M6: Battle above Hope (Space)

[Frazer]

Admiral David Vardy
Bridge - UNSC KILLIMANJARO
Clenching tightly.

"Sir! Contacts coming in!" Kim said, his voice cracking a little. Understandably so, Covenant had that ability to strike fear into peoples hearts. David knew it all too well.

"Acknowledged Mr. Kim. Give me a count." David replied calmly. In truth, He was scared too, But he had to maintain some modicum of decorum. For his officers sake. As he looked at Mr. Kim, He saw the same crewman he had just shouted at, over in a corner muttering something to himself while he worked a console. Shaking his head, David brought his attention back to Kim.

"Sir, I count 14 Covenant ships. Tactical analysis and silouhettes mach those of the following: 1 Carrier,
1 Battlecruiser, 4 Destroyers, 3 Frigates and 5 Corvettes sir." Kim said, his face a mask of worry and concern.

Nodding, David then said "Fleet wide transmission." and then a pause. "You can see them for yourselves ladies and gentlemen. Pick your target and fire!" Catch them while they are still orienting!"

Cutting the channel, David then looked at Chakotay. "Give me a solution on that big Carrier bastard. Target it with a MAC and Archer missles. A1-A8."

"Aye. MAC and Archers away!" shouted Chakotay as the shipped shuddered and spat a bolt of lightning towards the Carrier. Unfortuneately, the carrier had anticipated David's strategy and pulsed half of the missiles before they could reach their target. Fortunately, The MAC faired better as it slammed into the Carriers shields, But did not take them down. The white film of the shields flared for a moment and then cooled.

"Get the MAC back up, and fire again!" Shouted David. "Fire Shiva!. Helm, Increase speed to 80%, Course 320 by 201, Declination 000.2"

"Aye sir!" replied Paris. "Course 320 by 201, Declination 000.2"

David only hoped he had enough speed for what he planned next.

IP = In Progress
S = Successful
F = Failed

Current UNSC Objectives:
-Find out the source of the EMP bubble on the city below. (S)
-Fend off Covenant Fleet. (F)
-Make Contact with the troops in the city. (F)

Current UNSC Military Strength:
Vessels:
1 Carrier
4 Cruisers (1 Destroyed)
3 Destroyers (3 Destroyed)
6 Frigates (6 Destroyed)
8 Corvettes (8 Destroyed)

UNSC Fleets:
- 14th Tactical Response Fleet (Retreating)
- 22nd Tactical Cruiser Group (Unable to retreat)

Current Covenant Objectives:
-Destroy the Human ships before they destroy us! (S)
-Determine a method of regaining contact with our troops below. (IP)

Current Covenant Military Strength:
Vessels:
1 Reverence Class Cruiser
1 DDS-Class Escort Carrier (Destroyed)
2 CCS-Class Battlecruisers (2 Destroyed)
4 Destroyers (4 Destroyed)
3 Frigates (3 Destroyed)
5 Corvettes (2 Destroyed)

[Cabel]

[Planet Hope: Orbit: 14th Tactical Response Fleet: UNSCS Passchendaele: Bridge: Year 2547] 

“UNSCS Passchendaele to the UNSCS Hibernian, we’ve got you covered. Continue on current heading at flank speed,” Captain Matvey Borislavich Galina said into the open inter-ship com-line to the Charon Class Light Frigate Hibernian. He’d requested Lieutenant Louise Denrae at the Communications station to open a channel directly in response to the Hibernian’s own request while crossing the deck from his command chair in the recessed pit to the Lieutenant’s station. “Commander Qelar, prime the ARCHER batteries and coordinate with Nadezhda on the MLA and MAC firing solutions. Target a point, with the forward ARCHER batteries only. We‘ll need to keep many of them in reserve while the main cannons recharge, and keep the Longswords on standby. I’d rather not commit them until the pride of our counterparts over-reaches itself,”

“ARCHER batteries primed, and the main cannons are at ninety-eight percent charge and rising,” Commander Alice Qelar, the Passchendaele’s long standing Chief Tactical Officer and Executive Officer reported from her station. “Targets being acquired. Both of the main cannons have achieved one hundred percent charge. Nadezhda‘s getting quicker about these things,” Briefly looking up from the display readouts on her console towards her long-standing commanding officer, she noticed and acknowledged the mere nod from Matvey. Nadezhda, the Passchendaele’s Third Generation “Smart” A.I., appeared on the holopedestal near the command chair moments before the two main cannons fired hurling their one thousand-fifty ton slugs of ferric and tungsten-carbide mix in rapid succession merging with the dozens of large MAC slugs along with thousands of nuclear low-yield ARCHER missiles from the fleet and an equal amount of flak ordinance to armor-piercing rounds towards their newly arrived Covenant counterparts to create a deadly effort.

“Good,” the Russian aristocratic-born Master of the Passchendaele remarked standing near the communication’s console. “Keep the Hibernian in the shadows of our guns, and the umbrella of the fifty-millimeter defense fire,”

“UNSCS Passchendaele to the UNSCS Hibernian keep as close to the Passchendaele’s ventral hull as you can. The combined signatures may be able to fool the sensors of our counterparts, and push away when you’re able. We’ll cover you,” Matvey said after requesting Lieutenant Denrae to hand him the com-piece.

[David]

Admiral David Vardy - Commander - 14th Fleet
Bridge  - UNSC KILLIMANJARO
Hurtling towards the Covenant line.

"Sir!" Kim said, Sweat soaking his flight suit. "Message from the Hibernarian"

"Pipe it through" David replied.

"This is the UNSCS Hibernian to the rest of the 14th tactical, we are requesting cover at this time as we are currently out in the open and in no position to cover ourselves."


"Shit." David muttered, But then saw that the Passchendaele was en route to cover the ship. That was good. David had his hands full with his maneuvers. He was closing the gap fast and he wanted to make sure that he had enough speed for what he was wanting to do.

"Status of the SHIVA?" David asked Chakotay.

"En route towards the Covenant ships. We've overtaken it however." Chakotay replied.

Nodding, David looked back to Paris. "Increase speed to 120%."

"But that could damage the reactor!" Paris replied, his voice tense.

"DO IT!" shouted David. He didn't have the time to explain his orders. 

"AYE!" replied Paris, Visably shaken by the Admirals sudden bark. David did not bark often but when he did, you listened and you listened good. 

"Course change. When we reach orbit, execute a tight burn around the planet." David ordered Paris. To Chakotay he added. "Prepare to detonate Shiva on my mark."

"Aye" Both chorused.

As David watched his tactical board, He saw the fleet was engaging the other ships, and they were attempting to draw away the other ships so he had a straight crack at the covenant ships. From what he saw, it was working. The rest of the Covenant fleet was splitting up, Leaving David to take on the cruiser. 

"Sir!" Chakotay cried. "Cruiser is firing plasma torpedos! No way we can avoid it!"

"Shit." David muttered. Too little too late, He was anticipating pulse lasers. Plasma torpedos were too damned accurate. He had to think of something and quick. 

"ETA of torpedo impact?" David asked calmly.

"Three Minutes at present speed." Chakotay replied.

Three minutes... David thought to himself. He had an idea... But it meant spending lives. Something he didn't like to do. But if it saved them...

"Admiral Vardy to Longswords Alpha 1 and 2. Prepare to launch on my mark. We need you. to do your duty." David said softly.

"Aye sir. We understand. It's been... an honor." and the comm ended.

"Your sending them out to their deaths!" Shouted the crewman. "YOUR A MONSTER!"

"THATS ENOUGH CREWMAN. YOU ARE RELIEVED." snarled Janeway.

"I DON'T THINK SO!" shouted the crewman as he grabbed a pistol from under a console. He took point blank range at Chakotay and fired, Sending a round through Chakotays shoulder, sending him to the deck, howling in pain as crimson started to pool out of the wound onto the floor.

"ARE YOU MAD!" Shouted David, Rising to tackle the crewman. That was David's mistake. The crewman took careful aim and fired. David felt the bullet impact his chest, Sending him to the floor with a resounding crash. All he heard after that was the bark of a MA5B followed by a thud as the crewman fell to the ground, dead.

"Admiral.... Admiral??" Shouted Janeway. 

Coughing, David tried to draw in breath. It was difficult. "Take... Take... The bastards out...." David replied before slipping into unconciousness.

Admiral David Vardy is now WIA. He is being taken to the medical bay for emergency treatment. Commander Janeway Now has control of the fleet until David is back.

"Chakotay!" Shouted Janeway, "Can you still move?"

"Aye Ma'am." Replied Chakotay, his one arm limp.

"Longswords away!" Shouted Kim from OPS.

Janeway then watched as the two longswords hurtled forward towards the ship. The impacted the Plasma bolts. Thankfully, The longswords absorbed the bolts, leaving the Ship free to execute its maneuvers. As Janeway watched the tactical board, She saw the nuke was now in range of the Carrier, and that the KILLIMANJARO was ready to execute.

"Paris. Tight orbit Around the planet." Janeway ordered. "Chakotay, When I give the signal, Detonate."

Watching, Janeway counted mentally to Five, and then shouted to Chakotay. "DETONATE"

Watching, Janeway saw an enormous explosion envelope the carrier. When the explosion cleared, She saw that the Carrier was still intact, but its shields had gone out with a pop like a bubble being pricked with a pin.

"Janeway to the fleet. Take aim on the Carrier and fire!" Commanded Janeway.

With satisfaction, Janeway watched as two ships broke off and fired their MACS at the Carrier. One penetrated the ship Stem to stern, and another caught it near the midline, near its reactors. The ship then lost power and started to fall into the gravity well of the planet. She watched with satisfaction as the ship started to heat up and then have explosions ripple through the ship.

"Reactor reaching critical." Reminded Kim. 

"Shunt main coolant, Pump in reserves." Janeway ordered. "Slingshot us so that we face the rest of that fleet. We aren't done yet."

[Deleted]

Captain Brad McCauley,
Commanding Officer, UNSCS Enterprise MGC-066,
Enterprise bridge

"Captain! Covenant ships incoming!" Said the tactical officer of the Enerprise. Brad immediately jumped up and said "Allright. Sound General Quarters". A moment later, an alarm was heard, and the sound of Athena saying “Battlestations, Battlestations, all hands man your Battlestations. Set condition One throughout the ship. This is not a drill. Say again, this is NOT a drill.”.

"Charge MACs, load Archers and prepare Shivas! Come about, two-zero degrees starboard. Give me a count of the hostile ships!" Brad said as he stepped towards to holotable to the weapons officer, the navigation officer and the tactical officer respectively. After a few moments, the Lieutenant said "Cap'n, I count a carrier, a battlecruiser, four destroyers, three frigates and five corvettes. Sir, unless we pull some serious magic out of our arses, our chances aren't too great."

If I have to go, I'm glad I'll go like this, Brad thought as he prepared an answer to the lieutenant. "Then we better start pulling, Lieutenant, because I sure plan on going home and seeing my wife again. Lieutenant Commander Dawson, get a firing solution on the battlecruiser. Everything we have. Fire as soon as we have it. Engage secondary reactors, and use their full power on charging our MACs and boosting the engines."

Almost a minute later, the ship shuddered as she fired her twin MACs and more than 8600 Archer missiles. Holding their breath, the bridge crew waited as the ordnance drifted towards the battlecruiser. The first MAC round hit the shield, while the second collapsed it, and then impacted the ship, right at the bridge. The archers that made it to their mark hit the battlecruiser, and did a little damage too.

The Enterprise's MACs were getting reloaded and recharged, and just after the twin guns fired again, one of the officers shouted "Captain! Plasma torpedo coming in, we're unable to dodge it". Brad quickly took a hold of the holotable and shouted "BRACE FOR IMPACT!". Then the Enterprise shook as the torpedo hit her belly. Brad fell, but he quickly got up again. He had a small cut on his head because his head hit the ground. It wasn't too severe, though, so Brad shouted "Alright. Damage report."

Where the torpedo had impacted, the ship had lost her armor, and there was now a gaping hole eight decks deep. Furthermore, it seemed that other weapons had impacted as well. One of the two MACs was out of commission, and so were about half her other weapons. The engines were also in a bad shape.

"Shut down all non-critical systems, and divert all auxiliary power to our engines and our MAC. Let's finish that bitch and then get the hell out of here." Brad said with an angry tone to his voice. The Covenant had damaged his baby... Badly. Now he was going to make them pay. With what little power they had left, the MAC recharged, and was reloaded, while the remainder of the power went to the engines for course corrections for the firing solution.

Almost five minutes later, the MAC was loaded and charged, and a firing solution was ready. The gun was trained at the battlecruiser's core, and with that one shell, he hoped they could blow it up. Brad walked to the console, and with fire in his eyes, he smashed the launch button, and what remained of the ship shuddered as the MAC fired the shell at the battlecruiser. Seconds later, it impaced, went right through the hull and exploded in the core, which in turn exploded as well. The ship was now disentegrating.

Then the engineering officer shouted "Sir! The main reactor just surged. Reports are coming in, but it doesn't look good: The slipspace drive is shot, and we can't repair it during the battle. Engines are at... Three-five percent. We're lucky if half our MLATs remain operational. Weapons... None. Communications... Short-range only. Shit... It's bad, sir. Do you want me to continue?"

Then, the lights went out, but after a few moments the dim, red emergency lighting kicked in. "Allright, Commander, do what you can to get us the hell out of here." Brad said to the Commander. Slowly but surely, the cruiser was turning back towards the friendly ships, hoping to take cover behind them. Brad prayed that a rescue fleet was on its way, and that it would arrive in time...

[Death]

Shipmaster Xytan 'Xar 'Vadamai
Reverence-Class Cruiser CNV-Harbinger of Absolution
Planet Hope, Orbit, Fleet of Irrepressible Clarity, Reinforcing the Fleet

"Shipmaster damage reports have come in! One DDS-Class Escort Carrier and one Frigate destroyed!" Communications Master 'Halowee said, his head buried into the mess of reports and chatter flowing in from the rest of the fleet. The Communications Master was working overtime at this point with all the chaos going on due to losing all communications chatter with the ground troops, thanks to a large tech dampening field that covered the city. Due to the tech dampening field Xytan can't bring support and supplies to the ground troops, who were on their own, so whatever they had to to he needed to place his faith in the leadership of the Field Master's, more specifically Field Master 'Muramai to get the job done as he has done in the past.

"Understood now Bridge Master 'Vadamai get me a count of the enemy ships that are still operational." Xytan replied. Xytan in truth was angry at the humans for daring to strike at a holy artifact of the Gods, this could not go unpunished but he had to contain his anger, for he had a fleet to lead.

"I count thirteen ships Shipmaster. Our tactical readouts have designated them as follows: 1 Carrier, 4 Cruisers, 3 Destroyers, 5 Frigates, and 8 Corvettes." The Bridge Master said. 

Xytan nodded, "Connect me to the Fleet" He ordered before briefly pausing "My brethren destroy these infidels with extreme prejudice! Choose your targets and blast them!"


After cutting off the fleet chatter, Xytan looked over at Weapons Master 'Makhanee " Target the destroyer turning off towards us with the energy projector, tighten up the beam."

"The energy projector has been fired Shipmaster!" yelled 'Makhanee. The destroyers luck had quite suddenly ran out as the beam bisected the ship from bow to stern. Tearing the destroyer into two pieces enveloped into large balls of fire as parts blasted out all around where the former ship was and the beam was gone just as quickly as it appeared.

"Get the energy projector cooled down and ready to fire again! Get me firing solutions for the plasma torpedos on the next destroyer. Helm all ahead full, I want to be in range for an effective full salvo of our pulse lasers on their pathetic ship."

"Yes Shipmaster, all ahead full." The Helmsmaster replied. Gods give him the strength to route his foes.

[MrKill]

Admiral Eric Klix
UNSCS Iowa
Marathon II Super-Heavy Guided Missile Cruiser

"Break, break, break! All net codes, this is Iowa C.I.C issuing fighter combat air patrol orders for Flights Alpha One, Alpha Two and Bravo One. Be advised; Covenant vessels have exited slip-space. All hands, prepare for potential boarding of hostile forces. CAP - orders are to destroy any inbound boarding craft, secondary objective is enemy fighters. Combat Alert Alpha 2 has been declared! Iowa C.I.C out!"

Admiral Klix nodded slowly as the update was given throughout the ship, moments after he had raised the Tactical Condition from Bravo to Alpha Two. He had originally wanted Alpha Three, but the Covenant had engaged the UNSC - destroying a destroyer as energy projectors cut it in half. It was a weaker class, and was little match for the power of the energy projector.

"Sir, UNSC Fleet is moving in to engage. We don't have many combat vessels! All Corvettes are pulling back towards the closest moon." The Tactical officer reported, his teeth chattering in fright. He calmed himself down, but was still shaking. The Covenant fleet seriously outgunned the UNSC for this fight. Klix had been in this position before, but he had to admit lately his role was mopping up pocket patrols of one or two Covenant ships with his Cruiser group - but not anymore. It had been a long time since he had been in this situation.

He had fought in major conflicts, like the battle over the idle SuperCarrier, but even then the UNSC out numbered the Covenant forty eight ships to eighteen and even then, only a dozen survived the battle against the Covenant fleet of capital ships. Most of the warships were CCS class, a Reverence and a SuperCruiser.

"Weapons, I want all the ARCHERs in pods A1 to A10 armed and ready to fire." The Admiral ordered, placing his hands on the rim of the holotable and leaning in to study the 3D model of the space around them. The Covenant fleet was heading in, and the UNSC had the tactical disadvantage. He only saw one outcome, and that was the corpses of the UNSC fleet lazily spinning in the void. He needed a second optio...

Yes... The moons! They did have a second option after all. With the three moons, the UNSC fleet could use the natural satellites as a shield from energy projectors and plasma torpedoes. The Iowa was already on course for the closest moon, but the furthest moon from the combat.

"Sir! Admiral Vardy has been shot!" The Communications officer screeched.

What?! "Continue, Lieutenant." The Admiral said, he had to steel himself even though he was worried for his friend. Was he alive... dead? The thought made him sick, but he was a leader and now wasn't the time to show emotions.

"That's all I know, sir. The XO of the Kilimanjaro is taking control of the 14th Tactical. Do you wish to assume command?" The Communications officer replied. Eric thought for a moment, but it was out of his command.

"It's not my right, Lieutenant. The 14th is a strict chain of command, and the XO of the Kilimanjaro is her leader now. We'll support her the best we can. Plot a course for the UNSC Corvettes, we'll provide protection and long range missile support for the UNSC Fleet." The Admiral ordered.

"We're not engaging?" The Navigation officer plotting the course questioned.

"Not this time, son. Weapons, I want firing solutions on the leading Covenant vessel. Coordinate with the UNSC Fleet and provide Archer support simultaneously with the rest of the ordinance... I apologize for putting you in a challenging position." The Admiral said, clearing his throat as he stood up.

"I'll launch them now and let them drift towards the UNSC fleet, sir. Once they are in range of the Covenant ships I'll reactivate the warheads and coordinate with the UNSC fleets firing solutions." The Weapons officer informed as the hull of the Iowa popped and quieted down.

The missiles each fired their rockets for a couple of seconds, then went quiet as they simply drifted towards the UNSC fleet - effectively increasing their range significantly. However, many missiles were not in the blue and could help the UNSC fleet. They were, on the other hand, only ARCHERs. The Iowa wouldn't be providing MAC support anytime soon. Instead, they'll be protecting the defenseless Corvettes.

[MrKill]

( OOC: Sorry for the double post )

Admiral Eric Klix
UNSCS Iowa
Marathon II Super-Heavy Guided Missile Cruiser

Admiral Klix strode into the combat information center with an apple in his hand and a fresh month full of the fruit - which he had gotten from the bridge when the crew was offered a snack by a chief. It had been nearly a day since he had eaten anything, really. A long day at that. But there were more important things that needed to be dealt with, like the fact an entire battalion of Marines had lost contact for nearly twelve hours.

In the C.i.C, the Admiral had instated a no-salute zone - just like on the bridge. Officers in here were important to the vessels operational capabilities, and provided much needed information during a battle. The Combat Information Center, now a days, operated much like a bridge. The only thing the C.i.C didn't have that the bridge had, was dedicated bridge personnel. The modern bridge, equipped with Tactical, Operations, Weapons and what-not replaced the need for a C.i.C, but ships were still equipped with them - mostly as secondary bridges if the first one was knocked out.

Inside the C.i.C, however, there were much more holographic tables and junior officers working at individual consoles feeding information to the bridge crew. Since the Admiral had arrived at the C.i.C, he was still in command of the ship. He had given the executive officer the bridge until he arrived at the C.i.C. The purpose of this trip, however, was not to command the vessel from a more secure location - but to brief the three SPARTANs that were standing around a engaged holotable.

This holotable, with a huge black circle in the middle, was a real time representation of the area the UNSC had lost contact with. Ares, the artificial intelligence on the Iowa, had trimmed the area down to a accurate representation. The SPARTANs appeared to be musing it over, thinking of strategies. That area was a localized EMP field - a field that sustained its-self.

"Welcome to the C.I.C, SPARTANs." Klix said as he swallowed the rest of the apple he had. He tossed the core onto a nearby table. He'd throw it away later, when he left the C.i.C - which would be soon, but these SPARTANs needed to be briefed.

"Alright then, let's get started. As you probably know, the black dome you see on the holo-table is the rough area in which a localized EMP field is sustaining its-self through an unknown method. We fear this technology is new to the Covenant, and we're deploying the SPARTANs because we've lost total communication with all ground teams. We've started to assume the worst - that the Pelicans and Albatrosses they were deployed in were disabled and destroyed. We've picked up some green flares on the cameras, but other than that there hasn't been notable allied activity."

"Heavy weather has made traversing the city challenging, from what our cameras can see. Flood waters from the harbor have flooded and as a result, the city its-self is either flooded out, flooding, stable or still dry depending on the elevation of the area you're in. From what we can tell, multiple buildings closest to the harbor are submerged."

"You have mission freedom, SPARTANs. We aren't deploying you with core objectives that need to be completed for success - I know it's different from your routine, but we can't afford making decisions with the information we don't have. Asset the threat and make some decisions for yourselves. Finding UNSC Military survivors should be top priority, and finding how the EMP is sustaining its-self. Good luck, SPARTANs." Klix said.

"Any questions?"

[David]

Admiral David Vardy
Sick Bay - UNSC KILLIMANJARO
Fighting for life.

"ADMIRAL? ADMIRAL! Can you hear me?" Shouted a voice. It came from what sounded far away, Like as if from a dream. David felt like he was floating in a black void. He tried to form the words to reply to the voice, but nothing came out. 

... am I dead?... David thought to himself. Did... Did I matter? Did I make a difference?

... But nothing replied to his thoughts.

... and then he saw nothing at all.

Suddenly, a jab of light hit his eyes. He opened them, regretting the decision immeadiatly as lances of pain shot through his eyeballs. Moaning, He tried to move a hand to his face to sheild his eyes but found he couldn't move his arms. He then became aware of pressure on his arms and legs and saw he was restrained.

"Unhhh...." Moaned David. "What... What happened?" 

"Admiral! Good to see you awake. You've picked a hell of a time to get shot." His doctor quipped, his tone sarcastic, yet tinged with a hint of relief.

"Shot?" David replied, puzzled, But then the memory flashed back to him. A crewman. Upset with his decision. Shot him.

"What happened to the crewman?" David asked, his voice getting dry.

"Shot. Dead. Between the eyes." replied the Doctor. "He stood no chance. Not that many have a chance getting a bullet between the eyes mind you."

Ignoring the doctor, David felt guilty. He hadn't had time to come up with a better plan. He didn't have time to explain his actions. He failed to inspire the confidence neccessary. It was a hard blow to stomach.

"Whats my status doctor." 

"Not good. There was a lot of internal bleeding. I need to sedate you again Admiral." The doctor said.

"No. I need to get to the bri...." and then slurred the rest of the words as the sedative took effect. He then slumped back into darkeness.

[SuperCommando]

GOLD 1 - CPO SPARTAN-009
UNSCS IOWA, MARATHON-II CLASS CRUISER
COMBAT INFORMATION CENTER

The one-eyed grizzled special operations veteran glanced sideways across the CIC as he detected new movement and carefully observed the admiral’s approach. Silas had heard of the man of course, but hadn’t yet met him in person until now. Even now, in friendly territory in a non-combat scenario, the SPARTAN’s tactical mind was gathering intel. He noted Klix’s easy stride, munching on an apple as he went, and how he casually discarded the core. The admiral’s behavior, along with the no-salute policy, indicated to Silas he was either the type of man who didn’t care about appearances, or else he was deliberately making an effort to seam easy-going in order to make his subordinates feel relaxed and comfortable around him. Perhaps both.

Regardless, Silas maintained a rigid and attentive posture as he focused on the officer’s briefing. With arms across his chest, he quietly absorbed Klix’s words, occasionally glancing down at the black dome displayed on the holotable. So it was true, things really were as bad as it seemed. Right from the beginning of this operation news had been buzzing around the Iowa about the lost communications, the lack of data, and more than one unsettling rumor whispered of a terrible new Covenant weapon responsible for it all. That last part worried Silas the most – if that was the case, then this war just got a lot more bleak.

The Spartan shot a wordless look at his team. Roy and Dani had been separated from him after the supercarrier mission due to UNSC forces getting spread so thin lately, but he was greatly relieved to have them at his side once again for this challenging mission. The look in his narrowed, teal-colored eye revealed to his partners that he had a bad feeling about this.

“Any questions?”

Silas redirected his attention towords Klix.

“Yes Admiral,” he replied, clasping his hands behind his back and looking the man in the eye. “How is the enemy fleet reacting?”

Obviously they had no idea what was happening on the ground, but at least they could still monitor the Covenant’s ships. Analysis of the enemy’s behavior might decipher a clue as to their intentions.

[Daenerys Targaryen]

Dani-047
Gold Two
UNSCS Iowa
CIC

The combact information center held itself in silent chaos. Information from what could be gathered on the surface and in the battle above all funneled through this point, dancing from the holoscreens of terminals spread around the room to effectivley meet at several points, one of those points being the holotable that Gold Team surrounded. It showed what had been gathered from the mess that was on the surface, the center peice of the grand disaster being the black gleaming oval of unknown centered within the city. The UNSC didn't know what it was, and as far as Dani was concerened, that meant it should be blown the hell up. Things were tied up in the heavens, and it would be impossible to rain down fire from above without blowing humans into the cement with it. 

The Spartan had little time to weigh imaginary scenarios in her head, they were erased as the Admiral and commander of this ship entered the room. While this placehad been put under a no-solute-zone, she couldn't help but stiffen at the entrance of her superior, noting the way he walked was quite in contrast to how she now held herself. Her eyes flicked away from the Admiral to momentarily chase the core, which splat onto a table off to the side of the room. Her gaze returned has he began his breifing.

The first thing that Dani noticed was the distinct lack of any useful information for the Spartans, besides a muttled weather report. While she had been on a recon mission before, the black jewel centered in the holotable reminded her that this would be anything but ordinary. An EMP that disabled communications, vehicals, and the like might very well disable the armor that her and the compatriots surrounding her wore more times than not. The idea sat in her mind and nested like a bird recently returning from some winter hiatus, and continued to roost as Silas asked is question.

Years of training held her tongue, and the Spartan only spoke after the Admiral had answered Silas' question. "Sir, if this field can disable most technology, it would severly impare our MJOLNIR if not make it completely inoperable, correct?" The idea prickled in her mind as it left her mouth, she was use to being a sardine; what would it be like to be operating back out of the can?

[TinCanHitman]

Roy-001  

SPARTAN  

Gold Three

CIC

Roy was standing at Dani's back, towering over her as he watched the scurrying of tiny symbols, all meaning different things. The field before them was utter chaos, tactically, it was a mess. Roy's face was naturally a scowl, having a resting anger to it. His face had hard lines from the frowns, his eyes have dark rings under him, no amount of sleep would remove them. His face had stubble along it from not having a chance to shave, he and Dani had been non-stop fighting, but neither of them had been effected.

His eye's darted about the room, scanning the large holo-table and the few stations he could see, all of it was stored some where in his mind as it methodically went over every detail. Roy worked like a machine, every thing was calculated, he knew how he worked, and thus he always worked how he liked. Dani and he were a foil, working to each other's strengths, it worked well and it made them work as sort of a single unit.

Roy only looked up when the distant sound of footsteps reached the door. He saw the admiral enter and watched as Dani stiffened, she had that hard wired into her brain. Roy managed to suppress the urge and simply looked at the man with his murky eyes. He took in all of the man's stature and gaunt, his mind just immediately registering any weakness. He noted the tiniest of limps, it wasn't so much a limp, either, just favoring the left leg, a sign of trauma on the right and the need to shift their weight. To any one else it would have gone unnoticed, but every thing was just a machine to Roy. The admiral's skin was also quite pale, a sign that he spent most of his time on the ship, it seemed. Roy was pulled from his observation when klix threw the apple core. He didn't know what possessed him, but suddenly his arm was up, snatching the fruit carcass from mid air. He held it, the remaining flesh being smashed by his large hand. 

To Roy it was a reminder that he still was a super soldier, even outside of his armor. What Roy had gleamed from the mission data had lead him to believe they wouldn't be able to use their armor, and it had planet a seed in his mind that he may not be as capable without it. He crushed the core, earning a tiny snap. He felt reassured as the sticky juice coated his palm. A slight cough pulled him back to reality as one of the crew members held a waist basket for him. He threw the core in it and turned back to the admiral.

He let the older man speak, listening as he studied the battlefield. He knew he wouldn't have to ask about the Mijloner, because Dani would, he could tell by her tiny movements, the slit way her eye twitched across the field, instead of gliding like usual, she was feeling a bit nervous to. Roy did some thing rare for him, stepping forward he leaned on the holo table, allowing himself to get in next to Dani, his fore-arm touching hers. To any normal human being it was nothing, just simply Roy getting a better angle, SPARTANs, however, knew that wasn't the case. 

[MrKill]

Admiral Eric Klix
UNSCS Iowa
Marathon II Super-Heavy Guided Missile Cruiser

Eric had noticed Roy grab the apple core and crush it during his briefing. The Admiral nodded satisfactorily, the SPARTANs were still the super soldiers the UNSC were advertising with their propaganda without the armor. He didn't give it much thought though as a crew member helped the SPARTAN clean up Eric's little test. He knew he'd be deploying them without armor, and it was imperative to know they still had the reflexes, strength and observation without the armor they used. Roy confirmed it, though the Admiral had read all the reports about the SPARTANs that weren't classified by ONI and at his pay-grade, position with high command and nature of his job... wasn't much. Though there were the files that were classified that he couldn't access.

"The Covenant Fleet has engaged Admiral Vardy's fleet, but we are heavily outgunned in this fight. I'm moving the Iowa in to protect the defenseless Corvettes that have arrived with the fourteenth tactical fleet. We are, so to speak, a sacrificial shield if the Covenant are to get close enough. The UNSC has suffered losses, and we've lost Frigates and Destroyers already." Klix said in reply to Silias's question.

"As for the armor, Dani, the EMP has disabled everything we've thrown at it during the deployment. We have to assume that, what ever it is, will interfere with your armor. You can take your armor with you, but you need to equip yourself with the Marines armor. We would deploy you with ODST armor, but I fear we don't have any suits available for you that would actually fit. You should be able to use Marine armor from all sizes to cover the majority of your body." Klix said in reply to Dani.

"Any other questions? Feel free to ask, SPARTANs. We don't have much information, but I'll try to provide you information that I can."

[SuperCommando]

GOLD 1 - CPO SPARTAN-009
UNSCS IOWA, MARATHON-II CLASS CRUISER
COMBAT INFORMATION CENTER

As usual, Silas’s mind was a whirlwind of activity as he considered the situation. He crossed his arms again, his head lowered in thought. For this mission Gold Team would have to make due with no electronic equipment whatsoever, thus making everything more difficult and complicated. Not only was their greatest weapon, their MJOLNIR armor, now a liability, but even worse the crucial element of communication seamed all but impossible. Or was it? Without it, there was little hope for success, and the SPARTAN team leader voiced as much as he began to develop a plan.

“My primary concern is finding a way to establish communication despite the EMP field,” he mused out loud. “Since our ships can detect the ground troops’ flares, that’s at least one method we can use to signal the fleet. So at the very least, we should establish a system of flare signals which we will pass on to the survivors. Signals can be sent back to us by a separate team waiting outside the EMP field’s effective range, allowing for crude two-way communication between the city and the fleet, but it’s better than nothing.”

Silas paused. The thought of having a support team outside the EMP field sparked further ideas.

“Admiral,” he asked Klix, “How high above ground level does the EMP effect extend? As long as it does not extend to extreme altitude, we could have Pelicans fly overhead to deliver pinpoint supply drops to locations designated by the flare system, seeing as supplies are probably greatly needed down there. Similarly, we could even mark targets for airstrike that way. We might even be able to airlift civilians and the wounded if they gather on the roof of a tall skyscraper, assuming the rescuing aircraft can drop a long enough line.”

The more Silas thought about it, the more he wanted to make this work. If UNSC forces could get some kind of basic communication going again, it would be a big help for everyone. Divided, they were basically powerless. But with the right support and everyone working together, this could actually turn into a real battle again.

[MrKill]

Admiral Eric Klix
UNSCS [Iowa
Marathon II Super-Heavy Guided Missile Cruiser

"The domes electromagnetic interference caps at roughly forty thousand feet, meaning it is highly unlikely we'd provide areal supplies accurately. ODSTs can't deploy because their pods would shut down, meaning their 'chutes and rockets wouldn't engage. Along with that, Hope was quarantined from the Covenant by the local UNSC Army when the lone Covenant ship was destroyed. There isn't a way in or out other than airlift." Klix replied to the SPARTAN team leader.

"I know it seems risky, and I'm not the one going down there, but hundreds of my Marines have. I'll do what I can to get forces on the outside of the blockades, but until that EMP is down once you're in that city there is no getting back - unless you can climb thirty or more feet of smooth vertical walls placed at every exit, including rooftops." Klix said, then paused.

"But I like the flare idea. We've seen some already go up. Green, obviously, is the location of friendly units. I can provide orbital fire with my fifty millimeter point defense guns on another color. Make a list for me, SPARTAN, and I'll do my best to help you out. We'll remain in geosynchronous orbit above Hope until the last possible minute. We'll launch a single archer and detonate it in the stratosphere to respond." Klix said.

"Anything else, SPARTANs?"

[Daenerys Targaryen]

Dani-047
Gold Two
UNSCS Iowa
CIC

The idea of operating outside of her armor brought her to a time long ago. She couldn't gage the Admiral's age from the spot,but almost being forty meant that she had known a time when humanity still thought it was, for all intents and purposes, the only current intelligent life in the galaxy. Most main line Marines might see her and her fellow Spartans as the saviors from the Covenant on war torn battlefields, but the truth was that she had originally been conscripted for a completely different purpose. Humanity fought itself, and after disasters such as Haven, her kind were brought into the mix after a childhood spent in gruiling training. In those times, they wore marine armor, standard issue. Though after years of being aided by Mjolnir, this mission would be something unique to them. 

Spartans had excellent reaction times, were stronger than any human, and had hieghtened senses. All of those attributes would help them, but without the assistance of radar, added strength, or gel cushoning to allow higher falls, they would all be tested. It would be closer to their days of training, actually being exposed to the elements, a need to be more attuned to the risks they were taking, and more mindful of their exposed flesh. Dani's mind was already tingling with the likely scenarios of what could happen. She would be bringing her biofoam cans and medkits down this time, the Spartan couldn't shake the feeling that she would need them as the mission progressed. 

Other thoughts raked across her mind as she recounted the information on flooding. This time, she was almost glad to know that their armor would be missing. Mjolnir was impossible to swim with, but the Spartan was sure that she could hold her own in regular marine armor.  Once again it came for her turn to speak up and ask a question or two, but this time she held her tongue.  This mission would be interesting, but she was ready to be dismissed, Gold Team had some mission planing to do before they went planetside. 

[Frazer]

Captain Frazer York
UNSCS Preston
Virtue Class Attack Carrier
"So it begins"

Frazer stood on the bridge with his chin resting on his hand. How in the hell was an EMP effect happening in the city below and why in gods name did ONI not know about this. Frazer got very frustrated, you could see it in his face. Then suddenly Wilson, the Prestons communications officer, perked up. "Captain incoming message from Admiral Vardy." Frazer lifted his head and moved over to the holo table to get ready to hear the message. 

"Play it Lieutenant." Wilson nodded. The bridge speakers came to life with the Admirals voice. "All ships. This is Admiral Vardy. We have detected what looks like Covenant ships inbound on our position. It looks like a fleet of I'd estimate to be 12-14 ships. Everyone is to come to battle readiness and to report to designated positions. Charge your MAC guns and hang on. Keep your head, and we just might win. Vardy out."

"Thats it sir."

"Thanks Wilson. Right this is it people, where in gods name is..." Tiffany came up on the A.I pedestal. 

"Looking for me Captain?" Frazer smiled.

"There you are, right everyone listen in. Trayner keep us in formation with the fleet for now. Until I suggest otherwise, make sure we have enough engine power to move fast. Can't be doing with the MACs taking everything." Trayner swung back round. "Blackpool charge MACs, bring weapon systems online. I want Archer pods at the ready." Blackpool nodded. "Tiff get pilots in the longswords. Lets get ready to blanket the fleet."

"Aye sir. Squadron one this is the bridge..." Tiffany disappeared off the pedestal. Frazer looked over to his XO, Tony. 

"Commander prepare the remaining marines below for boarding parties." Tony nodded and jogged out with an ensign. Frazer then sat by the holo table. It was about to begin. Tiffany came back on the pedestal.

"All longswords preped and ready for your go sir." 

"Good job Tiff." Frazer and the crew waited a few moments, maybe minutes. then Frazer decided to speak "Now where..." Again Frazer was interupted by Tiffany. 

"SIR! I am detecting multiple slip space ruptures. I am counting 1 carrier, 1 battlecruiser, 4 Destroyers, 3 Frigates and 5 Corvettes sir."

"Shit how close?" Frazer said with urge.

"Closing very fast, coming into weapon range." Frazer looked out of the bridge window and could see the massive Covenant fleet coming closer. Wilson swung round.

"Sir message. Admiral Vardy."

"Play it!" Wilson pressed the button to the play message.

"You can see them for yourselves ladies and gentlemen. Pick your target and fire! Catch them while they are still orienting! Vardy out." Then suddenly ships such as the UNSCS Hibernian and the UNSCS Enterprise started to move, as did smaller frigates, to engage the fleet.

"I will be dammed if I am going to let the Enterprise and Hibernian beat us to some covie kills. Trayner full ahead, 2 degrees to port. Tiff what charge are the MACs on?" 

"100% sir. Blackpool has confirmed we are ready to fire." Frazer nodded. 

"Okay Tiff red alert. Get those longswords out and around the fleet as a blanket for any Covenant fighters or boarding craft." The Preston came into range of the nearest Covenant frigate. Longswords started to blanket the fleet, engaging the nearest Covenant fighters and boarding vessels. "Okay Blackpool fire one MAC round and half of our Archer pods on that frigate bearing down on our port."

"Aye aye firing." The Preston rocked as the MAC round left towards the frigate. It impacted the frigate and immediately took it down to a near enough wreck. Then archer missiles flew out of the Preston. Some missed but the rest hit the frigate taking it out. The frigate broke apart into many pieces.

"Frigate down sir." Tiffany said and as Frazer whispered.

"Yes."

"Ermm sir bad news. It appears the fight hasn't been going well on the otherside. The Enterprise is badly damaged and Admiral Vardy. Well hes. Injured Sir. An on board crewmen shot him. His XO is taking over the battlegroup for now."

"Ahh shit. We have lost a good ship near enough and a damn fined leader. Crap." 

"SIR INCOMING DESTROYER ON OUR QUARTER." A destroyer started to get closer to the Preston.

"Right, Blackpool be ready with what we have left. Tiffany keep an eye out for our fighters out there. Inform me when the destroyer is in range. Wilson inform the fleet we are taking on this destroyer and we could do with backup." Frazer waited for the Tiffanys word. It looks like its only a minute away from them.

"Calling all UNSC ships, this is the UNSCS Preston. We have taken out a frigate and are now engaging a destroyer. Any assistance will be great. Preston out." 

[TinCanHitman]

Roy-001   

SPARTAN   

Gold Three 

CIC

Roy listened as Silas began to talk about plans he had, and about how he wanted to try to air rescue civies, or a flare system they should set up. Roy wasn't surprised, Silas always had been the innovative one. Roy listened as he and Klix talked for a while, Klix having an answer to every thing both Dani, and Silas had to say. Roy could still feel the electric charge that Dani had to her, she didn't seem to be liking this one bit. Roy however, had some thing a bit larger on his mind. He had been looking at the large black dome, thinking about how he'd have to strip every thing that he had and how he'd have to be very selective in his gear, thing's that weren't just simple machines would fail him. He brought his hand to his chin when it suddenly dawned on him.

Roy looked over when Klix spoke. "Anything else, SPARTANs?" Lifting his right arm and rotating the hand a complete 360 degrees, "What about me?" He said quietly, the first words he had spoken in several hours. His deep voice seemed to echo, for him at least. He was afraid of what they might say, of them forcing him to stay on the ship. That thought alone had almost prompted him to remain silent, but he couldn't. He couldn't risk the lives of his team. How was a SPARTAN supposed to justify fighting without an arm...

[SuperCommando]

GOLD 1 - CPO SPARTAN-009
UNSCS IOWA, MARATHON-II CLASS CRUISER
MOVING THROUGH THE SHIP

There was an awkward silence as Roy mentioned his robotic limb. Nobody really knew what to say at first.

“We’ll figure something out,” Silas told Roy with a steely gleam in his remaining eye. There certainly wasn’t anything they could do about that standing around this holotable, and he had exhausted everything he wished do discuss with the admiral. It didn’t look like Dani had anything she wanted to say either, so now it was time to get ready.

“That will be all sir. We’ll begin mission prep immediately.”

Silas waited for Gold Team to be dismissed, at which point he would offer Admiral Klix a polite farewell nod before leading his fellow Spartans out of the CIC.

The corridors outside the combat information center were quite still and relatively lifeless once the door slid shut behind them. With the exception of a few stray technicians, most of the people normally bustling about the ship were either at their battlestations doing their jobs or had been deployed down to planet Hope. It struck Silas as interesting to think that despite this calm there was in fact a space battle raging outside.

As the soldier power-walked past bulkhead after bulkhead he didn’t say anything at first, allowing the details of their latest assignment to sink in for a moment and gather his thoughts. He didn’t bother asking how Dani and Roy felt either, because after working with them for years and watching their reactions during the briefing he knew they were thinking the exact same thing he was. There was definitely a little apprehension, particularly about the lack of MJOLNIR and electronic technology. But he also knew that, like himself, they would see this situation as a personal trial of skill. With SPARTANs, determination would always overcome uncertainty, even in the face of overwhelming obstacles… not unlike the one Roy now faced.

“Roy, about your arm…” Silas spoke up as they walked. “You’re the engineer so you tell me if this is even feasible, but what if you built yourself a replacement for this mission? One with no electronic parts. It could have elastic cables attached to your chest and back and shoulder muscles, so that when you use those muscles it would pull gears in the joints and move the arm. It would likely be crude and limited in movement, and it would undoubtedly be very painful. There’s not a lot of time to make one, but if anyone can do it, you can. Think about it. Because make no mistake, arm or no arm I’m not letting you sit this one out. We need you, we’re in this together.”

The team arrived at one of the many service elevators designed to shuttle men and equipment between decks. As expected, there was nobody inside. Boarding the elevator, Silas keyed the control pad. His destination was the nearest armory; they could discuss strategy along the way and as they geared up. He also started multitasking by beginning to type out his idea for the signal flare code on his wrist-mounted tacpad.

“Let’s talk loadouts,” Silas instructed as the elevator began to lurch. “Make sure to take a flare gun and plenty of flares, as well as a printout map of the City of Refuge, and an analog watch and compass. Be sure to carefully consider what other equipment you choose to bring along, keeping in mind the urban environment.”

He then proceeded to brainstorm out loud, filling his teammates in on his thoughts as ideas came to mind. “I recommend also taking chemical glow sticks for illumination, since we’ll be going in at night and even by day power will be out. Explosives are a must-have, but since remote and electronic detonators will be inoperable we’ll have to be creative in how we get some of them to go off, like using a grenade as a pilot charge for example. Thermite munitions would be a reasonable option too. Hmm… we know we’ll encounter lots of aquatic conditions, full scuba gear would be too much to bring but perhaps there’s a more compact way to prepare for that.

“Oh, also, even though electronics will be disabled inside the city, it might not be a bad idea to bring a small device along anyway for use once we remove the EMP field. I can also arrange to have our MJOLNIR armor loaded into HEV pods and placed on standby, so that if the situation warrants, after the field goes down it can be air-mailed directly to the location of our FoF signals.”

He stopped there, waiting to see if Dani or Roy had anything they wished to bring up.

[Cabel]

[Planet Hope: Orbit: UNSCS Passchendaele: Bridge: Year 2547: Bridge]

“The Hibernian has swung into position, and is maintaining a lock beneath the ventral hull. Scanners report their main cannon is in the process of charging,” the Officer at the OPS Station reported.

“Keep them in our shadow…” Matvey began with his attention focused on the holographic situation table in the rear compartment of the bridge.

“The Enterprise has been damaged, and…Sir, Admiral Vardy’s been injured. The Fleet is now under the command of his Executive Officer,” Lieutenant Louise Denrae at the Communication’s Station reported abruptly having overheard the fleet-wide broadcast from the Killimanjaro. “We’re to continue the assault on the Covenant Fleet. Wait…another broadcast is coming through. I’ll put it on speakers, Sir,”

“Calling all UNSC ships, this is the UNSCS Preston. We have taken out a frigate and are now engaging a destroyer. Any assistance will be great. Preston out,” the voice of the Preston’s commander a Captain Frazer York blared over the bridge speakers.

“Contact the Preston, and inform them we will alter course to assist them….” Matvey began.

“The Enterprise is reading as severely damaged, with minimum engine capacity. Their reactors are reporting at thirty-five percent capacity. Their main cannons are out of commission,” the Officer at OPS interrupted.

“We can’t be in two places at once, Matvey,” Commander Alice Qelar, the Passchendaele’s long-standing Primary Tactical Officer and Matvey’s Executive Officer murmured. The Passchendaele’s Executive Officer stood only a few feet from him on the other side of the holographic situation table viewing the statistics, and the elements of the engagement between the outnumbered UNSC 14th Tactical Response Fleet and the numerically confident Covenant forces, with the damaged projections from the cruiser Enterprise along with the elements shielded by the Iowa near the planet’s moon. “What scheme is forming in that mind of yours?”

“The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, the twelfth to the fifteenth of November nineteen forty-two,” the Russian officer replied cryptically with his thoughts on the engagement at hand and his mind narrowing on the choreography of it.

“Didn’t the Americans win that one after the Japanese attempted to split their naval forces?” Alice asked not quite having brushed up on her twentieth century naval history.

“Yes. The Americans did win that, and the Japanese had managed to split the American forces leaving their ground forces unsupplied and vulnerable,” Matvey explained. “The disposition of the forces involved roughly matched ours and those of our counterparts. The naval assets under Rear Admiral Lee deployed in a column of six on a heading to patrol Savo Island, but were spotted by their counterparts who misidentified them. The resulting engagement resulted in the four destroyers having been used to screen the two larger battleships Washington and South Dakota were either hulled or had been forced to retire from the field. The engagement occurred in the evening hours, near twenty-three hundred, but in the end the Washington and the South Dakota were able reduce the strength of their counterparts,”

“We’re going to do the exact opposite. We’re going to aid the Enterprise, the Preston and insure the Covenant have one more reason for monsters in fables,” he explained. “Do you recall the tactics we used in the Sisleyan System engagement?”

“I do recall it. It’s not one I’ll forget. Why?” Alice asked.

“We’re going to utilize the SHIVA warheads, but in place of mining an asteroid field we’re going to launch them in a dormant state. The warheads will be launched to bypass, to miss the Covenant fleet…” he began.

“Isn’t the objective to engage the Covenant fleet? If our warheads miss their Fleet, it’ll leave us open to an attack,” one of Matvey’s subalterns, a young lieutenant newly transferred to the Passchendaele asked.

“I am fully aware of our objectives, Lieutenant, and our warheads won’t be wasted,” Matvey replied. The Russian officer explained how the warheads may miss the Covenant Fleet enough for the Covenant to ignore the munitions as being a misguided ordinance attempt or at least assume they were launched as an error with the cruiser‘s firing computers. The Passchendaele would proceed on a course to assist the Enterprise at full flank speed, and upon arriving at the Enterprise’s and the Preston's aid the ventral thrusters located along the ventral hull would fire rotating the Marathon cruiser into an inverted position. An encoded transmission would be sent by Nadezhda being directed towards the warheads to reactivate the onboard capabilities the moment the Passchendaele unleashed an ARCHER barrage at the destroyers. The warheads would detonate around the engine baffles, since even the Covenant reactors had to be cooled. The Passchendaele’s main cannons would fire with very little margin of error, if things went well, along with the Preston’s own munitions.

* * * * * *

Two SHIVA warheads with their warheads and their homing systems on a timed delay launched from the heavy cruiser on a course missing the alien Fleet making it appear the Passchendaele’s firing computers had experienced a glitch, as the heavy cruiser’s main thrusters flared white propelling the cruiser towards its stricken sister ship and the Virtue Class Carrier. The two warheads remained on their course bypassing the entire Covenant fleet lending credence the warheads had been launched by error.

* * * * * *

Leaving the parent cruiser behind, the two SHIVA warheads remained on their pre-programmed course only utilizing a small percentage of the available fuel supplies bypassing the fleet of elegant bulbous ships. The warheads had been programmed with their own delayed timers when the smaller mini-warheads housed within the nose cones of the larger missile delivery vehicles would reactivate though for a redundancy feature or more precisely as the on-board timers had been a redundancy feature the SHIVAs would receive an encoded transmission from the Passchendaele to reactivate as soon as the SHIVAs had cleared the Covenant fleet. Time passed crucial to the warheads as the two delivery vehicles passed by the massed grouping of the bulbous ships more akin to aquatic predators, but altered course the moment the on-board timers had counted down followed by the encoded transmission sent from the Passchendaele to reactivate the dozens of mini-warheads in the plasma-front weapons. On their own the SHIVA plasma-front weapons lacked the ability to destroy entire ships and lacked any true conventional concussive force, but that had been the beauty with the plasma-front weapons measuring in megatons greater than the two crude weapons dropped on two terran cities centuries ago.

Altering course, the thrusters on the weapons flared white angling the SHIVAs towards the unwitting Covenant destroyers although the weapons only had to detonate at a reasonable proximity from the target to cause electronics to disrupt the on-board activities and irradiate the surface of the target which in this case had been the hull of the unfortunate destroyers. The nose cones of the SHIVAs peeled away unleashing a dozen mini-warheads of which shortly after detonated forcing the plasma payload in what had been loosely described as a nightmare of Charybdis with enough force to jolt the impacted areas of the target, and in a storm of saturation the shields of two destroyers crackled white before collapsing in a shower of sparks. More in part to the radius of two plasma-front weapons detonating, the reactors of two destroyers sputtered before ceasing operation leaving their thruster banks bone dry.

* * * * * *

“We’re coming into position at bearing zero-zero-zero by zero-zero-one. The Enterprise is beneath us at bearing zero-zero-zero by zero-zero-two declination zero-zero-zero point three,” the officer at OPS reported.

“SHIVA warheads have detonated. Plasma-wave front detected at bearing one-eight-zero by one-nine-zero of the Covenant formation, and two destroyers have been disabled,” Commander Alice Qelar reported from her station.

“The status of the main and secondary cannons?” Matvey asked having reclaimed his place in the command chair.

“Main and secondary cannons are at a hundred percent charge each,” Alice reported. “The ARCHER batteries have been primed, and are on stand-by for your order,”

“The MLA defense turrets have been programmed with a combination of incendiary flak and armor piercing ordinance,” Nadezhda reported having materialized on her holopedestal near Matvey’s command chair.

“Lieutenant Ellis, give me a ten second burn with the ventral emergency thrusters. Commander Qelar, when we’re fully inverted with our bow facing the destroyers give them both barrels on double-tap effect. Launch ARCHER barrage, and Nadezhda cover the barrages with the MLA fire. The Covenant will no doubt launch a retaliatory strike against us. Give word to the longswords to prepare to launch, but keep them on stand-by,” Matvey ordered followed by a chorus of acknowledgement from his bridge crew. “Ten second burn!”

* * * * * *

The Passchendaele, a nearly seventeen year old proven veteran of the Marathon cruiser line, swung on its axis propelled by a ten second burn from the thrusters located along the ventral hull and came into position perfectly inverted on its spine with the two barrels of the main cannons lined up with one of the disabled Covenant destroyers. Two blasts, two one thousand fifteen ton carbide-tungsten shells the size of a double-decker bus tore from the Marathon cruiser on a collision course with a disabled CPV Class Heavy Destroyer the Preston had engaged followed by dozens of low to medium tonnage nuclear armed ARCHER missiles under an umbrella of fifty-millimeter incendiary flak to armor piercing rounds bridged the gap between the two lines and shortly after caused a horrific buckling of the destroyer’s unprotected hull. The two MAC rounds sliced through the destroyer from bow down through the amidships before slamming into the overheated reactor before the traumatized hull lay peppered with the ARCHER missile barrage while the fifty-millimeter shells only furthered the damage leaving a gutted, demoralized and shocked Covenant fleet. The ships near the gutted flaming destroyer had been damaged by hull fragments that had been flung from the unfortunate destroyer as its reactor detonated, with the hull fragments impacting either harmlessly against the shields of the larger battle cruiser and the other destroyers to leaving a corvette with several affected compartments venting into space.

(OOC: If the CCS Class Battlecruiser was destroyed, let me know and I'll alter the post to reflect one of the other ships where it's mentioned)

[MrKill]

Admiral Eric Klix
UNSCS Iowa
Marathon II Super-Heavy Guided Missile Cruiser

"Admiral on deck, and he has the bridge!" The XO shouted as Klix returned to the bridge, but no one moved. No-salute zone, which meant that everyone were still focused on their tasks. Since his departure, it appeared the Iowa had moved into geosynchronous orbit over Hope, but it also appeared the UNSC was about to collapse in space. It was expected, when the UNSC was significantly outgunned in this fight. And by significantly, the only real ships the UNSC had at their disposal that could effectively engage the Covenant were the Kilimanjaro, Enterprise, Preston and Passchendaele.

With the Enterprise practically disabled, and the Kilimanjaro without the veteran leadership of its Admiral things could become bad to obliterated in a moments notice. With the Covenant closing in, Klix had to make a decision, but he couldn't speak for those on board the UNSCS Newton as plasma torpedoes ripped through the Destroyers hull.

Atmosphere mixed with atomized titanium hull and smoke, bodies were sucked into the vacuum of space - but the Greyhound class destroyer managed to limp off towards the second moon of three near the planet of Hope. Unfortunately, the Destroyer would be disabled for a while while the crew commenced what little repairs they could... but that wasn't what they were doing. Two life pods erupt free from the damaged warship.

"UNSCS Newton suffering extreme damages, sir. Her reactors are warming up and the crew can't cool them down. They are abandoning ship." The Tactical Officer reported. She looked over and shook her head. "Sir, most of those mean in the engine room have received extreme doses of radiation. The life pods that launched were from the engine room, they'll be dead before a UNSC Warship can pick them up."

"I know, Lieutenant." Klix replied with a quiet tone. "I know.."

A Corvette Captain took the initiative and engaged his engines, zipped past the Iowa on a heading towards the damaged Destroyer, and managed to make it towards the two life pods - now showing no life signs - before the rest of the Newton's life pods launches. As per protocol, the command pod was the last one to leave - near the bridge.

"UNSCS Belarus will remain on station and pick up survivors from the Newton." The Tactical Officer said. The Newton detonated in a ball of fire that engulfed the command shuttle. Eric sighed and stopped the Tactical Officer from reporting the bad news.

Klix keyed the intercomm and linked it with the SPARTANs elevator they were on.

"Silias, Klix. We've reached geosynchronous orbit for your deployment, but before you deploy send me that list of flare communications VIA my tactical pad. I've designated red for MLA strike due to how easy it is to see it from here. We'll provide orbital support with our fifty millimeters. If you're in a situation where I need to use them... run. Those weapons will leave creators in the dirt. Klix out."

[MrKill]

ADM. E. KLIX
UNSCS Iowa
Marathon II Super-Heavy Guided Missile Cruiser

"Sir, the UNSCS Hibernian is disabled and requesting covering fire. On top of that, it appears the Passchendaele was damaged. It appears the Frigate has lost her starboard engine unit." The Tactical Officer reported. Klix groaned in reply, with the Captains Cruiser likely damaged and another Frigate out of commission, it wasn't looking very promising for the UNSC Navy at this time.

"Navigation," Klix said lowly. "Plot a course for the Hibernian and get a tow ready. We'll bring her back into geosynchronous orbit above Refuge. Weapons, focus on the target she was firing on and finish it off if we can. Full power to the MAC and for the love of god compliment the MAC rounds so they hit five seconds before the MAC rounds!" Klix growled.

The Iowa gently broke lose of the gravity well of Refuge and pointed her barrels towards the target, but it was still out of range. The hull popped as the ARCHERs left their tubes and raced forward, past the bridge view port, and accelerated faster and faster. In space, acceleration was based on speed per second... per second. If you went one kilometer an hour a second, eventually you'd be doing one million kilometers an hour of nothing stopped you down. Space... it had to be complicating.

"What was the Hibernian hit by?" The Admiral asked.

The tactical officer replayed a video. "Sir, it appears an energy projector hit her port engines from this angle."

"Makes sense. How much time until we're there?" The Admiral replied.

"Commencing reverse burn now, actually, sir." The primary navigation officer replied. "I took a liberty and used three hundred percent reactor power. I'm diverting it to weapons now and using our thrusters to slow our forward inertia."

"Good."

"MAC guns charging. Ten... twenty... thirty... forty..." The weapons officer begun counting up the percentage as their primary weapon charged. With three hundred percent reactor power, the MAC took less than a minute compared to the minutes it would take at normal capacity, which was much less effective. The Admiral preferred to use his forward momentum during combat to give the Weapons officers under his command the ability to charge the main gun quickly.

"Missiles thirty seconds away..." The second Weapons officer reported.

The Iowa shook as the two SSAK-79's fired. Twin lightning bolts rocketed forward, past the disabled Frigate and towards the CCS Class BattleCruiser. Her engines flared, but the one thousand meter long ship struggled to get out of the way of the speeding rounds. She launched her plasma torpedoes and fired point defense lasers to intercept the incoming ARCHERs. Some of them made it through, but others hit the shields and caused it to ripple.

The MAC rounds missed the plasma torpedoes by a mere seven hundred meters. On the screen, the round appeared to glow hot for a moment before cooling in the vacuum. The first round, two seconds in front of the second round, slammed into the shields and broke through where the ARCHERs had weakened it. The second round was knocked off course by a flickering shield.

The first round struck amid ship while the second one, however, punched closer to her bow. The two rounds warped the hull of the Covenant ship, but she continued forward while listing hard to her port side. She veered away from the battle, however, and limped towards the outer system.

"Whoa," The Weapons officer muttered. The thirteen gigaton force of the SSAK-79 was absorbed by the hull. "That's a first. Weapons recharging!" He muttered.

However, it wasn't necessary. The CCS Class BattleCruiser was finished off by a close by destroyer with two SSAK-78 rounds. One of the destroyers rounds hit near the stern, while the other hit the upper hull near the bow. The Covenant Cruiser twisted until her amid ship, with the stress fractures already inflicted with the Iowa's rounds, snapped into two pieces and continued to spin.

"Stow it," The Admiral said quickly. He knew it was destroyed. "How are we on reverse burn?"

"We're roughly twelve thousand meters away from the Hibernian, deploying the tow line. She'll have to maneuver towards it, though." The Navigation's officer replied.

"UNSCS Hibernian, this is the UNSCS Iowa. We've moved into position to provide cover, but you'll have to attach our tow line manually. We'll remain on station and provide cover then tow you back to the planet so you can enter geosynchronous orbit." The communications officer said.

Now it was up to her.

[Deleted]

Captain Brad McCauley
14th Tactical Cruiser Group//UNSCS Enterprise, MGC-066
Enterprise Bridge

"The Passchendaele is on top of us, sir" said the tactical officer. The young Lieutenant was covered with cuts and bruises, just like every other person on the bridge. Brad nodded at the young officer, and then turned to the Navigation officer. The officer, in turn understood what the Captain hinted at: Hold the course towards safety.

Brad looked at the holotable. Though functioning, it was not entirely lighted. Apparently a few projectors were damaged, which in turn caused parts of the image to not be there. What he did know, though, was that the course he was in right now would lead him to the Iowa.

After they seemingly got away from the Covenant, suddenly the tactical officer shouted:"Captain! Covenant boarding craft inbound!". Brad quickly looked up from the holotable, and pushed a button, causing his voice to be broadcast over the entire ship. "All hands, all hands, prepare for boarding." The captain said.

Immediately, the remaining marines mustered at the vital areas such as the bridge, Engineering and other places. Any crew that was not vital in keeping the ship running also took up arms. Hell, even Brad himself unlocked his holster, pulled back the slide to load a round in the chamber, and took the safety off before returning it to his holster. Within minutes, the important areas were fortresses.

Then the Captain took up a mic, and said "any ship that can hear us. This is the UNSCS Enterprise. We are about to be boarded by the Covenant, and are requesting any assistance. Enterprise out."

[Daenerys Targaryen]

Dani-047 

Gold Two 

UNSCS Iowa 
Service Elevator

Stares came with the body. Dani had realised this a long time ago, and as she moved through the almost empty sections of the ship, she found herself constantly reminded of that fact. She and her companions towered over every person on this ship; it was more than obvious that they were different, even without their monolithic olive green plates and various layers encapsulating them. The Spartan thought it more likely than anything that they would bring more confusion than cries of joy this time around. Very tall people strapped up in various pieces of armor, in an already disheveled battlefield would do little to boost moral, and likely be faced with more questions than orders.



Clank. Clank. Clank.



The footsteps of the three Spartans sounded along the corridor in a cadence that spoke of years of training. Falling in order as if it were simply a large creature prowling after the occasional maintenance worker. They must have thought something similar, their faces flashing through several different emotions as they stalked past. In them she sensed the same anxiety that she now felt. No matter human or Spartan, moving through the corridors of a ship that can be torn into the void of space within seconds had a thrill of its own. Surely, human and covenant projectiles flitted past them at an alarming rate; it was strange in that aspect, how being hold up in a tin can could make you feel safe when a tiger lies just outside. Soon they wouldn't have a tin can to call home.



Dark and tactical plots thudded around her skull as Gold One began to speak. Roy's arm was another variable she had only just began to consider, as they moved along. The two acted like a fluid unit, that had been true for years; and she knew from experience that Roy could indeed handle himself with one arm, but it would cripple his fighting in an obvious way. She would have to pick up slack that Roy left behind if it came down to it. On top of all, the fact that they would have to jerry rig armor meant they could not be as confrontational as Roy might like. Mjolnir could barely handle the onslaught of plasma and unless they carried a surplus of armored plating, they would need less ballsy tactics.



Silas spoke once more as the trio entered a service elevator, this time discussing items of importance for their operation. She made a mental checklist. Without their magnetized armor points, they would need a decent among of straps and packs to carry supplies. "Noted Gold One, I suggest that I carry medical supplies. We've not run an op unarmored for a long time, good to have some supplies in case of plasma burns." She offered a brief glance toward Roy's arm. "Biofoam, and other trauma items."

[TinCanHitman]

Roy-001 

SPARTAN 

Gold Three

Service Elevator

Roy heard every thing that was said around him, and pretty much felt what Dani was feeling, it was just from working with her so long. That being said he wasn't truly focused on that, he was instead rapidly tapping on the pad on his left arm. He was cycling through schematics and remembering old details. He had partially designed his arm, though in truth it was more of a bastardization of the UNSC's own design. He had outfitted it for an occasion just like this, and had forgotten until they were moving through the bowels of the massive ship. Silas was trying to reassure him that they would make it work, even offering an idea of using elastic bands and hooks to make a rudimentary prosthetic. 

"That could work...I'm just looking over some plans here..." he trailed off in his usual fashion. Roy had never been able to explain his thought process, in honesty, if flowed almost to fast for him. If he didn't have his SPARTAN reflexes he probably wouldn't have been able to work with it, or maybe it was because of his SPARTAN reflexes that he was like this? Either way his hand was a blur as he stepped onto the lift with them, his eyes flicking about rapidly as he finally pulled up the plans he needed. It was as he remembered, the standard arms could run off of neural brain-waves making it move slower, but still usable in EMP situations. Roy however had up the schematic for his personal arm, where he had his socket set to run off of his own heart, as well as neural patterns. This meant that it would operate at near full capacity, and over if he heart rate spiked.


As they stood in the elevator when suddenly Roy pulled a small tool kit from his satchel. He was incredibly quick with his work, his hands seaming to glide over the arm as he worked his tools into proper joints, bolts coming loose as well as nuts. Soon enough there was a loud hiss and the arm fell from the socket. Roy caught it with his left and gently set it on the ground, now taking wire cutters and pliers as he worked the socket. He needed to hook the proper port to the arm's socket, which he let rest when not needing it. He did run the risk of shocking his heart if he wasn't careful, but Roy had little choice. As the other's talked about medical plans Roy finally lifted the arm back into the socket, walking over to the wall and pushing his arm against it as he re-attached every thing. He was even faster at attaching it, now that he had just recently disassembled it. 

Roy stood, flexing the robotic arm, he then focused and began to breath really fast, getting himself excited about the coming mission. He could feel his blood pumping at a faster rate, his heart thumping in his chest, and he swore he could feel the energy in his arm. He gave a grunt and slammed the arm into the wall, earning a loud thump and a sizable dent. Roy turned back to the rest of gold team. "I fixed it..." he said as a scanned the group.

[David]

Commander Katheryn Janeway
Bridge - UNSC KILLIMANJARO

Clenching tightly.



Things felt like they were happening in slow motion. Admiral Vardy was being carried off the bridge, the corpse of the crewman was taken off as well, both being hauled to sickbay. She was worried about the Admiral. He was her mentor. The rock in any storm. Unmoveable and unflappable. He always had the right thing to say, to do. He was sharp and quick witted. What could she do? The engines were fried, the coolant was the only thing keeping the engines from melting the ship and detonating. She felt monumentally screwed.

Then, shaking her head of her reverie, She snapped back into the here and now. Sadness and doubt would have to wait. She was in charge now and made sure that people knew it. Walking over to the holo-table she took tally of where the fleet stood and what was left of the fleet. What she saw shocked her.

Fully half of the Main fleet was gone. Their light classes had been destroyed by Covenant torpedos or projector shots. What did remain, all of them had at least some kind of damage, most were negligable, but the KILLIMANJARO was listed as one of the worse. Engines were at 40% efficiency, Hull damage to all lower decks, thankfully that were evacuated. MAC system was still online thankfully and she still had a good ornament of missles should she need them. That gave her an idea however, as she looked at the remainder of the covenant fleet.

Suddenly, Kim looked up, Startled and announced "Ma'am! Priority message from the ENTERPRISE, They are being boarded and require assistance!"

Slamming her fist on the holotable, Janeway cursed under her breath. Things were going from worse to shit. Then, accessing the compliment on the KILLIMANJARO, She gathered herself. "Gather 300 marines and the 50 remaining ODST's we have on board. Put them into the pelicans left available and rotate them in. Signal the ENTERPRISE we have recieved their request and are obliging." replied Janeway to Kim.

"Aye" replied Kim as he relayed the order.

"Chakotay, status of MAC" Janeway demanded.

"80%" replied Chakotay.

"Co-ordinate with Lambert" she began. "Lock on a firing solution on that big Covenant carrier. Arm Archer Pods A1 thru B10. Time the missles so they strike just after the MAC hits. Then, Take another shiva, and fire directly at them. Hopefully we take their shields down enough we can destroy them."

"Aye Ma'am." Chakotay replied, fingers working furiously, his shoulder was still oozing red, but he wasn't in danger at the moment.

Janeway settled back down into the command chair. She hoped furiously that this would work.

[Cabel]

[Planet Hope: Orbit: UNSCS Passchendaele: Bridge: Year 2547: Bridge]

“What was that?” the lieutenant, one of Matvey’s subalterns asked looking up from the situation table and his data-padd. The deck plates of the bridge had barely vibrated with the bridge being located at a distance from the cruiser’s massive thruster banks at the rear of the hull, but the young lieutenant had spoken only too soon before the deck pitched hard to port forcing everyone including Matvey and the young lieutenant to grab onto handholds specifically designed into every station and bulkhead of the bridge. Those handholds had been included into the design of the massive cruisers, along with the other space faring ships to the warships humanity had designed to carry them to the stars during a time when artificial gravity generators hadn’t been installed and where the gravity had been created by centrifugal forces.

“Reports coming in. The Hibernian collided with us along the port flank near the thruster banks,” the Lieutenant at OPS reported. “The armor across…you’re not going to believe this, Sir. The Hibernian’s starboard engine thruster sheared away the same sections of battle plating the Flying Gurnard did in the Sisleyan System. The armor thickness has been reduced from a ten meter thickness to a little less than five meters,”

“That doesn’t sound so bad,” Matvey’s young subaltern said.

“Sickbay’s reporting twelve cases of crewmen injured, mostly a few pulled muscles and six broken bones from being thrown to the deck,” the same Lieutenant reported from the OPS station.

“Transmission coming in on an open channel, Sir,” Lieutenant Louis Denrae reported from the Communications Station. “It’s from the Enterprise,”

“Transfer it to the speakers, Lieutenant,” Matvey said from the command chair.

“Aye, Sir. Transferring it now,” Louise replied before transferring the transmission to the bridge-speakers.

“Any ship that can hear us. This is the UNSCS Enterprise. We are about to be boarded by the Covenant, and are requesting any assistance. Enterprise out,” blared the Enterprise’s Captain, Captain Brad McCauley’s voice over the bridge speakers.

“The Killimanjaro’s lining up on an attack vector. I’m reporting power spikes from the Admiral’s Flagship,” the Lieutenant from the OPS station reported.

“What’s the status of the main and secondary cannons?” Matvey asked.

“The Primary cannon is at ninety percent and rising while the secondary cannon is at seventy percent and rising,” Alice reported from the Primary Tactical Station. “We should have maximum charge on both within sixty seconds,”

“When both cannons have reached maximum charge, let me know,” Matvey replied.

“CPV Class Heavy Destroyer is coming into range,” Alice reported. “The main cannon has achieved a hundred percent charge, and the secondary cannon is at eighty percent and rising. ARCHER pods have been primed,” The elegant and bulbous CPV Class Destroyer came within roughly a thousand meters bearing down on the inverted Marathon cruiser, a predator with the tips of the pulse lasers lining the hull charged a violet blue while the tubes for its plasma torpedoes warmed.

A quick nod had been the cue Alice, the Passchendaele’s long-time executive officer, had been waited for while the Russian officer’s eyes remained focused on the main-viewer rapidly filling with the sleek lines of the alien destroyer, and in short order the main and secondary cannons fired flinging two one hundred thousand fifty ton tungsten-carbide shells the size of an old double-decker bus at near point-blank range of the oncoming alien destroyer followed by a second barrage of dozens of ARCHER missiles under a protective umbrella of MLA fire. Bridging the gap before the destroyer’s own pulse laser batteries and plasma torpedo batteries could arm, the Passchendaele’s ordinance slammed into the destroyer’s shields. The first MAC round slammed into the shield overwhelming it causing it to collapse before the second round impacted near the destroyer’s control center which had incidentally been located forward near the bow and punched its way though the decks creating a mangled affair and being unimpeded continued in its onslaught. Though the pulse lasers tried firing in a point-defense manner near the hull destroying many ARCHER missiles, enough of the low-yield nuclear warheads had managed to follow through the hole carved by the MAC round. The MLA rounds peppered the hull, but their only purpose had been to divert the alien crew’s attention while the MAC round and the remaining ARCHERS dug through the ship’s hull.

The destroyer listed briefly as the power flickered along the entire ship before the reactor detonated followed by dozens of smaller explosions ripped through the alien alloy splitting the ship in half with the second MAC shell fired from the Passchendaele tearing through the main thruster banks into open space.

“Nadezhda, Alice, have the ARCHER batteries that fired reloaded and continue to recharge the main and secondary cannons,” Matvey ordered. "Order six hundred marines and seventy ODSTs to prepare for counter boarding measures, and deploy them on pelicans to aid the Enterprise. Keep the MLA turrets cooled, and supplied,"

[MrKill]

(OOC: With Price leaving, I've been given permission to destroy his ship. His character, however, survives if/when he decided to return.)

ADM. E. KLIX
UNSCS Iowa
Marathon II Super-Heavy Guided Missile Cruiser

"Admiral, it appears the Hibernian had attached to our tow line." Ares, the Iowa's CO said. The Admiral looked towards the holotable and sighed, knowing that the battle was going to be a long drawn out series of skirmishes in a couple of minutes at this pace. The Hibernian was the last operational frigate. The rest of the UNSCs frigates were disabled or destroyed, but the Commanders boat still had a pulse and the Admiral was trying to save them.

On the holoscreen, the last operational destroyer was disengaging from the battle and heading towards the flotilla of UNSC Corvettes that were stationed around the second moon. As a defensive tactic, they had deployed their nuclear mines to the left and right of the moon, out of the orbit the moon took with the planet below. The Admiral sighed, most of the Covenant ships had also broken their attacks and started heading towards the Corvettes.

The Admiral was about to turn around when his bridge was engulfed in a bright light. He had to close his eyes and count to three, and the light faded. On the holotable the fleeing Destroyer was cut in half. A Covenant energy projector bisecting the smaller warship in two. The Admiral swore, stared at his tactical display as the only capable warships left in the fleet were the Passchendaele, Kilimanjaro, Enterprise, Preston and the Hibernian.

The rest of the fleet, however, had been decimated by the Covenant warships. They had suffered casualties, however, but it was only a matter of time. Eric remembered the plasma torpedoes the CCS they had assisted on the destruction had launched. They were still inbound despite their magnetic source being destroyed. The Admiral realized that, despite the ship being disintegrated down the main hull, the Covenant warriors aboard were still attempting to register a kill.

The Torpedoes closed in on the Enterprise and hit her amid ship, splashing heat all over the hull. She burned, listed and had a dozen decks near the impact buckle. The Covenant boarding party held back while the torpedoes melted through layers of deck like a hit knife through butter. The Admiral watched helplessly as the Enterprise was soon disabled as the torpedoes reached their internal spine.

The upper hull collapsed, cracking the titanium A plate along her upper spin. Admiral Klix watched angrily as the ships escape pods launched, followed by the command pod near the bridge. They all fled towards the planet - hoping that someone would pick them along the way. As the last pod detonated from its tube, the Enterprises engines blossomed in a spectacular explosion, sending pieces of the engine nozzles flying in fifty different directions mixed with armor planting and hull.

The Enterprise was destroyed, as her warping hull started to bend into an upside down V shape from the lower hull. "My god," someone said from one of the consoles. The Admiral silently agreed, and watched as the bending hull eventually snapped. It was a shame, really. The ship looked mostly intact, but it was the fast the torpedoes hit a concentrated area and snapped.

"Prepare for survivors," The Admiral said smoothly. "We'll need all the room we can get."

[SuperCommando]

Silas-009
Gold One
UNSCS Iowa
Service Elevator

"Noted Gold One, I suggest that I carry medical supplies. We've not run an op unarmored for a long time, good to have some supplies in case of plasma burns. Biofoam, and other trauma items."

“Good call,” Silas replied to Dani’s suggestion. “Be sure to pack extra – there’s a good chance we’ll encounter wounded friendlies.”

When going into a situation completely blind like Gold Team soon would, one had to be flexible and be prepared for anything. But despite the lack of intel, the Spartans did still have some clues about what they were up against and what to expect. They knew it was a highly urban environment with significant flooding, they knew that electronic equipment would be useless, and they could safely assume things would be pretty chaotic and disorganized down there. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to get started.

Just then, a metallic echo rang out as Roy concluded the modifications to his arm with a bit of a “test” on the nearby wall.

“I fixed it…” he announced, causing a slight grin to escape Silas’s otherwise businesslike expression. Roy’s gift for engineering never ceased to amaze him. It was an asset sorely missed during their time apart, and yet another reminder of how glad he was to get to work with these two again. When he stopped to think of how much experience and skill the team combined, suddenly this mission didn’t seem so daunting.

With a gradual deceleration and noise of grinding gears, the service elevator finally came to a halt. As the doors opened and the Spartans hustled out, they moved with purpose and intense focus.

“This is it, grab what you need and meet me in the hanger bay,” Silas declared over his shoulder as he hurried on ahead to the nearest armory. “The Admiral said the only way in is by air, so that’s exactly what we’re going to do. We’ll have a Pelican fly us over the EMP zone, where we will then insert via HALO jump. Our target LZ will be the position of the most recently observed flare, and we will commence our search from there. Understood?”

[Daenerys Targaryen]

Dani-047
Gold Two
UNSCS Iowa
Armory

Dani had quieted down after Silas responded to her, allowing herself another brief moment of reflection before their lift reached an armory level. The ship that they had been based out of was rather large, this spoke volumes in the way the Spartans seemed to scheme out ways to counteract most of their problems before they could even get halfway to their destination. Though once they got there, it would be best to move quickly along through and get to the ground before whatever the fan spared was lost as well. 

It was obnoxious, how different their past situations had been from their present. The majority of their unarmored ops had happened during a time when humanity still could consider itself the most intelligent beings in current existance, raised in a reality where their own kind had to be kept in line for the good of a government that had become their mother and father. The elevator grinded to a halt, and brought Dani back into the present, things had obviously changed from that time and the three had far much more than bullets and suicide bombers to worry about. In some respect, the tables had turned in a way that Dani would have never guessed. They would be moving through streets of a darkened city, skimming through the shadows much like the quarry of their younger years. 

Silas offered parting orders as he stalked into the armory and Dani herself followed in quickly behind him, a grocery list growing inside of her head. Medical supplies, rations, ammunition, and most importantly, whatever she could fit on her body to suffice as armor. She was a smaller spartan, that fact was obvious amongst those of her rank, but all things considered her stature would be better suited for this operation. "Think I'm small enough to jam in one of the coffin dropper suits?" She asked, tossing a glance over her shoulder toward Roy. It was a workable idea, even if it was a squeeze MJOLNIR felt much the same way.

--------

Dani had packed her standard gear, along with various items specific to the mission. Her BR, of course, was strapped to her back snuglyand her SMGs were strapped to her hips. She had a hardcase tacked to her lower back, this case held biofoam cans, a medical scanner, and various other field trauma items for ground use. She had a pack slung against her pack for the heavier gear they might need during their operation, such as extra rations, medical supplies, and aquatic gear.  

Dani had been right, the ODST armor that now encased her had been a very tight fit. It lacked much of the on-suite systems found in her actual armor, but it was better than the strapped plates Roy was now wearing. The tap on her shoulder from her combat partner signified he was ready to leave, she was as well. "Extra plates, hopefully we won't need to scavange topside." Intoned the Spartan, following closely behind him as he moved toward the hanger. 

[TinCanHitman]

Roy-001

Gold three

UNSCS Iowa 

Armory

"Halo jump" Roy's frown got deeper, he hated HALO jumps. He was a massive seven eight, out of armor, so trusting his life to a piece of foil was not some thing he enjoyed. However, he ignored his discomfort and instead focused on what he'd need to bring with him. Many scenarios rapid fired through his head as he tried to predict every possible thing that he could come across and any problems they would face. Also, the prospect of armor was running through his head as well...Suddenly Dani spoke.

"Think I'm small enough to jam in one of the coffin dropper suits?"


Roy focused in on her, stepping up to be looking down at her. He stared at  her a few seconds, sizing her up and trying to imagine her dimensions. Eventually he simply nodded and turned towards the many racks of weapons. He needed to find his M90, though not particularly special, it was stockless with a slot at the front for a bayonet attachment. He grabbed it, as well as the two bandoleers full of shotgun shells. He was wearing fatigues and boots, but he'd have to make do with what he could, armor wise. He was too big for ODST armor, but he could strap on armor plates. Roy picked up one of the chest pieces and immediately sighed, it was no were near large enough for his broad frame. He set to work, using his large tool kit to work the straps and pieces, lengthening what he could so that it would fit. He ended up with, basically, two and half chest pieces and several other bits of armor on each shoulder. He was mildly protected but it'd have to do, having random bits of armor strapped where it could fit. Usually Roy was happy with his size, but today, being giant just didn't help.

Now that he had the three things he was most concerned with, shotgun, armor, and his cleaver, he was ready for the rest. He began to wander through the armory, satchel open like he was a child at Halloween. He eventually settled on a M6D and a MA5C, before bringing them over to the table he'd been working at. His hand began to move across the weapon as he stripped the top ammo counter off and instead attached an old school ACOG sight. He didn't know what would and wouldn't work down there, so the old school sight would be helpful. He did the same to magnum, stripping all of it's electronic sights, he didn't want any thing to happen to his gear while he was down there.

Along with that he grabbed a flare gun, putting a third bandoleer across his chest. It was filled with multi-colored flares, all of which would be useful in this situation. Eventually he was ready, but as he turned from the table he stopped, starring hard he gave out a deep sigh as he set all of the weapons back down and went back to the armory. He needed to find slings and a holster...

Once Roy was finally ready he pulled out one of the grey caps that marines wore, as well as an urban-camo balaclava. It was nothing like his Mijolner, but it'd have to do. He felt extremely light, however, and the possibilities where endless. He tapped Dani on the shoulder, jerking his head to the hangar as he made his way there, fully loaded.