The massive starcruiser took many blows one after another, most of the living passengers were surprised it was still in orbit and not crashing throught the nearby planets atmospehere. the attacking covenent warship constantly fired at it, and showed little sign of slowing down.
the main deck of the cruser and the passengers aboard the ship were in a mad frenzy, this was a civilian ship and people were dying by the hundreds. people ran as fast as they could to any available escape pod but that side of the ship had taken heavy fire and was currently a molten hole in the side of the ship. the venting atmosphere of the ship pushing it into a psycho roll. with engines dead they couldent fix it either.
"may-day, may-day. this is cruise liner shenellen, we are going down." the man on the radio spoke, finishing off the transmission after a sigh escaped him "100% casualties." the radio tunred off and crackeled in the backround as the man turned to leave his post. he didnt make it out the door, him and fifteen of his fellow crew members in the cockpit were instantly melted as a plasma bolt hit the ship on the nose.
many of the people on the ship were starting to calm down now, when you cant aviod it you learn to accept you're own death.
the unrelenting sleek blue covenent ship fired a final round towards the cruise liner and instead of finishing it off, just sat there in space and watched it burn. the human ship orbited the large gas planet one more time before finally dipping into it never to arise again. if there were still those to live today they would have said it looked like a bird flowing through the clouds on earth, but nobody lived to tell the story.
the tip of the mans cigar shone a bright red for a second before dulling again as he looked blankly at the sheet he held at arms length in front of him. the single light in the room luminated only the mans arm and the hand holding the cigar, that hand being stained yellow from the tabacco of many cigars smoked in the past. his arm looked scrawny but you could see muscles there, ready to kill a man if he had to.
another cloud of smoke appeared from behind the darkness, "so they hit another civillian cruiser eh? and why havent we stopped them?"
a nervous young man sat across from the grizzeled old commander "i dont know sir, i'm just the messanger. but i have heard rumors" he said the last part with an ever helpful face.
"lets hear it then son"
"the few that have lived from previous attacks say that the covenent come from high solar wind areas making them extremely hard to see before they attack, and even worse is that not only have their tactics improved but they seem to have developed a new weapon that after piercing the hull of the ship, explodes molten plasma everywhere. it has beem extremely effective against our cruisers sir." the young man said twisting his shirt.
the commander stood up and leaned through the light showing his old face, worn yet still dangerous. "you may not have helped much but you'll be a true navy officer soon. report back to you're main in charge son."
"yes sir" the man said as he snapped to a salute and stood there waiting for it to be returned. the commander returned it and the boy left.
the commander sat back down into his chair with a harumph and setteled in. sitting in the dark he thought to himself. this is what made the man famous, even when under extreme fire he could find the time to stop and think to himself, and he was still alive bacuase of it. he was a tactical genious.
suddenly popping out of his "mantra" like state he leaned over and logged onto his laptop, writing than sending an e-mail to the head of the military for the use of the most succesful group of men and women in the army, the spartans.