duration of this op."
Malcolm nodded, then gestured towards the ramp. Making sure that everything was ready, he opened it, and led the group to the airlock. During the walk, the entire team could see the dead bodies of Covenant troops everywhere, floating near the ship's surface and some farther away. There were also bodies of the defenders, though not as many by far. A pair of them were near the airlock, their boots still gripping onto the armor plates and their limp hands still holding blaster rifles. Malcolm gave a quick hand signal, secure their weapons. Anna grabbed one of the rifles and held it up. It was slightly smaller than the MA5B, but with the stock extended it was comfortable to hold and operate. Surprisingly, her suit could interface with the weapon, and an ammo counter appeared on her HUD. Stepping away from the group a bit, Anna braced and fired one shot into space. The blaster bolt shot out into space, leaving no harmful effects on Anna or anything nearby. She turned and shot the body of an Elite nearby, and the effects were fairly spectacular. The armor at the point of impact was charred and blackened, and the body was visibly propelled backwards. Satisfied, Anna returned to the team, and they entered the airlock.
Inside, they found that the hallways were very similar to those of UNSC ships. Gray, white, and well-lit, this hallway was marred by charred portions of wall and blood. It was empty now, either the Covenant won and moved on, or the defenders won and went to find more boarders. They were abou to move on when Anna heard footsteps coming down the hallway and signalled a halt. They hurried into defensible positions and waited for whoever was coming to show themselves. Before long, they saw the white-armored figures of a squad of stormtroopers coming their way, alerted that the "reinforcements" had arrived from the UNSC ships. Still wary as the stormtroopers approached, the Spartans kept their weapons ready to fire in case something happened. The squad leader stepped up to greet them. He lowered his weapon and said something in his language. A fraction of a second later, the a protocol droid provided the translation, "Welcome to our ship, where are the rest of your forces?"
Anna spoke, "We are all the reinforcements. Other friendly forces are not suited to this kind of work."
As the droid provided the translation, the squad leader was obviously surprised and bit curious. He shrugged, and gestured "follow me" to the Spartans, and they took off running towards the nearest firefight.
The team was silent as they mentally prepared themselves, but all knew the question they were asking. What was that ship, and where did it come from?
A report came in from the fleet, information on the defending forces. The Spartans weren't surprised that they were human, the surprise was that they had over 9,000 of these "Stormtroopers" on board that well trained, very well equipped, and had a variety of powerful energy weapons that they had never seen before.
Sitting at the controls, Anna quickly glanced over the report, then returned to piloting the ship through the assorted debris that littered this battlefield. Glancing at the hulks that were covenant cruisers, she wondered why that fleet commander had sent them in to assist. If their ground-based weapons were as good as their space weapons, and Anna had no doubt they were, the Spartans would be of very little use in assisting with the anti-boarding work. She suspected it was more of a diplomatic move than anything else. Show a gesture of goodwill to someone else, no matter how small it was, and you gained their trust, at least for a short while. In a war, diplomacy could be as useful, and deadly, as the sharpest knife or the biggest bomb.
The pelican soft-landed on the hull of the Star Destroyer, near an airlock. The airlocks of the two craft were obviously not compatible, so they would have to make a short walk to the airlock. As Anna finished setting the auto-defense systems, she opened a squad-wide channel and said, "Blue 1, tactical command of the squad is now yours for the duration of this op."
Malcolm nodded, then gestured towards the ramp. Making sure that everything was ready, he opened it, and led the group to the airlock. During the walk, the entire team could see the dead bodies of Covenant troops everywhere, floating near the ship's surface and some farther away. There were also bodies of the defenders, though not as many by far. A pair of them were near the airlock, their boots still gripping onto the armor plates and their limp hands still holding blaster rifles. Malcolm gave a quick hand signal, secure their weapons. Anna grabbed one of the rifles and held it up. It was slightly smaller than the MA5B, but with the stock extended it was comfortable to hold and operate. Surprisingly, her suit could interface with the weapon, and an ammo counter appeared on her HUD. Stepping away from the group a bit, Anna braced and fired one shot into space. The blaster bolt shot out into space, leaving no harmful effects on Anna or anything nearby. She turned and shot the body of an Elite nearby, and the effects were fairly spectacular. The armor at the point of impact was charred and blackened, and the body was visibly propelled backwards. Satisfied, Anna returned to the team, and they entered the airlock.
Inside, they found that the hallways were very similar to those of UNSC ships. Gray, white, and well-lit, this hallway was marred by charred portions of wall and blood. It was empty now, either the Covenant won and moved on, or the defenders won and went to find more boarders. They were abou to move on when Anna heard footsteps coming down the hallway and signalled a halt. They hurried into defensible positions and waited for whoever was coming to show themselves. Before long, they saw the white-armored figures of a squad of stormtroopers coming their way, alerted that the "reinforcements" had arrived from the UNSC ships. Still wary as the stormtroopers approached, the Spartans kept their weapons ready to fire in case something happened. The squad leader stepped up to greet them. He lowered his weapon and said something in his language. A fraction of a second later, the a protocol droid provided the translation, "Welcome to our ship, where are the rest of your forces?"
Anna spoke, "We are all the reinforcements. Other friendly forces are not suited to this kind of work."
As the droid provided the translation, the squad leader was obviously surprised and bit curious. He shrugged, and gestured "follow me" to the Spartans, and they took off running towards the nearest firefight.
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Ford Prefect
- Emperor's Hand
- Posts: 8254
- Joined: 2005-05-16 04:08am
- Location: The real number domain