The end of an era
Chapter 1
0622 hours, December 24(Military Calendar)\
Earth, Sol system.
Captain Leonidas stood on the bridge of his ship, the Unforgiving Mercy, and looked on as the battle raged on around him. The Covenant had warped inside the Moray minefield, directly inside the Super's MAC's kill zone. The Unforgiving Mercy was a modified Halcyon-Class cruiser, had three Magnetic Accelerator Cannons (MAC), ten Archer pods, two Shiva Nuclear-tipped Missiles, a full marine contingent and ODST division.
UNSC ships were exploding by the dozen, turned into slag by giant blobs of plasma. Ghostly luminescent trails- Plasma Torpedoes- appeared all around him, melting slabs of Grade-A Titanium armor plating whenever it hit a UNSC ship. Hunks of debris floated freely around space, occasionally hitting a ship.
"Captain! The MAC guns are hot and ready to fire! "Yelled, Elli, his weapons officer from the other side of the bridge.' One of the bridge's holo tanks flashed, and showed a man, bearded and wearing a long blue-colored robe, Kendra. Kendra was the ships A.I and was a Smart A.I. Smart A.I s typically had a lifespan of 7 years, after that they would have stored too much information and would 'die'.
'Elli! Get me a firing solution and fire MAC gun 1 at that covenant frigate up ahead at my command.
"Now!" The cruiser lurched backwards as a 3000-ton ferric tungsten carbide round left the MAC gun. The extremely dense and ridiculously powerful shell penetrated the somewhat weak shielding of the frigate and punched a hole through the hull. The shell slammed into the reactor of the frigate. The reactor exploded instantly, vaporizing the ship. Before the crew could start rejoicing, a covenant destroyer's plasma turrets glowed dull orange then red and great blobs of plasma shot towards the cruiser.' Captain! Plasma is heading straight for us… impact in…10…9…8…7…" said Kendra." Wren! Give me 180 on the reactor and fire all MACs and Archers A through J at that destroyer! Kendra! Evasive maneuvers now! Wren was the main deck officer. The strong frame of the cruiser groaned as the ship spun sideways to avoid the plasma. Unfortunately, the plasma grazed the side of the ship." Sir, decks 3 through 7 are breached, sealing them now," Rose, the new trainee from the ONI training institute, shouted. Because of the war, trained officers were in shortage so most ships were crewed by fresh trainees." Damn!"Captain Leonidas swore. Every now and then, a UNSC ship would explode into a great ball of fire. Outside the ship, Sky-Hawk atmospheric fighters were chasing covenant seraph fighters. It seemed that the humans were winning. For now. Both the UNSC and Covenant were taking heavy casualties. The UNSC had lost 300 frigates, 247 destroyers, 75 cruisers and countless squadrons of fighters. On the other hand, the covenant had lost 200 destroyers and 140 frigates, 69 cruisers and countless seraphs. For a battle of this gargantuan proportions and considering the fact that covenant ships had a kill ratio of 4:1, the humans were taking light losses. "Leonidas, what do you make of this battle? "The Lieutenant, Flanders, from ONI spat. The captain was looking at the holo screens on the bridge." The battle is progressing well Flanders, "the captain curtly replied. 'Captain, all MACs are hot and ready to fire 'said Elli." Fire at will' replied the captain spinning a knife.
A subtle shift in the Unforgiving Mercy's gravity caused the knife to tip. William watched listlessly from his place on the bridge, his eyes lifeless as he sat immobile, but William's face showed signs of moisture nonetheless.Swarms of seraphs were circling the Unforgiving Mercy. The squadrons of Longsword interceptor could barely hold them back. The bridge crew was all ears when a COM transmission was broadcasted and crackled into earshot." Taking...fire…I can't hold them off…………they are all over me… (Static)" It was the same from all the others. The ones that could be heard that is. "Sir! Boarding parties incoming" said Kendra. "Prep all marines for combat."
The Fleet was being torn to shreds by the Covenant. The only thing keeping them from being overrun was the fact that there were hundreds of Orbital Defense Stations floating above Earth's atmosphere.
Each Orbital Defense Station was a large platform and had a Super MAC Gun. The Geosynchronous Orbital Tethers anchored the Orbital Defense Stations to cities. The platforms were held up in space and powered by ground-based generators. Every few seconds, a shell would explode from the giant barrels of the Super MACs and
At that very moment, a brilliant flash lit the dark, dreary space up. A Shiva Nuclear-tipped Missile had detonated taking with it a Covenant Flagship. Since it exploded inside the shield, the blast was magnified 100 fold. When the flash ended, the Nuke left nothing but space dust behind. With the head of the snake cut off the others started to retreat. The remaining Covenant ships powered up their thrusters and fled the battle. Slip space ruptures appeared and the ships passed into them. However, the Covenant sustained unexpected losses. The Moray Space Mine field detonated destroying any ship that was unlucky enough to be caught in the middle.
The Covenant had warped into the main battle grid at the start of the battle narrowly missing the space mines. Little explosions became big ones as the reactors of the Covenant ships exploded. With the main threat gone the Captain heaved a sigh of relief but they still had boarders to deal with.
Joe Miller was a lowly marine private. "Miller, boarding parties detected, go to the armory and gear up." Said his sergeant. "Yes Sir!" It was Joe's first battle and all new recruits thought battle was sweet but it was not so. Joe chose a M19 SSM Rocket Launcher, a BR55 Battle Rifle and took an M6c Magnum as a sidearm from the vast array of weapons. He also picked a bandolier of fragmentation grenades from the box.
M6cs were not as powerful as M6ds but they were more accurate and they still packed a punch. Joe was part of the 161st platoon, his job was to ward off boarders and to show the covenant humans are not weak push offs.
'I shoulda fought Captain Morallis harder against bringing those two squads. They didn't need to die, especially not because of me. What the hell good am I, if I can't even protect a few Marines?'
Morallis was his good friend and superior. Captain Morallis was in charge of the 122nd platoon and had saved Joe countless times.
Morallis had given Joe's platoon two extra squads all because of him. Joe blamed himself for the last incident where he accidentally detonated a box of fragmentation grenades and killed half his squad- the Covenant mopped up the rest of his two squads, he was the only survivor-. Morallis had saved him by speaking to Captain Giles who was in charge of the 121st platoon. Most of his platoon still blamed him for that incident.
If not for Morallis, he would probably be dead a long time by now. Joe was jerked back into reality when a squad mate shook him by the shoulders." Joe!" said Tiaan. Tiaan was his best friend; they had been friends since college." I'm okay Tiaan." John mumbled, "Thank goodness you are, or I wouldn't know what to do. Come on lets go kill some Covenant" quipped Tiaan