Unit Mission: 22nd and 14th Fleets

[MrKill]

** For more information, please read 'Unit Mission: Seventh Marines: **

UNSC Navy Strength (37 Warships )
3 x Marathon II Super-Heavy Guided Missile Cruisers (1 Destroyed, 1 Damaged, 1 Disabled)
2 x Marathon Heavy Guided Missile Cruisers (1 Destroyed, 0 Damaged)
1 x Trafalgar Super Carrier (0 Destroyed, 0 Damaged)
1 x Virtue Carrier (1 Damaged)
26 x Various Frigates (23 Destroyed, 0 Damaged)
5 x Various Destroyers (4 Destroyed, 0 Damaged)
Remaining: 8 Active Warships

Fleets:
- 14th and 22nd -

Covenant Navy Strength (14 Warships)
1 x CSO Super Carrier (1 Destroyed)
2 x Reverence Cruisers (2 Destroyed)
2 x CCS Battle Cruisers (2 Destroyed)
2 x CAR Light Frigates (0 Destroyed, 0 Damaged)
5 x CPV Heavy Destroyer (3 Destroyed, 0 Damaged)
2 x SDV Heavy Corvette (2 Destroyed)
Remaining: 4 Active Warships

[MrKill]

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

"We're holding just outside their weapons range, sir." The tactical officer said. Klix had ordered the 22nd Fleet to regroup on the other side of Sanctuary until the offloading of vital supplies and troops was complete. From here, the Covenant would have to move around not one but two gravity wells. Hope and Sanctuary both had their own orbit, and it was difficult for a large; heavy warship to maneuver between the two. Perfect tactical position. The Covenant warships could only truly come from way without dampening tactical condition for themselves. If they did come that way, they'd run into a series of MAC rounds. Unfortunately, space wasn't 2D.

They could come from above them, slightly to the right above then, below them, etc, etc. UNSC Warships were pointed in all different directions covering a field of fire in a complete 360 degree sphere. Every angle that wasn't being watched had a longsword from the Iowa parked there watching the vector. The UNSC fleet would be able to react properly, but the challenging thing was getting to Admiral Vardys fleet on the other side of Hope. Between Vardy and himself, they had a Covenant battlegroup that could completely smash the UNSC fleet.

While they outnumbered the Covenant, they had ships that took entire battlegroups to take down. What literally scared Klix was the fact a rare and extremely powerful ship was within the mists, a CSO Super Carrier. Those things would rip a Marathon II in half as easily as a monkey ripping through a banana. They were easily three times the length of the Marathon II and probably thrice the tonnage, too. He did not want to anger whom ever was commanding that ship.

The Covenant hadn't left orbit yet, or at least from what sensor details were showing them. Half the Covenant fleet over at Hope had begun glassing the planet and bombarding it from orbit while the other half, and the more powerful half at that, was maintaining orbit over the Artifact. During other circumstances, Klix would have assumed they'd break orbit and engage. But for once he was thankful the Covenant were staying put.

"Contact Bravo and Charlie Battlegroups. I want us to spread apart a bit. If a Covenant ship or ships come around the moon we're to clustered together for these many approach vectors." Klix said, "And give me a channel to Vardy, on the double."

"Yessir!"

It didn't take long for the messages to be sent to York and Micheals telling them to spread apart from Alpha Battlegroup with the reasoning behind it - being they were too close and could easily be slaughtered. The line with Vardy almost instantly opened. Both his communications officers were on their A game right now. Good, he needed that.

"While I can say the Calvary has arrived, David, I can't say we're going to be much good. Can you get over to my position without suffering casualties? The Covenant are picketed fairly well at my location so unless I divert a group of ships that'll take an hour to reach your current position." Klix said, and awaited a reply from his friend.

[Frazer]

Rear Admiral Frazer York

UNSCS Tassafaronga 

Trafalgar Class Fleet Carrier

Battlegroup C, 22nd Fleet
"A new ship, a new life."

The newly christened ship kept in formation around the 22nd Fleet. The battlegroup that Frazer was in control of was merely two carriers and six frigates. The other battlegroup was controlled by the second Rear Admiral in the fleet. Frazer left the operations room down below the bridge as he gave the marines a briefing on whether they expect this ship to be boarded and what should happen if they are. Frazer didnt want to take any chances. As he left, he saluted the guardsmen by the OPs door. As he felt inclined to do so.

It took Frazer a while to get from the operations room to the bridge. He had gotten use to the travel time to the bridge on the Preston but this, this was taking a while. Frazer was still getting use to the size of the ship. Finally he arrived at bridge. As he walked on all the stationed officers and ensigns stood up as Frazer walked on. "Officer on Deck." Tony the ships XO shouted. It was good to have his old crew on this ship. Frazer would miss them too much.

"At ease men. Liara report." Frazer said to his new A.I. He missed Tiffany but Liara was better according to records. As the crew sat back down, Liara come up on the pedestal.

"Admiral we are just outside of weapons range and it appears our fleet is set to stay her for the moment. Ship is fully operational and is taking her first outing into the outer colonies well."

"Excellent Liara." Wilson the ships communications officer turned around to face Frazer.  

"Sir, orders from Admiral Klix he wants our battlegroups to be spread out to cause less cluster problems." Frazer nodded and walked over to the comm panel. Get me a line with the Preston and our frigates. Wilson pressed a few buttons and then nodded at Frazer.

"Battlegroup C, this is Rear Admiral York, we are spreading the battlegroups out. We are going to spread out to the port side of the Iowa. Preston come around on our port side so the frigates can split into two's around us. York out." Frazer walked over to his chair. "Right carefully does it Trayner. Keep us inline with our group but maximum spacing."

"Aye aye sir." Trayner said as she moved the ship. Battlegroup C spaced out and there was quite some distance between Battlegroup A and C now. The ship moved slowly but in the end got on the starboard side of the Preston. 

"Liara, Blackpool. Bring weapon systems online. I want us to be ready for anything that comes at us understood?" 

"Yes Admiral." Blackpool said as Liara appeared on the pedestal by him. Frazer sat back and awaited his weapons to be online and ready.

[Jakob]

Commander Karl Peiper
Trying to have a good day

Peiper sat in his captain's chair, he had decided today was the day he turned the ship's crew around. It was a particularly nice morning, and the thought of going to battle in the Lead to Gold had made him go a bit loopy today. Looking out at the assembled fleet, he turned on the ship intercom and began a speech for the first time in his life,

"My friends, today is the day we show the Covenant who is the strongest mutter ficker in this galaxy. We will show these Covenant bastards who is the strongest in this here galaxy, we will show them the indomitable might of Human superiority, and we will show them what exactly happens when you fuck with us.

"Together crew, we're going to make this rust bucket soar. I want no less than FOUR ships under our belt, I want us to go to five or six. For every accident in this ship's stinking history, we're going to take two Covenant ships. Sadly we don't have enough of them here, so today, today we kill as many as possible, then the next day, then the next, and then we'll prove our worth to the whole fucking UNSC! Can I get an oorah sailors?!" he smiled and waited for the oorah, just like the movies.

To his surprise, there was not a peep from anywhere in the ship, just the regular tapping of consoles. He glanced around in confusion and looked over at his bridge crew,

"What, I said can I get an oor-"

"Oh were you saying something sir?" Carvalho said from his seat, turning his head with a worried look on his face.

"My... my speech..." he said, his jaw slowly dropping.

"Oh, a speech? Do you want me to turn on the intercoms?"

Peiper just sighed and fell back into his seat.

"Ich hasse euch alle, just forget it you bunch of pricks." Liao thought this would be a good time to perk up,

"Sir if it means anything, I heard your speech and I thought it was very-" Peiper cut her off,

"Shut up Liao..."

"Sir, as much as I like not hearing Liao, we've got a message from the admiral coming in..." Frost said, his voice never moving an octave. The man quickly listed off an order and then gave him the time of the message.

"Wait... that was five minutes ago Frost."

"You were busy."

Peiper looked out the window and saw every other ship in the fleet moving to new positions besides his.

"Sheisse you little... Liao, power to engines, thrusters starboard. I want us moving with the rest NOW!"

There was a moments hesitation before Liao replied,

"Sir engines are broken."

"What?"

"Engines sir, um they're broken. Like really broken, like they're broke and they won't work cause like there is something wrong and like, I don't know it's-"

Peiper ignored her and turned on his radio, his hands shaking as he realized he was commanding the only ship in the fleet that wasn't moving and was now well outside the fleet's perimeter. Finally he found the engineers signal,

"Balog, what the fuck is going on down there, where are my engines, Bitte sagen Sie mir, Sie können es zu beheben."

"Uh, uh sir, I-"

"Who the... Park is that you? Where's Balog?"

"I, yeah sir. Balog is busy doing... something. He's been doing this weird flag celebration to remember some war or something we were in. I uh, he woke me up and-"

"Park you're literally the second rotation, if you're running engineering... oh fuck it, just fix my engines."

"Yes sir."

After a while, the engines came back to life. After twenty minutes of being yelled at by the brass, the Lead to Gold slowly began drifting back towards the fleet.

[Wax™]

Rear Admiral Jonathon Michael

UNSCS Athenian - Marathon II Super-Heavy Guided Missile Cruiser

Battle group B - 22nd Tactical Fleet 

Floating in space

Jonathon stood at the very front of his bridge, standing just behind the small split in consoles that divided the weapons and navigation's consoles. Staring out into the blank abyss and the sight of Sanctuary. His arms were pulled behind his back and he clasped his left wrist gently with the opposing hand as he stared out the main view port of the bridge. Jonathon was currently wearing his combat jump-suit but the one which was modified for high ranking officers serving on a UNSC Naval Vessel. Jonathon closed his eye's and took in a deep breath before exhaling and opening his eye's. In the short period in which his eye's were closed he imagined himself in a field full of sun-flowers. Looking up at the radiant sun as it looked down on him.

"Admiral..." He heard out the corner of his mind.

"Admiral..." The metallic voice spoke again."

"Yes Kronos? What is it?" He said looking to a small plinth integrated to the navigation's desk which the red figured titan appeared on.

"Admiral Klix has informed us that Bravo and Charlie battle groups are to spread out across the current space on the playing field that we hold... Commander Woods has positioned her Destroyer rather close to our Starboard side so I would recommend exercising caution when executing the maneuver." Kronos said before dismissing himself and vanishing into thin air.

"Thank you Kronos."

"My pleasure Sir." His voice echoed through the bridge's interior before it went silent and filled with the sound of hard working officers and sailors.

"Nav... Shift us a decent amount of dozen kilometers or so from Admial Klix's Marathon please."

"Comm's... Alert Admiral Klix that we are ready for further orders and notify our frigates to spread out in a staggered formation along our line and notify Commander Woods that I would like her to remain close on our starboard side... However be sure to notify her to position her ship below our archer pods... I would hate to see her brand new ship go to waste." He said with a hint of humor on his tone. He'd then pace back towards his captains chair and sit himself in it with a rather straight posture before lifting his hands to wipe down his face. Though the man was fully rested and energized. He felt tired... Tired of war.

[David]

Admiral David Vardy
UNSC KILLIMANJARO
In Air Space around HOPE

"While I can say the Calvary has arrived, David, I can't say we're going to be much good. Can you get over to my position without suffering casualties? The Covenant are picketed fairly well at my location so unless I divert a group of ships that'll take an hour to reach your current position." Klix said 

Putting his hands behind his back, David went to the new holotable recently installed on his ship and scrutinized the fleets position in comparison to the Covenant fleet. All of the red dots around the planet created a pretty tricky obstacle course.

"Lambert" David called his AI. "Can we plot a course that takes us around the Covenant and rendezvous with Admiral Klix's ship that won't get us shot before we can twitch?"

Appearing on the Holotable in his usual guise, an old man, balding with a cup of coffee, He peered over the data and with a flourish of his coffee cup, A plotted course came up and picked a line clean to the Admiral's ship. "That's as good as it's going to get Admiral. ETA is 20 minutes." He said. "That's if you go at 25% engine speed." 

Running a hand over his face, David exhaled slowly. The thoughts of the last mission he had run hadn't gone so well and had ended up with a lot of dead pilots and dead crewmen. Turning to his XO, David made a gesture towards the table. "Thoughts, Commander?"

"I'd say go for it, Admiral" Paris replied. "The position we are in is not tactful and will not gain us any ground."

David's right eyebrow shot up. Clearly Paris had an aptitude for tactics that he had not seen before. Perhaps it was the edge that he had when he was a pilot. Seeing things that most others wouldn't. It made the one corner of Davids lips tug upward, But he checked the motion. Now wasn't the time for congratulating. Not yet.

Nodding, David then spoke out loud. "Admiral. We believe we have a way to get to you. Not without some risk, But if we do this right, We should be at your position within 20 minutes. Vardy out." 

Then, looking at Commander Paris, He nodded. "Very well Commander, Take us out." and with that, went back to his chair and sat down. 

[MrKill]

((OOC: Dave. The final shout out to the once legendary ship. The Arizona. Good to finally get her off of canon completely. ))

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

"Sir, Vardy is attempting to move his fleet towards us." Klix's tactical officer said. Eric nodded and walked calmly over to his holographic table. The 3D image was fuzzy on the other end of the moon in some spots due to no data being collected but overall the picture was reliable. He mused over that his friend had in mind but couldn't really gather a picture of what was going to happen. His Marathon started to move, but Klix had something up his own sleeve. If Vardy was going to arrive without harm, Klix had to take action against the Covenant fleet. The only reason, Klix assumed, the Covenant were still over Hope was to glass it but to box the UNSC Fleet in from providing reliable reinforcements.

"Weapons, use reactor power to charge the SSAK-79's to full charge. Navigation, plot a course for all three battlegroups and get them aimed at the Covenant warships. Weapons, I want fir-" Klix was saying, but the blaring klaxons interrupted him. The siren was a specific one, sounding only when proximity to the Iowa or any UNSC sensor outpost was detected. It typically meant a Covenant ship had slip-spaced into the system... or worse. They did an inner system jump.

"SIR!" The Tactical Officer said. "Covenant CSO has jumped! New location, bearing zero-four-three by zero-zero-three point one seven! It's charging weapons!" The Tactical Officer added, laced in his tone wasn't worry. It was fear. The CSO could move single handed and crush what ships Admiral Klix had at his disposal.

"More sensor readings! Reverence Class has joined the CSO... wait! More ships are coming out of slip-space. Two Reverences and a CCS Class Battle-Cruier have joined the CSO." The Tactical Officer corrected himself. The second one leaned back in her seat, almost like he was giving up with life. She threw her hands onto her head and swore at the top of her lungs.

"Can the chatter, Lieutenant, and get back to work! I want to know if their shields are still down!" Klix screamed. When Covenant ships exited slip-space they needed to reactivate their shields, which meant they were momentarily vulnerable to the UNSCs magnetic accelerator cannons. The Tactical Officer begun to reply when the holotable made an audible bleep. Two rounds, labelled SSAK-79 'Arizona', had fired at the CSO. The UNSCS Arizona, the third Marathon II Cruiser to enter service, had fired her weapons.

"Shields are down, CSO is dead for right now but she's powering back up! Ten seconds for the Arizona's weapons to hit!" The Tactical Officer said, "Covenant shields up in twelve!" She added. That meant the Arizona's rounds would strike first. The ship, however, wasn't done. She moved into an intercepting position and fired some of her ARCHER Missiles. The holotable was able to track all of them as they sped towards the powered down Covenant capital ship.

The rounds hit amid ship; sending atmosphere, debris and heat signatures sprawling into the depths of space. The damage inflicted to the massive ship, however, was unknown. The CSO spun slightly and Klix could see the hull beginning to warp but the rotation slowed and - like clock work - the shields popped up. The two Reverence Cruisers and sole CCS Cruiser were successfully able to destroy the incoming ARCHERs with pulse lasers.

"Damn it!" Klix swore. He knew, on the other side of the moon, the Covenant ships would be pressing in. He glanced at the holotable. Sure enough, the remaining CCS Battle Cruisers, two Heavy Destroyers and a light frigate were advancing on the UNSC position. Klix had absolutely no choice but to split his fleet. "Sound tactical response to a sound tactical defensive position. Impressive."

"B Battlegroup is to engage the incoming Covenant Forces approaching from the moon! C Battlegroup is to provide fighter support and direct fire capabilities to both attacking vectors, but focus on the CSO group more. A Battlegroup is going after the CSO and their little escort. Send the orders, now!" Klix demanded.

The Communications went hard at work letting the commanders of the fleets know.

"B Battlegroup, UNSCS Iowa; orders from Admiral Klix. Engage the Covenant Battlegroup closing in on the UNSC fleet moon side, how copy, over?"

"C Battlegroup, UNSCS Ipwa Bridge. I've got orders from Iowa Actual for you. Uhmm... You're... uh, to split your focus on both approaching Covenant battlegroups but... focus your efforts more on the Reverence Class Cruisers."

Both the communications officers started nearly simultaneously, but the COMM2 sounded a bit intimidated by her reply. Klix understood, but he needed everyone to iron their mentality because what they were about to face could leave dead. If their mindset was death already, they were doomed before they even begun. Eric had no speeches to say, no words to mutter, but he needed to say something.

"Let the Iowa do her thing, Lieutenants, and she'll treat you right. We'll win this for her, not for us. She's kept us alive on four different occasions, she won't fail us now." Klix said, hoping to inspire his crew to achieve a moral bond with the ship. Some of the bridge loved her simply because 'lady lucky' really did have 'luck' on her side. They were about to contest to that.

"A Battlegroup is in formation, sir. All ships reporting gre.. Sorry, correction. UNSCS Arizona is still moving into position on the other side of the formation." The Operations Officer reported. The UNSC 22nd A Battlegroup had taken a classic formation. The Iowa and Arizona, the two big hitters of the battlegroup, were more in the middle. Four frigates lay between them, and on the outsides on each side were the rest of the battlegroups ships. But it was 3D, so some ships were lower than the Marathon II's while others were higher.

"Send us in, Navigations. Weapons, I want a firing solution on the CSO!"

"INCOMING! Torps in the wa- EP's out!" The Weapons Officer barked. The Admiral shot a glance at the holotable. The Reverence's, CCS and CSO had unleashed their entire arsenal of plasma torpedoes. Along with that, lances of energy projectors shot free. The UNSCS Arizona had a dozen energy projectors connect. Armor pieces sizing up to three hundred meters fell free from the ship. The vessel burned, and her engines died. The projectors pierced through both MAC systems, the engine room and destroyed the primary electrical conduit. Damage reports hadn't come across the screen, but it was clearly visible on the screens Klix was glued too.

The energy projector aimed for the Iowa had missed, slightly, which allowed the crew to breathe a tad. The projector laced forward but, assuming it came from the CSO, missed due to vibration in the decks. Two Frigates were immediately destroyed, while another Destroyer was temporarily taken offline. Four unfortunate longswords were in the path of the laser weapons as well, and vaporized.

"Paris Class Frigates UNSCS Kong and Joe Smith are destroyed! Venom Class Destroyer Loch Ness is heavily damaged and dead in the water." The Tactical Officer reported. Klix nodded in response. Two Frigates and a Destroyer from his battlegroup were destroyed. He didn't know what damage the CSO did to B or C Battle-groups.

The Arizona, however, ignited her secondary engines for a moment before they died. They were trying to start, a testament to how tough the Marathon II's truly were, but twelve energy projectors were a significant toll to take. The Arizona was, in every sense of the word, crippled. The ship was practically stripped from any important piece of technology they could use to combat the Covenant.

Finally, reports came in.

The only thing still functional was a series of point defense guns and most ARCHER missile bays there weren't directly destroyed. All decks had been virtually severed, but all in different areas. The decks were buckling like a stream of water and igniting the engines meant that they'd tear into a dozen pieces trying to escape a gravity well. Unfortunately, they were in one.

While Klix wanted to punch the Covenant commanders in their ugly mouths, he knew they'd simply just bite his hands off. Eric swore and turned his attention towards the space filled with life pods from the Arizona, then to the Covenant. They were the focus point. Still, at least fifty plasma torpedoes were sailing towards the UNSC line.

"Prepare the UNSC fleet to initiate tactical emergency maneuvers. Warm up the coils on the PDG's and get me my fucking firing solution! Distance to impact for the torpedoes?" Klix barked, angrily cupping his hands into a fist.

"Thirty seconds!"

"Sir! The Arizona is moving into their trajectory! Twenty five seconds to intercept!" The Tactical Officer reported. Klix stood back stunned, watched as the command pod launched from the behemoth Cruiser, and knew the Captain of the ship would survive. His pod was already streaming towards the Iowa.

The Arizona was wobbling like a broken branch during a wind storm through out the entire ship. Her ARCHER pods fired, making the hull break apart near a hanger, but they were able to launch. Firing solution was transferred from the AI subroutine to the Iowa a second before the final ARCHER missile left the pod. Slowly, the Arizona's engines sputtered once and died.

The Torpedoes adjusted course but still streamed into the UNSC Cruiser. Everything burned, and by the time the last torpedo hit the Cruiser ninety five percent of the former one thousand five hundred meter ship was vaporized. The only noticable sections left were the massive engine baffles and the barrel of the two MAC systems. Unfortunately, seven torpedoes managed to make it through the vaporized hull.

"Nuclear detonation!" The Weapons Officer said. The EMP waive would arrive quicker than the plasma torpedoes, and they'd like dissipate as the electromagnetic pulse knocked out the torpedoes ability to maintain that heat in space. "Preparing for EMP waive! Four SHIVA class detonations at maximum yield!"

Klix keyed the fleet-wide transmission. "Prepare for impact!"

[David]

Admiral David Vardy 

UNSC KILLIMANJARO 

UNSC 14th FLEET

As David listened to the commo chatter happening from the UNSC IOWA, He got back up and headed back to the holotable. "Lambert, show me firing solutions and the position of the fleet." David ordered. As the holotable lit to life and the information started showing, David winced. Two minutes into the battle and already the UNSC fleet was being decimated. Fortunately the IOWA seemed to be ok for now, But it wouldn't be much longer if David didn't do something with his fleet. He knew what was at stake so David banished his doubts and moved into tactical mode.

"Lambert, Co-ordinate with the fleets AI's. Get me a targeting solution for the rest of the small fry." David ordered.

"Sir?" Paris asked, at David's side. "Shouldn't we be taking on the Reverance?" 

David glanced at his first officer. He understood why Paris would want to go after such an appetizing target, But it was the wrong thing to do. Even if they took it out, The small fry would still decimate the fleet. Besides, Klix knew what he was doing and David was apt to stay out of his way. "Negative Commander, The 22nd fleet is already engaging it. We need to take the heat off them by distracting the smaller ships. This way they can focus on their target without complications from the rest of the Covenant fleet." David replied.

Nodding his understanding, Paris then got a thoughtful look on his face. "I see sir."

Nodding, David turned his attention back to the holo-table. He saw that Nukes had been fired. Thankfully, His ship and fleet was out of range of said Nuclear weapons EMP range, SO he didn't have to worry. He also saw that Lambert had co-ordinated with the fleet. "Well done Lambert. Now. Fleet-Wide transmission."

When Paris nodded, David spoke aloud. "14th Fleet, this is Admiral Vardy. Lambert has provided each of you with a target. Do your best to take your designated target out. I don't need to remind you all of our duty to the fleet and to the men and women on that planet. Good luck. and Godspeed." 

Then nodding to Paris, He cut the channel. "Lambert. Get us closer to our target. Weapons, Unlock safeties on 2 of our shiva's and stand by to fire. Spin up Archers on A1-C2. Fire Shiva's once we are within  range. Lambert fire Archers so they detonate just after the explosion." David ordered.

"Coming up on target" replied Paris, looking at the tactical screen.

"Fire." was the only word David uttered.

[Wax™]

Rear Admiral Jonathon Michael 

UNSCS Athenian - Marathon II Super-Heavy Guided Missile Cruiser 

Battle group B - 22nd Tactical Fleet  

Floating in space 

"B Battlegroup, UNSCS Iowa; orders from Admiral Klix. Engage the Covenant Battlegroup closing in on the UNSC fleet moon side, how copy, over?"
Jonathon heard over the bridges PA system. Jonathon immediately pressed a button on his chair to initiate two way COMM's between the two ships but would quickly shut them down once he had finished speaking.

"Affirmative Iowa... Athenian and Battlegroup B to target incoming Covenant Battlegroup... Out." He said, terminating the transmission before standing up in his chair quickly and pointing at COMM's. "Open up a channel between all my ships!" He then turned and pointed to NAV. "Navigations... Line us up with the Covenant CSO... All Frigates and UNSCS Doberman... Form a honey-comb formation across the Athenian's Horizontal and Vertical axis' get your weapons officers to charge your MAC's and arm all ARCHER missiles." Jonathon said before turning to his own weapons officer. "Charge both macs and arm all our ARCHER's... Prepare to fire ARCHER's 1A through 1E."

As Jonathon's Marathon and the Frigates in his Battlegroup began to follow out his orders. Jonathon watched not only on his bridges holo-table UNSCS Arizona seemingly attempted to take on the Covenant CSO all on it's own. But also through his ships screens. The next few minutes of the engagement was such a spectacle that Jonathon nearly forgot entirely to relay orders to his crew and to the Frigates in his Battlegroup. Luckily enough during the Arizona's final moments. None of the Frigates in Jonathon's Battlegroup took casualty to the huge amount of energy projectors coming in their way. The honey-comb formation actually doing some good.

"Admiral Sir!?" Jonathon heard ring through his ears.

"What should we do?" Jonathon's weapons and COMM's and nearly every other officer on the deck said at once starting at the man. Jonathon took a few seconds to himself before looking to his COMM's officer.

"Do we have COMM's open with the rest of the Battlegroup?"

"Yes-Sir." COMM's replied.

"All frigates fire your MAC cannon's at the Covenant CSO Cruiser!" Jonathon yelled.

Jonathon took a step back and made sure he was seated in his chair before his ships two SSAK-79's fired in unison at the Covenant CSO. The ship rattled violently and Jonathon watched as the two heavy rounds fired into the black abyss towards the gigantic Covenant Cruiser. Seconds after firing the MAC rounds followed by all the MAC rounds from his Frigates his Operations Officer Spoke.

"Sir! Nuclear detonation detected! Four SHIVA class detonations at maximum yield coming from the Arizona!" The Operations officer spoke, followed quily by Admiral Klix's voice coming over the ships entire PA system.

"Prepare for impact!"

"Prepare for impact!" Jonathon yelled shortly after, repeating the words as he sat firmly in his chair, gripping hard onto the rests.

[Frazer]

Rear Admiral Frazer York 

UNSCS Tassafaronga  

Trafalgar Class Fleet Carrier 

Battlegroup C, 22nd Fleet 

"Why the nukes?" 

As Frazer sat there on his new comfy Captains chair. He awaited an order, anything from the Admiral. Wilson, the communications officer, turned around to Frazer to speak to him. "Admiral, message from Admiral Klix sir."

"Play it son." Frazer said as he sat up and walked over to the holo table.

"C Battlegroup, UNSCS Ipwa Bridge. I've got orders from Iowa Actual for you. Uhmm... You're... uh, to split your focus on both approaching Covenant battlegroups but... focus your efforts more on the Reverence Class Cruisers."

Frazer nodded. He then proceed to walk over to the comm table. "Wilson, battlegroup wide transmission." Wilson took a second and then spoke.

"Ready sir." Frazer proceeded to speak into the mic.

"Battlegroup C, this is Rear Admiral York. Captain Lanklyn move the Preston forward towards the Reverence class ships. Charge your MACs and release your longswords. Have them fall in with our longswords. We will follow from your port side. Frigate Commanding Officers, stay in formation around us. We can do this. Stay in contact with my Operations officer. Also Lanklyn, dont you put a scratch on her. Otherwise you will not only have Tiffany to deal with. York out." Frazer then moved back to the holo table. All he seemed to do is move between the two.

"Liara I want all longswords deployed. Have them form up with the Preston's and make a blanket around the battlegroup. Blackpool where are we on the MAC status?"

"80 percent charged sir. Our engineering officer minds us to watch how much power we drain however."

"We should be fine. Trayner stay in formation with the battlegroup. Full ahead. Take it easy." 

"Aye aye sir." 

"Blackpool make sure Archer pods are online." Blackpool nodded and then Frazer looked at Tony. "Commander make sure all Marines are ready for potential boarding. I dont want any Covie fuckers on this ship. Understood?" Tony nodded and proceed to the nearby ensign to speak. Frazer noticed on the holo table the battlegroups move into positions and so the fighting started. Liara spoke loudly. 

"Admiral! Nuclear detonation detected! Four SHIVA class detonations at maximum yield coming from the Arizona!" As soon as she finished a message from Admiral Klix came through warning the same.
Frazer keyed in a ship wide broadcast.

"Brace for impact!" Frazer rushed over to his chair and held on ready. Frazer didnt like nuclear detonations at all. 

[MrKill]

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

As the flash from the nuclear detonations faded, and the EMP wave rolled over the UNSC Naval vessel, Klix found himself glued to the tactical display screen. He waited, and waited, and waited as the holotable tried to re-image what had just happened. There. The expanding radiation field, the Covenant vessels engulfed in it, and the fading. None of the Covenant vessels remained, but it didn't make sense. Where did they go? Not even debris was on the holotable.

"Advanced sensor scans, now!" The Admiral barked.

A minute passed, "We've got a lot of vaporized debris particles and we're compiling an image of what it would have looked like." The Tactical Officer said, seemingly able to breathe now, but it quickly went when an alarm went off at her station. "Mother of god," She swore, her tone shaky. "They're right there!"

On the holotable, the CSO SuperCarrier, Reverence Class Cruiser and CCS Class BattleCruiser emerged from slipspace roughly nine hundred kilometers away from the Iowa's bow. Klix swore, "Evasive maneuvers, now!" - Klix returned to his command chair, which had a console on it. His Battlegroup scattered. They were not in a position to shoot, and if they did, they would have all been destroyed by the Covenant battlegroup or UNSC Warships.

Klix's remaining Frigates sped past. The UNSCS Loch Ness was immediately destroyed as a plasma torpedo connected with the ship. The IFF tag winked off, and the cameras showed the vessel breaking apart amid ship. It wasn't disabled, it was gone. Simply gone. The CSO, however, wasn't done. While the previously fired torpedoes had dissipated, the CSO was prepared to fire coming out of slip-space.

The Iowa, using three hundred percent of her reactor, rocketed away from the massive twenty eight kilometer vessel as fast as a Frigate could. His fleet, fortunately, stuck together for the most part. The UNSCS Toph was destroyed a moment later as the CSO fired on the closest vessel, but Klix had successfully managed to escape. With the EMP shields still in place, none of his weapons were going to work. Not point defense, not missiles and certainly not the most electric weapon on the ship - the SSAK-79.

"Take us out into deep space, break through the gravity well. Get my EMP shields down! We need to be able to fire!" Klix ordered, frustration lacing his town. He clinched to his chair and found himself saying a small prayer inside his head. The Iowa was fleeing, not fighting. However, their run allowed the other UNSC ships to fire on the CSO SuperCarrier, but it wasn't meant to be. A lone ARCHER, from the recently destroyed Frigate, connected with the shields of the CSO.

Klix keyed all the Naval Vessels in his fleet, "Freak formations and fire! Everything you have on the CSO!" He said, releasing the button. He turned around to his navigation officer. "Turn is around, divert all reactor power to our MAC guns. Weapons! I want us looking like a bloody machine gun in thirty seconds!" Klix said.

He stood up and quickly walked over to the holotable. "I want a firing solution for our MAC rounds. Target will b the most recent area a pulse laser fired from. Send in ARCHER missiles as a distraction. Athens, launch the ARCHER missiles. Pod A1. Predict what pulse laser will fire, then send the target coordinates to the entire damn fleet!"

"Yessir," the AI replied. "Firing solutions ready."

Good! "Send the orders out!" Klix said.

In fifteen seconds, the UNSC ships that had a shot would fire their MAC guns at a weakened section of the armor. The combination of firepower hopefully broke through the shields in that area and make it towards the hull. Klix was begging for the ensuing vibrations to cause enough damage to rip it in half.

"Work damn it!"

[MrKill]

[Update:

The Four Covenant vessels, detecting the nuclear signatures, entered slip-space seconds before the detonation. However, one Reverence Class was vaporized before it could enter slip-space. The Covenant Fleet exited slip-space directly to the right of Admiral Klix's fleet, in close proximity to the UNSC ships around the moon.]

[John]

Lieutenant-Commander Jonathan Shepard
UNSC Dauntless
Paris-Class Frigate

Jonathan sat in the chair aboard his ship. His ship. He could not get used to the fact that he now commanded a ship of his own, even if it wasn't exactly the class he would have wanted. Nonetheless, he would make the best of things with what he had. What was more, was that he was assigned to the battlegroup of his mentor and role model, Admiral Klix. 

Jonathan stood up from his chair, and walked to the holotable just before the Dauntless left hyperspace. The Commander braced himself, and after a little shock, they were back in regular space.

"Statu-", he was about to ask for status reports, but could not finish his sentence before his XO spoke up. 

"All departments reporting in the green, Skipper", he said. 

Good, he thought. He liked the fact that his XO could anticipate what he was going to do. It made things a lot easier. John looked at the projection on the table. A battle had already raged, and several ships -both UNSC and Covenant- were destroyed. The Covenant fleet was now below the UNSC fleet. 

John had the Communications officer on duty, Lieutenant Junior Grade Mulholland, open a channel with the Admiral. 

"It seems that I am late. I apologize, but wish to add that I set a course as soon as I received orders to join the fleet."

[David]

OOC: Ok, time to get this moving again.

Admiral David Vardy
UNSC Killimanjaro
14th Fleet

Looking at the Holo-table, David gasped as the Super Carrier jumped and then re-appeared smack dab in the middle of Klix's fleet, Decimating The Arizona, and wounding several more. He also couldn't help but notice that the nuclear explosions meant for the SuperCarrier detonated harmlessly, But not before vaporizing a Reverance class. But the good news was that the maneuver that David had pulled with the 14th had disabled many of the light carriers and Corvettes. They were dead in space and not a threat for now.

Looking at the new position of the fleet, David saw an opportunity. The Carrier was either too stupid to notice all of his ships, or Was too focused on Klix's fleet to care. Either way provided him with a new tactical advantage that would help considerably in winning this battle. But it would mean diverting some of his attention to the now in trouble IOWA.

"Lambert, get me a solution on another SHIVA. I want you to fire it at the Super Carrier, But I want you to do it stealthily. Mask it somehow." David said to the Hologram.

"Yes sir." Replied Lambert in a sarcastic voice. "And besides doing the impossible, is there anything else I can do for you today?" 

"GET IT DONE." Snapped David. After this battle was done. IF he survived, He would have a chat with the designer of this damn AI and see about "tweaking" its personality subroutine.

Nodding, Lambert then displayed a Nuke and its projected path. "If I fire the Nuke at course 185, I can masquerade it as a piece of debris thats already moving towards the Carrier." 

"Excellent. Eta?" David replied, Calmer.

"30 Seconds" Lambert replied before winking out.

"Good." Replied David. "Get me the fleet."

"Channel open" replied Paris

"14th fleet, I want you to focus your fire on the remaining ships and disable them. i will be assisting Klix with the Super Carrier." David said. "God Speed." and then closed the channel.

[Wax™]

Rear Admiral Jonathon Michael  

UNSCS Athenian - Marathon II Super-Heavy Guided Missile Cruiser  

Battle group B - 22nd Tactical Fleet   

Floating in space  

Jonathon watched his holo-table as well as the screens who's cameras were aimed at the Covenant fleet and watched as they slip-spaced out of harms way and appeared right next to Admiral Klix's fleet. Jonathon gripped the arm rests of his chair so tight that he might of shit himself if he hadn't relieved himself earlier, soon after this happened a fleet ride transmission blared over the bridges PA system coming from the UNCS Killimanjaro.

"14th fleet, I want you to focus your fire on the remaining ships and disable them. I will be assisting Klix with the Super Carrier. God Speed."
Jonathon heard over the PA system before the channel went dead. Jonathon instantly perked up without a delay and pointed towards his Communications Officer. 

"Open me a line with the Doberman!" Jonathon said whilst staring intensely at the back of the Officers head as he went about completing his orders.

"Ay Sir! Doberman is on the line Admiral!" The Comm's officer reported back.

"Woods... Re-charge your MAC and hammer down on those Corvette's with your ARCHER's... Would probably pay to take out the smaller ones first... Break formation and keep moving... Take heavy evasive action... Keep your ship in one piece!" Jonathon said before opening a transmission between all the Frigates under his command.

"All Frigates under my command... Break formation, take heavy evasive action and keep moving... Re-charge MAC's and arm all ARCHER missiles and fire at the smaller ships first! Repeat, take out the smaller ships first!" Jonathon said before closing the channel swiftly and yelling at his weapons officer.

"Charge our MAC's too god damnit!" Jonathon said.

"I'm already on it Admiral... One of our MAC cannon's are ready to go do you----"

"Fire that MAC at one of the Light Frigates followed by ARCHER missiles 1A through 1G..." Jonathon said, cutting off the weapons officer mid sentence.

A few moments would pass, the engines of the Athenian would spark as the huge Marathon pushed to break formation and avoid Covenant fire, whilst positioning itself within firing line and range of one of the two Light Frigates's. Before firing off it's MAC and a salvo of ARCHER missiles in it's direction.

[MrKill]

(( OOC: No one gets credit for the big boy. I'm advancing the space mission. For once, the ground mission has advanced (time wise) further than the space mission has, and space missions are typically way quicker in terms of passed time than the ground missions. ))

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

"Sir, we're down to twenty six warships. We're getting obliterated!" The Tactical Officer reported. Kix stood straighter as the Iowa shook softly as a plasma torpedo rumbled over the top of her superstructure. Eight frigates, two destroyers and a Marathon II had been destroyed so far. Ironically, most of the wreckage were still transmitting a identification friend of foe tag, at least the bridge areas. They jumped in with thirty seven ships, and now there were down to twenty five. They were, in ever sense of the word, loosing. The Covenant originally had fourteen vessels, and they were now down to thirteen. Fortunately, Admiral Vardy was successfully able to inflict enough damage to the smaller Covenant fleet to stop them from from advancing on Eric's own fleet.

"Sir! We've got a signature, the Kilimanjaro has launched a SHIVA. Estimated time to arrival is thirty seconds." The Weapons Officer barked. Eric saw the ordinance appear on the screen and disappear. Vardy was trying to hide it, but if Klix had saw it on sensors the Covenant would have too. The reason hiding the SHIVAs in the exhaust heat of the ARCHER was to the sensors would pick up too many heat signatures. With the nuke drifting towards the target, the CSO would simply move away. The proximity of the nuke would also destroy or significantly damage the entire 22nd Fleet as they were extremely close to the CSO.

MAC rounds bounced off, smashed into and melted as they hit the shields or sailed through plasma torpedoes. Another frigate, disabled, collided with the shields of the CSO and begun firing her point defense guns. The CSO fired a magnitude of point defense lasers and the Frigate that had collided broke apart and rolled off of the shields as the massive Covenant flagship moved along what ever path it had set. Klix imagined a shark sailing through a pool of bloody remains floating on the surface of the water. It's how he felt. Like prey.

"UNSCS Song of the Wild has been destroyed, all hands lost." The Tactical Officer said in a quiet tone. The Weapons Officer, however, had a much more vibrant personality when he finally reported in good news. The UNSC fleet had expended dozens of rounds, especially from the Iowa itself, as they used all the reactor power they could to fire round after round after round. At this point, the Iowa's barrel was actually warm in space. The capacitors were at critical temperature levels.

"Sir, we've popped the shields!" The Weapons Officer reported. The bridge crew sighed in relief and excitement, but everyone knew they only had a few precious moments of time before the massive ships shields regenerated and the UNSCs opportunity collapsed. With a ship that size, the entire shield never popped. Only sections fell as the shield generators were overloaded. Now that the shields had dropped, Klix had to react. His MAC systems were unavailable for fire, but other ships nearby where.

"Get me a ship with an SSAK-78 rating or better!" Klix blared.

"UNSCS India, Venom Class Cruiser about fifty kilometers off our port." The Operations Officer replied.

"Open a channel to that vessel, Comms."

"Aye sir... channel open."

"UNSCS India Actual, this is Iowa Actual. Divert all engine power to your MAC systems and hit the dropped section of shielding on the CSO, and do it now!" Klix shouted. Static came back over the channel, but eventually the Captain of the Venom Class Destroyer replied.

'Roger that, sir. Out."

The India fired two quick shots, which indicated that the destroyer was ready to fire. Within twelve seconds the rounds hit the midsection of the massive Covenant ship and seemed to laugh it off. The ship had a depth the size of the Destroyer firing at it. In fact, the depth of the CSO SuperCarrier was twice as long as the Marathon II[/i]. Quite literally, it was taller than the Marathon II had in length. It was bigger than a Virtue Class Cruiser in length as well. With that fact, it was no surprise the Venom's round did minimal damage.

By now, Vard-.

The CSO detonated in a nuclear fireball, but from within. Klix immediately sent the kill codes to the SHIVA Vardy had launched using access codes supplied to him by High Command. Both Vardy and himself had access to those. Klix marveled as the bridge was, for the first time in his career, brightly highlighted in a purple tinted white. When the light faded, the CSO was two free floating sections speeding away from each other.

The bridge cheered and Klix supported a full smile on his face.

The Reverence Class Cruiser, however, remained intact as the shields shimmered vibrantly. The lack of an EMP identified that the internal explosion was, in fact, not nuclear. It was powerful, and the rounds from the Venom Class Destroyer hit the rough area around the hanger. Perhaps, through the vibration of the ship, someone armed an anti-matter charge. What ever happened, Klix was glad the CSO was taken care off.

"Get me a fleet wide transmission. Report all available UNSC ships."

"Sir, we've got twenty one UNSC ships remaining."

"Channel open, sir."

"All battlegroups regroup on the Iowa. Klix out."

[Wax™]

Rear Admiral Jonathon Michael   

UNSCS Athenian - Marathon II Super-Heavy Guided Missile Cruiser   

Battle group B - 22nd Tactical Fleet    

Floating in space 

Jonathon let out a huge sigh of relief and nearly sunk into his chair as he watched the CSO Super Carrier split into two even pieces before starting to float away from one another. Though throughout the battle itself, the Athenian had taken some damage, too. A few plasma torpedo's had made contact with one of he lower deck hangar bays, cutting off a couple decks too, though that didn't bother him just now. He silently thought to himself what it must be like for the thousands upon thousands of Covenant still INSIDE the ship as the two pieces spun randomly apart from one another. Jonathon was so relieved that the CSO was destroyed that he nearly forgot he was still in a heavy space battle. Straightening himself up he gripped onto the arm rests of his chair and cleared his throat.

"Weapons... Make sure our MAC gun's are fully charged for when we need them next, keep all ARCHER missiles primed and ready to fire likewise..."

"Sir... Incoming transmission from the Iowa, it's Klix Sir." Spoke the COMM's Officer.

"Send it through." 

"All battle-groups regroup on the Iowa. Klix out."
The Admiral spoke before the channel went dead.

"Doberman, get me a channel to her..."

"Opening... And live Sir."

"Woods, I trust you heard the Admiral... On the Iowa now, honeycomb formation." Jonathon said before cutting the channel and proceeding to turn his head to face the navigation's officer.

"Alright nav... Get us to the Iowa, not too close though." Jonathon said before taking in a deep breath of hair and sighing heavily. They had taken a tonne of losses. Though it was nothing to be surprised about. The UNSC always took it's fair share of losses when fighting the Covenant in space. What Jonathon couldn't believe so far is that they only managed to take out two damn ships.

[John]

Lieutenant-Commander Jonathan Shepard
UNSC Dauntless - Paris Class Frigate
Paris-Class Frigate

John watched as the fleets engaged the Covenant forces. There was nothing he could do to help. The Dauntless was still too far away. The Lieutenant-Commander was staring at the holotable. Then he looked at the helmsman, and without a word the man seemed to understand that his Commanding Officer wanted me speed. The Skipper, in turn understood that the helmsman had nothing more to give him.

The Skipper just turned to the main viewscreen. He watched as the battle unfolded in front of him. The ships fired everything they had for minutes until suddenly the Super Carrier exploded and split in two parts. In the same time, the Covenant fleet came into the Dauntless' weapons range.

The Skipper immediately had the AI, Centurion, fix a firing solution on the damaged corvette. Just as he wanted to give the order to fire, though, the Admiral called all ships to formation. With a sigh, he motioned to the comms officer before saying "Aye-Aye, Admiral. Dauntless forming up"

[MrKill]

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

Eric stood by the holotable, looking up at a monitor and watched the remains of the UNSCS Arizona float off into empty space. By now they had recovered the crew that had survived, but the fact a Marathon II was down made Klix angry. He designed the ships to be able to sustain enormous amounts of damage at the costs of, well, being extremely costly to maintain. When a Marathon II was damaged, they had to spent time consuming repairs in a orbital dry dock, meaning they were off the front lines.

Klix looked down at the holotable and scanned his fleet. Admirals Micheal and York were finalizing their approach vector, and the CCS and Reverence Class Cruisers sped away towards the remaining Covenant ships. This gave the UNSC some time to regroup, and left the Covenant ships showing their ass to the UNSC's fore-facing firepower. The Marathon II's UNSCS Iowa and UNSCS Athenian both had their MAC systems pointed at the fleeing Covenant ships. Of course, predictably, they were soon out of weapons range.

"Sir," The Tactical officer said. "Covenant fleet still has thirteen vessels. I see one Reverence, one CCS, two Frigates, five heavy Destroyers and two Corvettes."

Klix knew damned well that those ships could obliterate what was left of the UNSC. Typically, a 3:1 ratio was required to combat ships like the Heavy Destroyer, which was about the same length as a standard Marathon class cruiser. A Reverence alone could take on five ships and come out victorious, and was Klix's next priority. But for now, he knew that his forces needed a break. Tactical pause, just for a moment, to catch their breath. It was, he admitted, a nice pause that allowed him to stand under an air conditioning vent.

"Is the twenty second formed up?" Klix asked.

"Final vessels are approaching formation, sir. Most of the are in a honeycomb formation."

"Divert that. I want a checkered formation. Heavy hitters in the middle, Frigates in the front and back, and Destroyers along the sides. I want a eighty kilometer spread, and make sure everyone has a line of fire. Spread them out, too, using the Iowa as the epicenter. I want ships above us, below us and to the side." Klix ordered.

"Aye, sir." The Operations Officer replied, before switching to a UNSC Fleet-wide channel. "All vessels, all vessels, this is Iowa Bridge. Orders from Admiral Klix: Assume checker formation, eighty kilometer spread, complete sphere. I say again, complete sphere checkered formation - eight zero KM spread, Iowa Bridge out."

"A checkered formation is risky, sir." The XO said.

"We'll need it." Klix replied.

"How so, sir?"

"Look at the formation the Covenant are assuming. They're almost in a staggered line formation, and I have a trick up my sleeve."

"Like what, sir?"

"You know the line of redcoats from ancient times?"

"Yes? How is that relevant... sir."

"Well, I'm doing the complete opposite. When we get into formation, I'm going to order all ships to speed up an inertia of twenty kilometers a second. From there, I plan on ordering ever ship to use their reactor power to recharge their MAC systems. We'll literally be an advancing artillery column."

The XO nodded slightly, "So you're saying you want every ship in this formation to use their reactors to fire at the Covenant while we sail into them? I mean, sir, no ships will be able to maneuver what-so-ever if you do it that way."

"Like bullets from a rifle, Commander, outbound MAC rounds will keep up an automatic pace. We'll simply overload their shields and overwhelm them with firepower from a distance. The formation will also help us if they decided to jump into slip-space and get behind us. Think about it this way, they have the tactical position right now of the gravity well. Our rounds will be harder to aim without an AI, and if we miss they know we'll hit the planet. They have the tactical advantage as of this moment." Klix said.

"But, if we were to get behind them, we could then again use the moon as a defensive position. Right now, we're in the middle of space with no cover, and quite frankly the idea of hiding the rest of the UNSC fleet behind the moon is appealing. Especially when you deploy a HORNET mine field."

The XO stood back, "I see, sir."

"I hope you do," Klix said. "I'm open to suggestions..."

[David]

Admiral David Vardy
14th Fleet - UNSC KILLIMANJARO
Wondering what the hell Klix is up to.

"Admiral" Paris said, Looking at the Tacboard "What is Klix doing?"

Looking back at the Tac-Board, David frowned. He wished he could read Klix's mind, but David knew that just wasn't possible. Shaking his head, he looked back at Paris and said "Looks like he's forming up with the other Admirals to form a firing line. If it works, It'll be brilliant, But if it doesn't, Well it will be bloody indeed."

Nodding his head, Paris understood, but didn't agree with the Admirals plan. It was risky and considering they still had 12 ships in the fight, the UNSC could well be decimated and have their asses handed to them on a silver platter. Suddenly, Inspiration struck. Turning to Vardy, Paris replied "Admiral. I think I have an idea that could supplement the fleet."

"Very good Number one" David replied, Gesturing towards the table. "What have you got."

"We still have Shiva's and the Covenant seem to be concentrated on the other fleet. If we could get the rest of the 14th to follow suit, They would have a hell of a cover from any kind of retaliatory strike, considering the EMP would fry any torpedo's launched."

Nodding, David mulled over the idea. The problem would be getting the nukes in place without the Covenant fleet knowing about it. Then, Inspiration struck Vardy. "We could deploy the nukes in lifepods, The Covenant would likely ignore those... Get me Klix on the horn." Vardy ordered.

"Channel Open" Replied Kim.

"Klix, Listen up, I have an idea to supplement yours. The fleet is ignoring mine for now. I propose Shiva's launched from my fleet disguised as Life pods. That would confuse them. We then detonate when they fire their volly at you. Giving you a straight second shot. Thoughts?" David asked.

[Jakob]

Commander Karl Peiper
DESPERATELY TRYING TO NOT DIE SEND HELP

Peiper had spent the last few moments desperately trying not to die as the engines failed, and was happy to once again see that the ship was functioning to some degree. He was alerted to the fact the entirety of deck four had depressurized for reasons unknown, but was happy to hear that the two crewmen in there had been wearing their space suits and survived (Henry Locoto was the chef on the galley of deck four and had worn his spacesuit due to a lack of heat resistant gloves to make food in, the other crewman, Miguel Cardozo, was wearing his suit for completely unrelated reasons that shan't be posted here due to dirtiness issues) and had been evacuated.

It left Peiper with one less deck, but there was hardly anything on the infamous deck four (deck four was infamous mostly due to Mr. Locoto's cooking, which tasted vaguely like vacuum) and Peiper was glad he didn't lost something really important like decks seven or 12. Still, he cursed more out of tradition than anything and dropped it on Balog's already heavy workload (which would then be dropped on the unlucky Lieutenant Seager who had been waken up from a rather deep sleep to do Balog's job.)

Of course, by the time it was done, the war would most likely be over and Peiper would be celebrating his miraculous survival with a small group of prostitutes and alcohol, though this was the future and nothing but Peiper's imagination, he didn't actually think he would survive the war (though of course the prostitutes and alcohol would be in order if he did.)

"Peiper, sir, Peiper, sir, Peiper, sir, Peiper, sir, Peip-" Peiper was shaken out of his train of thoughts by Axiom who was repeating his name rather loudly and in the voice of a seven year old for some reason. He shooed away the assorted bridge crew simpletons who had taken to staring at him instead of doing their jobs poorly like always and waved his hand through Axiom's hologram for a minute to get him to shut the hell up,

"What, what do you want you soulless bunch of circuits," Peiper snapped as the AI repeated his message for the umpteenth time. Axiom's hologram flickered a bit and came back as it always did, faceless Greek aristocrat, but in a stance that implied offense, his hand hovering an inch from his mouth.

"You know how much it hurts when you say that, commander."

"Gehen Sie essen, eine Brandwand, Axiom."

"Commander, my German to English translations subsystems are currently damaged due to your beating of my AI core with the crowbar last month, but I'm sure if I could understand that I'd be offended. However, I am a professional AI, and will continue with-"

"Schnell, schnell! Come on, what is it!"

"The fleet is entering positions. Look to your left, meat bag." Peiper frowned and then slowly turned his head to the leftmost view port. For a moment he was happy, since he was no longer drifting semi aimlessly through a moving fleet of ships, and then he realized why he wasn't.

They were all lined up next to him*.

"What, but, what, my orders they-"

"Commander, your orders from Admiral Vardy were received between while you were daydreaming and when you were accusing me of having no soul, despite the fact that my taste in music proves I have some sort of-"

"I don't gottverdammten care! Get me a line with the admiral, I have to apologize for my crew failing to move this pile of rust, and correct our path to line us up."

"Commander Peiper, the admiral is currently busy," Axiom explained as numbers briefly scrolled across his blank face.

"Of course he is, no doubt leading an actual shi-"

"Actually commander, he's busy because he's talking to Tactical Officer Gersten, I believe the admiral thinks the officer is the commander. No doubt his ability to lead men compared to your lack of said ability caused some confusion. Honestly I don't see why he's not the commander..." as Axiom trailed on with a series of 'friendly' insults (when Peiper frequently threatened to have him treated for rampancy (which he would never do since Axiom is the only thing holding the ship together) the AI would claim his insults were in a friendly manner, like the one time at the ship Christmas party when he made that terribly funny joke about Peiper's mother and the bag of meat) Peiper found himself slowly standing from his chair, mouth wide open.

What he saw at Gersten's station amazed him. The crewman sat casually, a mug of coffee in one hand, his uniform stripped to the waist to show off a tank top which led to a rippling set of muscles (the female crew were staring as well, for completely different reasons than Peiper) and a five-o-clock shadow on his face. The man was casually chatting with a grim faced Admiral Vardy, who was nodding along as he spoke.

"So you see admiral, the reason why we're not flying is because-"

"Gersten! GERSTEN! What the bloody fecking dumme Esel hotheaded thing are you doing now! WHY ARE YOU SPEAKING TO THE ADMIRAL?!" Peiper said, storming over and squeezing next to him in the terminal to allow the admiral to have a view of him.

"Commander Gersten, I'd recommend you command your crew," Admiral Vardy said with a scowl as he stared at Peiper.

"Oh no sir, once again I'm not being humble, I'm not the command-"

"HE'S NOT THE COMMANDER!" Peiper screamed in his shrillest voice, Gersten and the admiral both recoiling from the pitch.

"If you're not the commander, and not your brave crewman here who just exhibited the forward thinking I'd expect from a man I'm sending a promotion recommendation in for as we speak, then why is your ship currently drifting in a firing line with all engines off?" Peiper recoiled and looked back at the line of ships again, then looked at Axiom who Peiper could bloody well tell was looking rather smug (being on a ship for months with the hologram as the closest thing to a friend (someone Peiper didn't consider jumping the ship into the sun to kill most of the day) had led to Peiper realizing Axiom had chosen his look to avoid reproach when he laughed at the crew.)

"Axiom, why the verdammt noch mal didn't I hear about this?!"

"You ignored me and left your station before I could finish, our engines have currently failed again and the engineering crew are currently too busy looking for Lieutenant Balog as he is the only one who knows how to fix them fully. I currently believe he is in the hanger hanging flags." Axiom said, his voice mellowing down to the same tones that most jazz singers could only pray they could reach one day. Peiper's eyes widened at the misconstrued explanation of events and turned to the terminal again, Gersten having the generosity to look rather embarrassed about the whole ideal.

"Admiral... I... the ship... my AI... uh... idiots... explosions... I'm like the eight commander in five years... um... Axiom! Find fucking Balog and get him in the engine room! Admiral, please don't shoot, please, for the sake of..." he drifted off as he looked to the assorted faces. Webb was too busy chatting to someone at his terminal, some long distance call to an old debutante, Liao was checking her hair in the terminal reflection, Frost was either fully awake or had been dead for five minutes (Peiper could never tell) while Carvalho was out of his station, hitting on one of the female ensigns.

The only one doing work was Roussel, who Peiper first confused for Petty Officer Lugar, the eight foot tall body builder in engineering, and he nearly puked when he saw her, the only other person on the bridge of note was Axiom who seemed to be in the strange mix of acting out a 20th century computer blue screen and reading the Magna Carta. After some deliberation, Peiper realized he didn't have anyone in mind to save besides himself and nervously turned back to the admiral,

"Uh, save, just don't shoot sir! We'll fix this Stück rostiges Scheiße, I mean uh, fine naval vessel! Hahaa..." he drifted off nervously as he coughed rather loudly and noisily into his radio. His radio proceeded to boost his voice over the ship intercom which he just managed to get working, and everyone ducked down and covered their ears at the loud shrieking noise that came from it. When they looked to Peiper, he made some hand motions (most involving the use of his third finger) and realized they should get to work.

It was a long day.

^{*The pursuing disaster is commonly referred to as the Lead to Gold incident, or the one time that ship failed rather badly or simply shortened to LtG is full of fuckheads. Although the last one is rarely used in official circles, it's just as commonly used in the naval academy along with the official terms where it's commonly used as a lesson on how not to lead a ship. IE: this was a fuck up.}

[David]

Admiral David Vardy
UNSC KILLIMANJARO
Wondering what the hell is going on with the Lead to Gold.

After the disturbing and odd conversation he had just had with the CO of the Lead to Gold, David was seriously disturbed by what he saw. His tactical officer, while well developed, Was completely out of uniform and holding a cup of coffee in a combat situation. Then Peiper had gone and stammered on about not shooting while seeming to argue with his AI and then cut the channel.

"Paris, Remind me to order a psych exam on Commander Peiper when he gets back to Reach... If he makes it." Vardy said, Half angered, and yet for the life of him of which he could not fathom, Half amused. What an odd combination when you were facing off against a large fleet of ships that could kick your ass ten ways from sunday without breaking a sweat.

"Admiral!" Shouted Kim, His eyes bugging out of his skull as he saw the terminal turn blue. "Sir, Our comms are being overloaded with what appears to be ramblings from the Lead to Golds AI"

"Get a hold of yourself Kim!" Shouted Vardy, hoping to maintain some kind of modicum of control. "What does it keep saying?"

Swallowing, Kim then looked at Vardy, and replied "WERE GONNA DIE WERE GONNA DIE, over and over. I think the AI may be rampant, Possibly what could be causing that engine malfunction."

Cursing quietly, David turned towards the holotable and looked at his options. The only way this would work is if the Killimanjaro used its hard dock points to link up with the wounded ship and tow it out of the way. But that would mean the Covenant would have a free shot at the Fleet and ending David's life. Not something he wanted to do, Considering.

"Paris, You have any suggestions?" Vardy asked.

[Frazer]

Rear Admiral Frazer York
UNSCS Tassafaronga
Trafalgar Class Fleet Carrier
Battlegroup C, 22nd Fleet
"I never get use to the impacts."

Frazer braced and held onto his chair. As the explosions went on he felt the vibrations through out the bridge. Some of the crew that was stood in and around the holo table fell to the ground face first. Ouch. The ship shook and screeching noises were heard all around the ship. Frazer spoke. "Get back to your stations men!" He knew it might of hurt but they were in the mist of a battle here. Frazer quickly stood up and ran over to the holo table where he saw the his battlegroup was out of formation. "Wilson inform the frigate commanding officers and the Captain of the Preston to get back information around us. I want all longswords diamond formation in front of the Preston ready to engage."

"Aye aye." Wilson keyed in a message to the battlegroup. Liara quickly spoke up on the pedestal. 

"Four Covenant vessels, who presumably detected the nuclear signatures, entered slip-space seconds before the detonation. However, one Reverence Class was vaporized before it could enter slip-space. Good job on the Admiral for that but the Covenant Fleet have exited slip-space directly to the starboard side of us in close proximity to the UNSC ships around the moon. What are our orders sir?"

"Hold on Liara." Frazer looked down at the holo table. He noticed that Rear Admiral Michael's battlegroup had already engaged in the fighting. He then moved the map and noticed the 14th fleet engage. Everyone was getting a piece of the action. Expect his battlegroup. But his ships were meant to stay fair behind the action.

"Right Trayner moved our ship to face the oncoming Covenant ships. Wilson let the battlegroup know what we are doing. Make sure they stay in formation. Liara I want you to get the longswords in around the 22nds battlegroups providing fight cover in around the fleet. I want you to head that personally." The crew nodded and did their selected tasks.

"Sir the longswords are redeploying in and around the 22nd. I have confirmation that they are engaging Covenant fighters that were deploying moments before."

"Nice one Liara. Right whats the status on the MAC Blackpool?"

"100% fully charged sir."

"Good job. If we need to we will fire but for the moment we are going to provide fight support." As the battle raged on Frazer watched as his longswords were destroyed but he also got reports of most Covenant fighters being destroyed as well. Wilson spun around on his chair with a message presumably from Admiral Klix.

"Sir message from Admiral Klix." 

"Play it." Frazer waited for Wilson to play the message.

"All battlegroups regroup on the Iowa. Klix out."

"Right you heard the Admiral. Trayner take us to the Iowa. Get us by her port side but not too close. Wilson let the Battlegroup know make sure they come with us." Wilson and Trayner nodded and proceeded to do just that. As Frazer's battlegroup neared the Iowa, Frazer's tactical officer spoke.

"Admiral the Covenant fleet still has thirteen vessels. I see one Reverence, one CCS, two Frigates, five heavy Destroyers and two Corvettes." Obviously the UNSC had also lost a lot of ships in the fight. Only 21 remained. It was going to be a tough one.

"Thanks Lieutenant for the update. Its going to be a hard one folks but we can do it." Although Frazer wasnt sure they could. "Liara have all remaining longswords regroup on our battlegroup. I want an update of how many we have left."

"Righty ho sir." The battlegroup got in-formation with Klix's battlegroup he awaited further orders from the Admiral. He knew the worst was yet to come. 

[David]

Admiral David Vardy
14th Fleet
Conferring with his officers

"I'm open to suggestions" Vardy said as he rested his arms on the holotable, looking at the derelict Lead to Gold drifting in the lines of the 22nd fleet. Being linked up to the fleets firing solutions, David saw that the ship was intersected with many lines. Unless they got out of there fast, The Commander would either be in a world of pain or completely decimated. It complicated the matter greatly and he cursed Peipers inability to keep a ship in shape to be able to get where it needed to be without causing a nuisance of itself.

"We could always try latching onto the ship with our clamps and towing it away" Paris replied, But the tone of his voice, even he sounded incredulous that it wouldn't work.

Shaking his head, Vardy regarded Paris solemely. "Too slow. We need to come up with something quick before..." 

"ADMIRAL" Kim shouted "The Covenant Line has fired, They are taking the bait, The armada is targetting our fleet."

"Evasive manuevers!" shouted Vardy as he made his way to the Command chair, Cursing irony. "Get me a line to Klix!"

"OPEN SIR"

"Klix, if your listening you better fire those damned MAC'S Soon! Forget about the Lead to Gold, Lets just hope the Commander has a horseshoe up his ass and can get those engines online before he dies!" Snarled Vardy as he closed the channel. How he was going to pull this off without suffering major damage was going to be a miracle. Hopefully Klix had an ace up his sleeve.

[MrKill]

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

Klix sighed as the transmission from Admiral Vardy ceased. Apparently, everyone had forgotten that his fleet was outside firing range. The Lead to Gold was floating through his firing lines but it wasn't impractical to assume individual ship commanders could hold fire until the disabled Frigate could sail past their firing solution.

"Apparently Vardy assumes we're attacking at this specific moment." Klix's XO said. Eric nodded in return but never replied, slightly annoyed that Vardy was assuming Klix was in firing range. It should have been obvious that at the distance the Iowa was at the Covenant could easily avoid the MAC rounds, but at the same time Vardy had engaged - or was being engaged. One of the two.

"Why didn't he wait until my fleet was ready?!" Klix growled, but knew he didn't have anytime. If he did wait, his friend would have been a mere molecule by the end of the battle. Klix had only one choice, and that was to engage before Vardy was killed. Sure, the Lead to Gold] was intercepting vessels firing solutions but it shouldn't be a huge problem... hopefully.

"How far are we out of weapons range?" Klix asked his Weapons Officer. The man did some calculating before replying.

"Roughly one minute."

Eric nodded and returned his gaze to the holotabale.

"Navigation, sync the fleet to a specific speed matching eighty percent of the Iowa's reactors. Divert the rest of the reactor power to charging the MAC systems for all vessels. Weapons, when we advance have the entire fleet fire in salvos towards the Covenant ships. They've expended their torpedoes on Vardy's fleet. Tactical, what is the drift speed of the Lead to Gold?"

The Tactical, Weapons and Navigation Officers went to work. A moment later, the Lieutenant manning the Tactical Console spoke: "Sir, the Frigate's speed is roughly ninety meters per second and will drift into our firing lines at our current route."

Klix sighed again. "Continue on course," He said and lowered his tone. "One ship to fourteen others is a trade we've got to make." He added as quiet as he could. Klix didn't like it, but a Frigate with a crew of six or so hundred weren't the cost of crews of six hundred in Vardy's fleet. He had to make the trade, or risk the entire 14th tactical fleet be decimated when the Covenants weapons recharge.

"Sir! We're in weapons range!"

"All ship?" The Admiral responded.

"Yes sir!"

"Order the fleet to fire and pray to what ever you do that we miss." Klix said as the Iowa rumbled, spitting out twin lightning bolts towards the Covenant fleet - and the fleets firing solution was right in the path of the Lead to Gold's drift course. Klix would never forget himself for this, even if the Frigate survived.

Damn it, Vardy! Klix thought angrily. Fuck!

[Frazer]

Rear Admiral Frazer York
UNSCS Tassafaronga
Trafalgar Class Fleet Carrier
Battlegroup C, 22nd Fleet
Regrouping and Ready to Fire

As Frazer saw the fleet get ready to re-engage the Covenant fleet he knew he needed his longswords to provide fighter support and blanket the entire fleet in them. "Liara I want all fighters to blanket the fleet and provide fighter support. Make sure all Covenant boarding craft, if there is any, are destroyed." 

"Aye aye. All fighters this is command...." Liara went on to give the order to the fighters as Frazer turned his attention to the Covenant fleet that was nearing them.

"Wilson send a fleet wide message regarding our fighters providing support." Willson nodded but then after keying in the message to the entire UNSC fleet he spoke in a loud voice.  

"Admiral, Admiral Klix has ordered us all to fire on the Covenant fleet as we are in weapon range finally." Frazer sighed. He knew he was going to lose more men then ever now.

"Roger. Let the battlegroup know. Have them fire all there MACs at the nearest Covenant vessel." Frazer turned to Blackpool, Liara appeared next to him. "Blackpool the MAC cannon on the nearest ship. Liara make sure we dont use all engine power for this. Lets see what she has." Frazer turned to Trayner. "Trayner stand by for evasive maneuvers." Trayner nodded and Frazer got back into his chair.

"Firing Admiral." The ship rocked as the MAC round left the ship. Frazer could feel the other ships rounds firing as well. He noticed the Preston firing both her MACs. He knew she could do some damage. Frazer then awaited for the round to hit the ship. Hoping his round and the rest of his battlegroup actually hit on target. 

[MrKill]

OOC: Small time-ship to 'pass' Jakob's required post of him avoiding incoming MAC rounds. 22nd Tactical and the Covenant ships are practically at 'point-blank' range in space. Good luck... You'll need it.

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

"Multiple impacts along the port armor, sir! Torpedoes are burning through - standby for damage reports!" The engineering officer reported through the whine of the klaxon's. Eric almost ordered him to turn them off, but it reminded him that he was getting his ass kicked. After the UNSC fleet fired their initial salvo the Covenant ships caught up. While the salvo from the UNSC ships destroyed the remaining Reverence cruiser the Covenant still had a formidable fleet of Destroyers and Frigates.

"What is the status of the UNSC Fleet!?" Klix barked.

The reply was worrisome. "We're down to fifteen active vessels sir, three of which - including ours - are damaged."

We're going to lose this battle. Klix thought. My time is up anyways he thought bitterly. He looked at the Holotable, at the formation of the Battlegroups. He was prepared to sacrifice himself to save the thousands of lives, but the plain truth was it was more destructive to consider it. His ship wasn't in the position to charge head on, distracting the Covenant while the UNSC ships fled to the outer system and continued to run until they could emergency evac the ground troops.

The UNSCS Preston was the closest, a carrier from Rear Admiral York's battlegroup within his fleet. "Get me the Preston, Comms!" Klix ordered. A moment later the ships Captain, in a room of sparkling electricity and dimming lights appeared on the communications screen. Klix strode over and examined the damage he was seeing. He sighed.

"Captain, commence an emergency evacuation. I want you to de-stabilize your engines; a wildcat explosion. Transfer control of your ship to Rear Admiral York and prepare to head for the edge of the system."

The Captain looked stunned, and a couple minutes passed as the man processes the unique order in his head, and simply nodded on response and manually cut the transmission. A few moments later an update scrolled across the screen - the Preston was evacuating at a rapid pace. A full evacuation. Klix returned to his console and manually initiated a link with the York. Obviously, it went to his communications officer first, and then the message would be relayed.

"York - I have to sacrifice the Preston. Trust me, son, I'd be there but I'm too distant to be effective in the role I need you to order the Preston to be. I've told her Captain to commence emergency evacuations, but as the Battlegroup commander you need to give the orders for her to sacrifice herself." Klix said. "I want you to fire all remaining nuclear devices you have left and coast them along with the Preston. When the Preston gets into range her engines will wildcat de-stabilize. You know the devastation when that happens. This will buy our fleet time to retreat to the edge of the system, send in the Frigates to pull the troops back, and get the hell out of this fucking place." Klix added.

He stopped for a moment, and looked over at his weapons officer. He muted the microphone. "I want you to do the same. All SHIVAs inventory we have left will coast along with the Preston and explode with the wildcat de-stabilization, understood?"

"Crystal, sir."

Klix un-muted the microphone and included all remaining UNCS ships. "All vessels, this is Iowa Actual. We're abandoning the system. Proceed to the systems edge, coordinates have been uploaded to your NAV database. Full reactor power, disengage! I repeat, full reactor power and disengage. Iowa Actual out."

He sighed as the UNSC ships disengaged and started to flee, dodging torpedoes that had been launched and strafing them with MLA fire. He knew that the Iowa would have to take the blunt of the attack as the UNSC ships fled. "Navigation, get us in position to take some of the damage from the fleeing ships."

"Aye, sir." The console officer replied.

Klix swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat. This was it. If he died today all he hoped was that it saved the lives aboard the Frigates, Cruisers and Carrier that were retreating.

[David]

Admiral David Vardy

14th Tactical Fleet

Detonating the Nuke.

Coming to a decision was easy, In Vardy's estimation. The time had long passed for him to give a shit about anyone else in the 22nd Fleet. Klix was clearly thinking on another level and Vardy realized he was trying to command both fleets and that wouldn't do. He had his own men and women to worry about. So it was time for drastic action.

"Sir" Chakotay said from Tactical. "Admiral Klix has ordered full retreat of his ships to the edge of the system. He is remaining to give them a fair chance."

Always the hero thought Vardy cynically. "Acknowledged."

"Sir?" Paris asked. "Aren't we going to defend him?"

Looking sharply at Paris, Vardy scowled. "Klix can take care of himself. He is a seasoned veteran and knows what he is doing."

Looking like he was slapped, Paris meerly turned a light shade of scarlet and nodded before heading back to his seat. Vardy felt a pang of regret for what he had said, or rather, how he said it, But it was how he truly felt at that moment.

"Kim." Vardy said, looking at the holotable. "Prep two Lifeboats with Shiva's in each. Once accomplished, Launch at two different courses. Aim for both sides of the Covenant fleet. When both lifeboats are within range, detonate. Have the other ships in the fleet prepare to lock onto downed shielded targets and take them out, as best they can."

A moments pause, then "Yes sir."

After a few minutes of stressful silence, David looked at the Tactical board and did not like what he saw, the weapons on the ships were powering up and when he looked out the window, He could see the motes of red death charging. Chakotay obviously saw the same thing, as he spoke up.

"Admiral, The Covenant fleet is getting ready to fire." Chakotay warned.

"WHERE ARE MY DAMNED NUKES!" shouted Vardy at Kim.

"Lifeboats are prepped! FIRING" shouted Kim back, Clearly taken aback by Vardy's hostility.

Standing at the holotable, David watched with concentration as he watched the lifeboats come close to their targets. If he was lucky, The Shiva's would detonate and cause an overlap, popping any shields and downing vessels unshielded or weakened. 

As the lifeboats came into range, He saw the Covenant fleet had fired. Time seemed to come to a stop for the Admiral. But it still didn't stop him from yelling "DETONATE" and then watching with savage pleasure as his plan worked. The two fireballs that erupted in space indeed overlapped the fleet and David could see the Silvery film of the Covenant ships turn white and then pop like a soap bubble. Two ships were destroyed in the Nuclear fireball and the rest were now shieldless.

"Chakotay, Pick best target and fire." Vardy ordered. "Kim, get me Klix Now."

Once Kim had nodded, David then took a breath. "Alright Klix. I got the heat off your tail. Get out of here. The 14th will clean this mess up. As for the Lead to Gold, Im sure the Captain can manage on his own. Vardy out." and with a slashing gesture, Cut the channel.

As Vardy cut the channel, He felt the thump of the MAC firing, A white hot round now spat towards a downed Frigate. The round penetrated the midsection of the ship, obviously hitting its reactor as it then detonated into a fiery cloud of blue and white. It was a satisfying site.

Looking back at the Tactical screen, He saw that now 5 of the remaining nine were out of commission and that the 4 remaining were now being dispatched with haste, Mac's tearing through their armor, 2 UNSC to One Covenant. That was what David liked to see. Perhaps this would be a victory after all.


Maybe. 

[MrKill]

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

"What the fuck is he doing!?" Klix swore as he scanned the tactical display. The Kilimanjaro had launched two life pods and registered active SHIVA warheads. The Iowa, along with other vessels including the Preston and Tassafaronga were well within the danger zone of a nuclear detonation, let alone two. Vardy left him no choice but to completely withdraw from his original plans.

"Get me the Preston!" Klix shouted. Keys clacked and a channel cracked open with static as the frequency stabilized. "Get out of here, Preston!" Klix added to his statement. The Captain of the boat nodded grimly and the 2.5km vessels engines ignited. The life pods time to impact.

0:44

"Emergency maneuvers," Klix growled. "I want our reactors as hot as we can make them!" The veteran naval officer barked. He knew the Iowa had taken a pounding from the Covenant ships. With the meters of titanium armor that had been stripped and the various hull breaches in numerous locations including the engine room he knew there wasn't much juice left in the boat. The recent plasma impacts nearly crippled the Iowa for the third time in her career.

"I can manage seventy five percent, sir!" The NAV officer informed.

"Do it!"

Klix felt the Iowa lurch with sudden acceleration, but it only lasted a moment. He looked back at the tactical screen.

0:29

They weren't going to make it -- or at least that's what Klix believed with the situation unfolding before him. Right now he needed to protect his electrical assets and if they survived the close proximity detonation he would evacuate the Iowa and leave it for salvage teams. In time, perhaps they could return her to the 'glory' days, but battles had taken the toll on the mighty warship.

0:23

"Engage EMP shielding! Prepare for proximity nuclear detonation. Sound the alarm!" Klix ordered and strapped into his seat. He made sure the straps were tight enough that the chair itself would absorb most of the kinetic shifting caused by the SHIVAs. Klix counted down in his head. Five.. four.. three.. two..

One.

Even though the bridge view port armor had closed and sealed the light from the resulting explosion still managed to make its way through the seems between sections of the armor. The bridge was engulfed in light so bright Klix could see his bones through his eyelids. Then it died, but he knew the worst part was about to happen.

Silence, only the breathing of the tense crew and the whaling siren remained.

Then the Iowa shook vigorously, and then all went black.

Commander Hank Billista
UNSCS Iowa / XO
Marathon II Super-Heavy Guided Missile Cruiser

Hank was already on the bridge when the Admiral ordered the EMP resistant shields be put into place. They weren't literal shields, like the Covenant used, rather an encasing that was EMP hardened. It still didn't work, apparently, as the Iowa's bridge was pitch black as the aggressive shock-waive ceased its clutch on the UNSC Cruiser. However, the feeling of his food moving up in his stomach only made him sicker. He unbuckled and was surprised that he started floating.

"Admiral?" He called out, "Sir?"

The Admiral remained quiet.

"Bridge, report!" The Commander ordered.

The bridge slowly responded to the call. All consoles other than Weapons Two and Navigation One were conscious.

"Engineering, can you get us power back?" The Commander asked. By now he automatically assumed that the Iowa's anti-EMP attempt had failed. It appeared that all electronics were now offline. A few moments passed, and even though he heard clicking, the bridge remained disturbingly dark.

"No sir," The console officer replied. "But I can get emergency lights from the storage by the bridge entrance."

"Good idea, Lieutenant."

It only took a minute for the manual lights of the hand held torches to illuminate the dark room. The Admiral, as well as Lieutenant's Ryan Chalk and Billy Stucky were immobile in their seats. The Commander immediately moved towards the Admiral and examined his commanding officer. He checked for a pulse: Strong. The man was bleeding however.

Lieutenant Ryan Paciov sailed a flashlight through the zero-G environment they were experiencing before returning to his console.

"Try to get the power back online. You hear that?" The Commander asked. The bridge quieted down as some of the members held their breath. Rushing air. They were bleeding oxygen, which meant they had suffered damage. The engineer promptly took his seat as it grew louder and louder by the second. Fortunately, the bridge had been sealed, but if it was loud enough to hear it could be assumed the areas around them were depressurizing.

Hank turned his attention towards the Admiral's wound. It appeared the man hit his console during the explosion. There wasn't much he could do other than wrap a bandage around the wound... but he didn't have any. The bleeding wasn't that bad, anyways. The man would live, but he needed to know the status of the other two officers.

One of them was dead, and the other woke up moments before the Commander took a look. Lieutenant Ryan Chalk had been killed in action, and the Commander would make sure he was recognized for his outstanding abilities in combat. As their primary navigation officer it was a catastrophic loss to the UNSC... and the Admiral. A reliable man had just died.

A power surge kicked on the air conditioning and the whir of fresh air entering the bridge followed. Emergency klaxon's shortly engaged, then the main lights snapped on. Commander Billista was back in his seat by the time the gravity generators calibrated.

"Good work, Lieutenant." Hank said.

"Wasn't me, sir. Probably someone down in engineering." The officer replied.

Hank nodded in silence. "Damage?"

Commander Billista could see from his angle the consoles were still booting up, but as soon as the main information came on screen the engineering officer jumped to the task of making his report. His screen was nearly completely red. "We've lost seventy three percent of our oxygen. The nuclear detonation tore chunks of decks and armor away -- I'm reading ninety meters of deck between sections F and H destroyed. Sections I, J and K decks seventy three to ninety two are buckling on the starboard side now that the gravity is back online. Port looks just as bad by our damaged areas from torpedo hits. Sir, total structural failure in twenty seven minutes if we can't escape the gravity well of Sanctuary."

Holy shit Hank thought.

"I'm making the call. Seal all areas that have been compromised and direct the crew to the hangers that are still pressurized. We're abandoning ship. Order the UNSCS Athenian to come pick us up in the guise Admiral Klix sent the message. We can't save the Iowa. Navigation, I want you to plot a course that includes a automated course correction. We'll try to salvage the ship but we won't be able to do that if it's impaled onto the moon. I want maximum burn away from any gravity well for ten minutes then reverse trust for a total stop, understood?"

"Yes, commander! I'll have to plot a course based on rough estimates, our sensors are down." The depressed woman replied. He understood, her friend had just died.

"Casualty reports, ops?"

"Unavailable, sir. With how much air we've lost it's likely too high to accurately assess at this point."

The evacuation alarm sounded.

"Ship has stopped venting atmosphere, sir." Tactical reported.

"Okay, people. You know the drill. We'll wait for twenty minutes before punching out ourselves. Is the UNSCS Athenian responding?"

"Yes sir, she's on approach." The navigation officer replied.

Good Hank thought relieved. "Status of the Covenant?"

"Sensors are down, sir."

Damn it "Okay. Prepare for anything, guys."

On the outside, debris as large as two hundred meters wide to merely a meter from ripped away armor and decks trailed the slow moving Cruiser as her engines sparked, died, and reignited just to fade away once more. The battle repeated itself as the Iowa's engines tried to ignite. The ship, torn and jagged, was close to buckling and visibly bending at the spine.

[David]

Please note im editing my post. Kills post will change according