Introduction
"Admiral Anders, the fleet is ready. Covenant battle group has been detected, 29 ships total. A supercarrier, the CCS Imperious Judgment, with four assault carriers, two battleships, eight battlecruisers, two light cruisers, and twelve destroyers." reported Michael, the AI of the UNSC Ghost of Ice, the flagship.
"Thank you," replied Anders, "Get the MAC guns charged and Archer pods open, get the fleets engines up to 75%, I want these ships ready for action!"
The UNSC Ghost of Ice is a carrier, head of Battlegroup H, a 33 ship force. Besides the carrier, there are five cruisers, nine destroyers, and 18 frigates, as well as an orbital defence platform. The firepower totals 47 MAC guns, 25,140 archer missiles, 45 Shiva warheads, and 27 fusion rockets.
Almost forgetting, Anders added, "Michael, send K774 to the bridge, he is needed."
"Of course, admiral."
He looked out of the glass framework of the forward bridge. The thoughts raced through his mind. How many of us will live? Will I ever see this fleet again? What if... The sight of the covenant battle group accelerating towards the Ghost of Ice and her fellow ships forced him to throw the questions to the back of my mind.
"Michael, all ships to battle stations and on standby, priority alpha," Anders commanded while adding, "Alert all ground forces of possible invasion."
"Yes sir."
Suddenly the bridge doors slid open and in stepped in K774, a grey Spartan II that towered over everyone in the room. His voice projected loudly with a salute, "K774 reporting for duty!"
"At ease," Anders spoke clearly, "A covenant battle group is heading to our position. We must take every precaution. Your assignment is to protect Michael, the ships AI and ensure that he does not fall into covenant hands."
After pulling out the AI, he continued, "Be ready to leave on the double. I want you in the hanger. Dismissed."
He handed the Spartan the chip and turned away, looking over several images that were displayed on his monitor. K774 moved out of the bridge and headed for the hanger.
The admiral looked over the ships and the fleets systems. As the fleet was warming up, the Covenant stopped just out of reach of our weapons. His gaze shifted over to the radar, where hundreds of small blimps were flashing. It could mean only one thing. Seraphs. And lots of them.
Anders sent a call out to the fleet, priority alpha. As his transmission came on, he started, "All ships, empty your hangers of all Longsword fighters. Seraphs are inbound to try and soften us up. Be on alert! Anders out." The transmission ended and he turned to his bridge crew and said, "Get all of our Longsword squadrons out of the hanger. Give them orders to protect these ships at all costs, understood?"
"Sir, yes sir!"
As Anders went back to monitoring the fleet, Longsword fighters swarmed around the battle group. He thought to himself, Give them hell.
Within minutes the two hurricanes collided. Missiles, ballistics, and plasma flew through the air, destroying many fighters. It wasn't long when the many Seraph fighters overpowered the vastly outnumbered Longsword fighters.
The point defence guns of the ships opened up once the enemy fighters entered the kill zone. Several Seraphs went down and the remainder moved towards the UNSC Relentless, one of the Marathon-class cruisers. Its powerful 50 millimeter defence cannons tore apart the attacking squadrons. With heavy loses a few were able to get close and release plasma bombs on its upper MAC gun. A massive explosion of orange, yellow, and blue ripped apart the top of the tip of the ship, rendering a MAC gun useless.
Several more squadrons of Seraphs moved off towards the UNSC Daybreaker, a Paris-class frigate. The frigate opened up with everything it. had, and several Seraphs burst into great balls of blue plasmic explosions, but it wasn't enough. The covenant bombs slammed into the ships mid section and the ship blew into two separate halves. Out of the explosion reemerged the Seraphs, and they flew towards the UNSC Valor, another Paris-class frigate. It suffered a similar fate.
A Seraph squadron turned towards the planet's orbital defence platform and the rest headed back to the covenant fleet. The platform, defenceless, was slammed by a payload of plasma bombs, destroying its anchor sections and damaging the MAC gun. With the platform in flames, they turned and headed for their ships.
As the small blimps faded from Anders' radar, the covenant ships fired a massive plasma cannonade. With the plasma shells hurling towards the UNSC battle group, Anders braced for impact, knowing nothing could save his ships from this attack. The plasma rounds collided with the UNSC ships as some tried to desperately escape their coming fate. Upon impact, a Halcyon-class cruiser was damaged, a Stalwart-class frigate ripped into three pieces, and a Gorgon-class destroyer severely damaged, with a hole in its port side.
Anders quickly responded and sent a message to all ship commanders, "All commanders, choose your targets wisely. Fire your MAC guns and after a three second delay, fire an Archer missile salvo. Then take evasive actions and fire at will. Anders out."
Within seconds, 43 MAC rounds smashed into several covenant ships and their shields wavered. Three seconds later, many covenant ships exploded. Three destroyers, two battlecruisers, and an assault carrier were destroyed and a battleship was damaged. The covenant fired a counter barrage and consumed five more ships, two Gorgon-class destroyers and three Stalwart-class frigates.
As both fleets broke their formations, scattered fights erupted. One ship, the UNSC Irreplaceable, a Gorgon-class destroyer engaged a covenant assault carrier and a cruiser. The Irreplaceable fired its MAC gun at the cruiser, and its shields wavered. A missile salvo followed up the initial damage and the cruiser exploded. The assault carrier fired a counter barrage that devastated the destroyer. Just limping along the Irreplaceable fired off two Shiva nukes. They crashed into the assault carrier and caused it to blow into two pieces, the front side severely damaged.
Elsewhere, Anders' flagship moved forward, and soon found itself facing a covenant battleship. The admiral quickly ordered his bridge crew, "Give them a MAC blast and them fire everything we got!" He then added, "Deploy the ODST battalion planet side, and make sure K774 has a pod. Have them move to the facility and set up a firebase and defensive positions."
"Yes sir!"
After about ten seconds, a MAC blasts crashed into the battleship, and soon after followed several missiles and two fusion rockets. The battleship was punctured on several locations and flames erupted on the starboard side of the ship.
Anders, realizing the enemy ship wasn't destroyed, hastily ordered, "Initiate the booster thrusters and increase the engines to 125%!"
The ship rocked and started to raise when the chief engineer reported, "Sir, she will only give us 105%!"
"Then give me 115%, damn it!"
As the ship hurtled upwards, the pods were released. The battleship fired at the Ghost of Ice and caused major damage. Several plasma torpedoes struck the ship, knocking out the archer pods and damaging the hanger.
"Sir, the engines are getting close to melting down!" One officer exclaimed.
Another added, "Sir, losses are heavy, what are your orders?"
"Initiate Cole Protocol and have all ships enter slip space at randomized points. Designate a rally point and have each ship make at least two jumps to that location."
"Yes sir!"
As the fleet prepared to leave, several spirit drop ships headed for the orbital defence platform. The engines of the Ghost of Ice slowed and the ship made the jump. As the Ghost of Ice slipped away, Anders noticed a flash and knew one thing.
They were being followed.