1351 Hours, November 18, 2553 (Military Calendar) / UNSC FFG-341 Manchester, Moving into station over Tyranos IX
Luck, it all came down to luck.
And he'd been one of the bloody idiots who had the luck to get into the advanced flight training. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, everyone knew how to get a Pelican down on the ground safely or back to base. But jumping in the hot seat of a Pelican or Longsword and launching it into battle? No chance.
"Fighter reserves report to hangars one through three for pre-flight preparations."
That had been the moment when Corporal Jim Ralension had realised that the advanced training may not have been a good idea. When the naval pilots got KIA'd, they would still want fighters up in the air, and so they turn to the ground-pounders with wings, figures.
All you could do with a call like that was grab your kit and leg it to the hangars, of course. I got to hangar two in time to find the loadies still filling the 'swords with AGSMs. Meaning that unless you trod carefully, you'd get at least one of them 'politely' telling you to avoid coming too close to the ordinance they were loading.
Thankfully for my ears I managed to avoid stepping too close to them. Although I saw one interesting thing, several of the 'swords had HAVOC warheads on the missile racks. A frigate might carry a large number of AGSMs, yet the number of HAVOC warheads never totalled triple the number of longswords onboard. This was done to ensure that even if a longsword was shot down with a HAVOC loaded, there would still be some warheads remaining for those that made it back. So loading HAVOCs was something that didn't make the situation look good.
The rest of the marines turned pilots filed in over the next few minutes as the loaders stowed the missiles away in their bays, then heading away in the direction of the other hangers. They still had work to get on with while we were briefed. And so we all headed into the briefing room when the light turned green, finding the chairs facing a simple projection on the board and an officer standing by it.
Get them orientated with the forces they're working with, then deal with the enemy. That way you don't find yourself wondering where the hell that Longsword that just caulked your target came from. Once we were in the officer, clearly the planner for this operation, began to speak.
"Now, I assume you all know the reason you're here. You all took advanced aerospace training. So you all know how to handle a C709 Longsword. I won't beat about the bush any longer, you're here because the pilots are currently unavailable. Their quarters are on Deck C, and as you know Deck C is currently inaccessible due to battle damage. We were hoping we'd be able to get it cleared in time, but as you can see. It hasn't been, now if you will turn your attention to the projection."
He gestured to the board with a slight movement of his hand. "You will see the current forces at our disposal. The 202nd and 303rd are in the general area, yet they will be unable to assist for the initial stages of the engagement. Once they have their objectives done we'll have their support to count on. Although, by then your objective should already be complete."
And so the ops officer droned on. Put simply, the objective was that of complete and utter destruction. The target was a point of Covenant landfall upon Tyranos IX being used as a supply depot. A division of UNSC armour had been holding it back at the Galan Heights, yet that division was now down to breaking point. It'd break in the next day, that was for sure. In order to prevent that, the 202nd, 303rd and the 213th would break through the Covenant battlegroup and use HAVOCs to destroy the supply depot.
The attack would begin within the hour. More than enough time to suit up and pre-flight check his Longsword, designated Foxtrot-Two-Two. Second fighter from the Foxtrot flight of this frigate. As he went through the required checklist before suiting up, Jim noticed one unfortunate fact. His longsword wasn't armed with the usual ANVIL II AGSMs. In place of the four AGSMs, there was two HAVOC tipped missiles. Damn, looked like he'd be one of the ones shooting down to the ground and hitting the depot, rather than clearing up Seraphs and returning to the Manchester for re-arming while 'swords from the Helios in the 202nd would take over in covering the bombers.
Although, the 'swords from the Helios probably had the hard part. Whacking the Covenant AA guns in order to allow us through. Once they were done, it was right through to the launch point and wham, Covenant BBQ. With the pre-flight checks over there was the simple task of suiting up in a vacuum proof suit, not all C709 crewmen went through with this of course, but as soon as their fighters got a puncture, they were dead. Living beats dieing in my opinion, any day.
1507 Hours, November 18, 2552 (Military Calendar) / UNSC FFG-341 Manchester, Moving to engage Covenant Battlegroup over Tyranos IX.
"Ansible, we are Launching Foxtrot and Echo flights, Foxtrot Two-One, Two-Two and Two-Three have the packages."
"Confirmed Manchester, London and Dublin will provide cover for the fighters."
Lucky us. We had a whole two frigates supporting the attack, with the elites we wouldn't have had a chance. They would have manoeuvred two of their lighter craft into the way and obliterated us, leaving their heavies to take on the destroyers and cruisers bearing down upon them. Of course, the elites wouldn't have their fleet in one sickle formation, they would have it in a single group, forcing us to tangle with them all at once, where as with these brutes we can take them in parts, allowing for a much easier time chewing them up.
A quick look at the recon information on the enemy fleet told me that we'd got a better deal than the 202nd, being pitted against a CCS that the cruisers would deal with and a pair of destroyers, unfortunately though, this meant that on the route in we would be engaging one of the destroyers while our destroyers dealt with the other. Not a pleasant fight to be caught up in.
"Depressurisation in one minute, all personnel clear the hangar bay."
Along with everybody not in a fighter exiting the hangar, that also meant for me a quick last check of the seals. Having the escaping atmosphere blowing me into a wingman wouldn't help. All the seals were tight and well, sealed. Which was a good change from spending the rest of the minute frantically trying to seal it, or dumping the atmosphere.
The hangar doors opened, revealing the blackness of space, only broken by the quadruple pinpricks of light visible from the Dublin's engines. The first Longsword, Foxtrot-Two-One, slid out from the bay ahead of him, thrusters on the front of the fighter firing to slow its forward motion down soon after it exited the bay, then rotating using side thrusters. A complex series of counter bursts of thrust being provided by the computer program converting the stick movements into thruster bursts.
It didn't take much to get a Longsword out the bay once it was prepped and the gear up, just move the throttle up a tad to bring her out the bay without roasting everything behind, a short burst on the front thrusters to slow yourself to neutral and turn the stick to face forward with your flight leader. With that done you put the main thrusters back on to catch up with the rest. Getting the flight out only took a minute or two, we didn't want to risk losses from inexperienced pilots ramming each other.
Ahead we could see the glow of Echo flight's engines as they got into formation, heading in just ahead of us to damage the enemy Seraphs severely enough to allow Foxtrot through and down to the ground. All we needed was that damn destroyer out of the way.
We formed up on the Manchester's starboard flank, with the Dublin and London ahead of us in a V formation, Manchester taking the part of the middle depression. Over to port, the rest of the 213th were preparing for their part of the attack.
"Foxtrot, this is Echo-Two-One. Keep with the 'Chester, we're going in with the London's 'swords to sweep out some Seraphs."
"Foxtrot-Two-One here, confirmed Echo-Two-One. Splash as many as you can, we don't want any spilt milk."
The light of Echo's engines increased, then began to diminish as they sped towards the London, up ahead we saw the almost toy like shapes of the Covenant ships, the sides beginning to glow with thin yet powerful lights.
"Incoming fire! Get dancing boys!"
Dancing was the nickname given to the process of throwing your C709 around space like you were a bravo-kilo with an itch he couldn't scratch. If done correctly you'd throw off their aim, although your formation would be non existent. Jim watched the miniscule specks of Echo's engines begin to go wild, narrowly avoiding colliding at one point until-
A cyan beam lanced past his cockpit for not even a millisecond. He barely noticed it anyway, his eyes focused on one of Echo's longswords as its wing burst forth in a fireball which simultaneously expanded and froze as fuel and oxygen tanks were penetrated and their contents ignited, freezing in the vacuum of space.
There was no pause for the crew of Echo-Two-Three as its ruined hull span out of control past the accelerating forms of Foxtrot and the Manchester, the attack hurtled on without it. With the initial Covenant salvo out of the way, it was the UNSCs turn to strike.
Missile bays on the remaining longswords in Echo flight popped open, the fighters jumping slightly as the atmosphere in the bays was vented. The first salvo of AGSMs dropped free from their shackles, chemical motors kicking in and sending them on their way towards the brute piloted Seraphs.
The Octuplet of explosions lit up the Seraphs for a moment, three of their number adding to the fireworks. The remaining damaged Seraph being mopped up by the combined fire of Echo flights 110mm and 120mm cannons.
"Manchester, Echo flight is Winchester and returning to re-arm. Seraph screen is clear."
The bravo-kilos had messed up when they placed their fighter screen ahead of the destroyer, yet just out of range of its weaponry. Too far out to be protected by the destroyer's weaponry, yet just in range for us, thankfully we had AGSMs to kill their shields from maximum range rather than getting ourselves roasted.
Echo had barely made it to the safety of the 'Chester's hanger when the destroyer's weapons started to charge. Bursts of light flared from the side thrusters of the frigates as they began a series of pre-planned manoeuvres to throw off the aim of the Covenant vessel. The twinkles of light grew to an unbearable degree and Jim looked away as the lights shot across the vacuum, impacting with the Dublin's bow.
The concentrated barrage of plasma burned through the frigate's thin 60 centimetres of armour within seconds, turning the Dublin's prow into a flaming torch. One which steadily made its way back along the hull, airlocks ahead of its length opening and venting atmosphere as secondary explosions shook the vessel. Yet the measures taken to fight the flames were not enough as the archer pods began to cook off, tearing open the frigates port side and causing it to veer off, atmosphere pouring out as the crew took to the escape pods.
Once again the tactics of the bravo-kilos, although devastating to what they hit, lacked the strategic planning of the Elites. Where the Elites would of divided their fire and damaged the two foremost ships in the V formation, putting weaponry out of action and giving them time to fire a second salvo in order to finally put the two ships out of the fight for good. Where as the loyalists had taken one out in their first salvo, but left the firepower of the remaining two frigates intact.
This was shown when the Magnetic Accelerator Cannon aboard the London sent a six hundred ton slug of metal on its way towards the destroyer, the shields blazing white for a second as they withstood the impact of the round. Had the London been a single ship on its own it would have been fried by the return salvo before the MAC was able to deliver a second shot. Yet that was not the case as the Manchester delivered that second shot into the destroyer's shield, which shimmered and fell.
At this point in the plan the third frigate would of sent its MAC round into the now shieldless destroyer. Unfortunately for the plan that frigate was somewhere behind the group burning. So instead both the London and Manchester 'flushed' Archer pods A through D, over a hundred of the anti-ship missiles spewing into space and converging upon the Covenant vessel.
The salvos of Archers were spread out between the two frigates due to the space separating them, Manchester being several kilometres behind London, this meant that when the Covenant point defences fired and obliterated the first wave of Archers, Manchester's wave remained. Slipping past the defences as they recharged and detonating against the destroyer's hull.
The destroyer was a sturdy vessel, yet the high explosive warheads mounted upon the Archers was enough to blow through and shred the occupants of the compartments breached with hull turned shrapnel. The damage sustained would have been enough to hamper the ship, yet not fully cripple it. This was changed however when several Archers used the breaches to penetrate the ship before exploding, shredding the interior and beginning a chain reaction which gutted the vessel, the few remaining survivors heading for the hangars to escape the ruined destroyer.
"Foxtrot, this is Manchester. You're clear to move into the atmosphere, Echo will be assisting shortly."
"Foxtrot Two-One confirms, holding for support from the Helios."
"Unfortunately that's a negative Foxtrot, Katana, Dagger and Sabre flights are engaging Covenant seraphs to keep them off the ground, the fights not over up here you know. Echo will have to knock out the triple-A guns."
Jim sighed as he continued listening to the radio. First the Dublin got slagged, now the fighter cover was caught up in the vacuum. What would it be next? The nukes failing to go off? Taking a plasma torpedo to the face? Neither of them hopefully.
"Foxtrot flight this is Two-One, move into atmosphere and provide CAS for the 51st armoured. Covenant are launching another attack, we'll hit the depot once Echo takes out those guns."
"Foxtrot Two-Two confirms Two-One. Moving into atmosphere and engaging Covenant armour."
Jim swivelled the control column around, performing a braking burn before he then began to enter the planets atmosphere. As he watched the vision slits begin to gain their orange-red glow he was glad that once he was safely down a hull breach wouldn't mean death if his suit was torn. But a large enough hit, like a Wraith's could be enough to force him down anyway. Not a pleasant thought.