2100 Hours, August 29th, 2552 (Military Calendar)/ UNSC Destroyer Achilles/ Near Planet Tribute/ Epsilon Eridani System
For everyone on the ship, this was just a routine patrol. They'd done it a thousand times, for Pete's sakes.. Nobody knew that this patrol was going to turn out to be much more than just that. Just a few million kilometers away was Reach, the fortress world of humanity, with hundreds of ships guarding it. For him, Captain Jon Graham, being the first ship to encounter the Covenant in Epsilon Eridani was startling, and not something he'd signed up for. However, his job was to protect humanity, and if this was how it was to be done, then so be it.
Jon leaned on the cold brass railing on the bridge of the Achilles, surveying his bridge crew. At the weapons station was Lieutenant William Covington, who'd been serving under Jon ever since his first posting on the frigate Benghazi. At operations sat Ensign Karen Davidson, a top graduate at Luna Officer Candidate School, and a dear friend. Sitting next to her was Lieutenant Dan Cortez, the ships communications officer, and next to him was the navigations officer, Ensign Max DeSemple. He had served with this bridge crew all together for about a year total, and Covington for about four years.
"You all want some coffee?" asked Jon, turning around.
"Sure, I'm down," Ensign Davidson replied, turning her chair around from her station.
"Alright, I'll call the galley for it," Jon said, sitting down. He pressed a few buttons and said, "Galley, can I get some coffee up here? Yeah, French roast sounds good."
He looked at his crew and said, "Should be up here in a few minutes."
"Thanks, Cap," said Lt. Covington, smiling at his close friend.
"Man, it's been dead fuckin' quiet here. We haven't seen a battle for eight months!" exclaimed Ensign DeSemple.
"Yeah, but you gotta remember how important Reach is. Even though we've been able to slow the Covenant advance, they could jump in at any time," Jon explained.
"Yeah, but how the hell would they find us? The Cole Protocol's been working great ever since it got fixed," asked DeSemple.
"Sure, but the Covenant could always just drop in. The Protocol does have its cracks," said Ensign Davidson.
Jon nodded, and then yawned. The elevator beeped, and the doors hissed open. A sailor in greasy clothes walked in, wheeling in a cart, saying, "Gotcha coffee." Everybody got up from their stations and walked over. They picked up the mugs, and then sat back down after giving the sailor their thanks.
"I like this posting, personally. It's nice knowing that we're safe here," Jon said, kicking up his feet on the railing, pulling his seat closer to it.
"Yeah, I see what you mean, but I'm itching for action," DeSemple exclaimed, taking a slurp of coffee.
"I'd hate to be the poor alien bastard to go up against this baby," said Lieutenant Covington, patting his computer.
The Achilles was a top of the line Jupiter-class destroyer, hull number being DD-986. The Jupiter-class destroyer was smaller than a cruiser, but it still packed a helluva punch. It had two Magnetic Accelerator Cannons, fifty-two oversized Archer missile pods, sixteen Howler missile pods, and fifteen 50mm railguns. If that didn't seem like overkill, there were also four Mark 2488 Onager Mass Accelerators, just for a bit more punch. In addition to that it had five hundred Marines onboard at any time, a full platoon of ODSTs, a squadron of Longswords, and a normal crew of two thousand. Only three ships were in the class, and all were in Epsilon Eridani.
Ever since the battle of Psi Serpentis in 2543, the UNSC had been able to slow the Covenant advance, but not completely reverse it. Admiral Cole, having survived the battle and came back with the loss of no vessels, began leading raids on outer Covenant worlds, giving people back home hope. In his limited spare time, he went back over his Cole Protocol, and replaced some of its guideline. No longer would a UNSC ship have to purge all of its information. Rather, it would send it via heavily encrypted code to an obscure station, which would then deliver it to either Reach or Earth.
Due to the success of Admiral Cole's strikes on Covenant planets, more people wanted to help with the war effort, and to do that they moved to new planets that were being used for war material. Production stepped up, and soon enough the UNSC was churning out five to ten ships a week. Enlistment doubled when word came that Admiral Stanforth totally annihilated an Elite colony and its supporting fleet that was almost triple the size of his.
But, of course, it wasn't all good for humanity.
The Covenant, who had been so focused on chasing around the human navy, finally discovered that about 90% of humanities Outer Colonies were untouched by the war, and relatively unguarded. So, in an effort to lure out the human fleet, the Covenant began glassing the planets one by one, effectively wiping out billions of humans.
And then their plan worked.
In 2549, one hundred and sixty four human ships, led by Admiral Barry Quiroz, jumped into the Arcadia system to kick the Covenant back from the planet. Over five hundred hostile vessels were waiting for them. Only two human ships came back to New Carthage.
Two weeks after the disaster, the Covenant sent a message to all corners of the galaxy for humanity. It showed the bodies of dead children being feasted on by Grunts and Brutes, while the Elites looked on. The message also showed that of a Brute chieftain bringing down its mighty gravity hammer onto a crying baby. Many more atrocities were shown.
"Hey, Cap, remember that one Covenant world we hit?" asked Lt. Cortez.
Jon came to and said, "The big colony? Yeah, I remember."
"Fuckin' bloodbath for the Covies. They had it comin' though," Cortez said back.
"Which one are we talking about here?" asked Ensign Davidson.
Lt. Cortez faced her and said, "The one we hit after they sent us that… that fucking message. It was the one where we jumped in and just destroyed the surface with our MAC guns and nukes. Hopefully killed every one of those heartless monsters."
Ensign Davidson opened her eyes wide, and said, "I felt so bad after doing that."
Jon said, "Water under the bridge."
"Mmm… this is good," Lt. Covington said, pointing at his coffee after taking a drink.
Everyone looked at the Lieutenant, who shrugged and said, "I could feel the tension in here. Sorry."
Everyone slowly turned back to their stations, when suddenly a screeching sound blared, and a red light switched on.
"What the hell?!" Ensign Davidson yelled, spinning around in her chair to look at her computer. She tapped a few buttons, and stared into the screen.
"Report?!" yelled Jon.
The woman made a knocking noise with her tongue, and said, "Looks like something really small's popping in. Probably a fighter."
Jon rose, and said, "All hands to battlestations. Covington, get the Archers ready and charge the MAC gun. Davidson, get all fighter crews to their craft and send them out. Lieutenant Cortez, get FLEETCOM on the line, tell them that we've made contact with the Covenant."
"Aye, sir!" came the response from everyone.
"Oh, DeSemple?" asked Jon.
"Yes, sir?" asked the younger man, turning to face his captain.
"Position the ship to face the enemy head on," ordered Jon.
DeSemple saluted, and carried on.
The ship started to rumble, and then turn slowly. Soon, it had stopped moving entirely, and Covington called out, "MAC is fully charged!"
Just then, a small blue hole opened in front of the Achilles, and a small teardrop shaped vessel popped in ahead of the massive destroyer. It saw the vessel, and then started turning.
"Archers have a lock, sir!" cried Covington.
"Do it!"
Multiple loud hissing noises emitted from the sides of the ship, and small missiles flew out, followed the fighter.
"Sir, it's a Seraph. The Covenant are here," said Davidson.
Jon simply nodded.
Then, the Seraph erupted in a ball of flame. The bridge crew let out a loud cheer, but exchanged high fives and pats on the back. Then they realized what had happened.
"Well, this is it," said Covington, sighing.
"What? What?! We just beat them!" exclaimed DeSemple, laughing.
"Don't you understand?! The Covenant have found Reach! That means that… wait a sec… oh no… another ship coming in. Looks like a frigate," said Davidson, looking at her screen.
"Alright. Hold it together, everyone," said Jon, turning to face out the viewport.
A large blue hole ripped open, and in popped a sleek purple Covenant frigate, slightly smaller than the Achilles. It fired two point lasers, burning into the three meters of Titanium-A battleplate.
The ship shook violently, and started accelerating.
"Damage report!" bellowed Captain Graham, rocking in his chair.
Davidson looked at her screen frantically, and shouted, "Deck 15-18 are breached, fires breaking out. I'm gonna vent atmosphere."
"Covington, is the MAC ready?!" called Jon.
"Yes sir!"
"Fire!"
The lights on the bridge dimmed, and then a red hot slug powered out of the destroyer, quickly followed by another one. The two rounds hurtled through space at thirty thousand meters per second. The two impacted straight into the frigate, and tore off the entire rear. The ship began spinning, and then launched two deadly plasma torpedoes.
"Evasive maneuvers!" cried Jon, leaping up and grabbing the railing.
"But sir, there's no way we avoid that!" panted DeSemple, tapping his screen.
Jon pointed at the frigate, which was still in a small spin, and yelled, "Full speed, over the torpedoes and straight at that frigate!"
"What you're proposing is suicide!" shouted DeSemple.
"Not doing anything is suicide! Do it!"
The Achilles' engines roared to life, and made an immediate port side turn, gaining speed rapidly. The torpedoes followed. Then, the human ship turned and made straight for the spinning alien vessel, on a collision course. At the last second, it pulled up, and the torpedoes, not being able to correct their course, slammed into the Covenant vessel, ripping it to shreds.
The crew remained silent this time.
Finally, Jon said, "Who's next?"
Ensign Davidson shook her head and said, "No more contacts, sir. We should probably go back to Reach, sir."
Jon nodded, and said, "Ensign DeSemple, get us to the September Rain."
"Aye aye," said the ensign, tapping on his computer screen.
The Achilles turned around and began speeding towards the human fortress world, ships coming into view as they got closer. The UNSC Invincible, the flagship of the Epsilon Eridani Defense Fleet, hung over a cluster of smaller vessels. She was armed with two regular MAC guns and then a Super-MAC gun, with hundreds of smaller guns and cannons along the sides. The Invincible was the lead ship in a class of five dreadnoughts, only four of which having been built. All around Reach were dozens of cruisers, and hundreds of other ships.
Then the Achilles' destination came into view, on the other side of Reach. The September Rain was a massive space station, with enough docks to hold up to six capital ships and about ten smaller vessels. The Achilles pulled into one of the open ports, and clamps held onto the ship, locking it into place.
Jon buried his face into his hands, knowing what was going to happen.
…
UNITED NATIONS SPACE COMMAND PRIORITY TRANSMISSION
ENCRYPTION CODE: DELTA
FROM: MERLIN
TO: KING ARTHUR
DATE: AUGUST 30th, 2552
SUBJECT: Winter Contingency
CLASSIFICATION: EYES ONLY, RECIPIENT
[START]
Fleet Admiral Terrance Hood,
At 21:06 hours on August 29th, the UNSC ACHILLES (DD-986) was on a routine patrol near the planet Tribute when it came into contact with a single Covenant Type-31 Exoatmospheric Multirole 'Seraph' Fighter . The ACHILLES destroyed the 'Seraph' without any casualties. Only moments later, a CFV-class Covenant frigate came into system via slipstream. The ACHILLES engaged, and destroyed the frigate with few casualties. Just before destruction, the frigate sent a line of communication, and ONI was able to decrypt part of the message onboard UNSC SEPTEMBER RAIN (SSD-4) with Translation Program ALPHA THREE NINE TWO TWELVE and it says:
[The heretics are here, may we burn them into glass with the wrath of the gods.]
After this, there were many unintelligible characters, which our experts believe are numbers, and more specifically, the location of Reach. As of 0200 on August 30th, 2552, I am declaring WINTER CONTINGENCY for the Epsilon Eridani system. All forces are rallied and all deployed assets are being recalled. All six Hrunting/YGGDRASIL Mark I Exoskeleton Assault Brigades have been deployed to hold key areas. NOBLE Team has been deployed on my personal orders to protect Dr. Catherine Halsey's subterranean lab from any potential attack.
The UNSC INVINCIBLE (DN-01) is currently the flagship of all assembled fleets above Reach. Currently, the Epsilon Eridani Defense Fleet, 7th Fleet, 19th Fleet, and 4th Carrier Task Force are in holding patterns above Reach. All carriers have been diverted with evacuating all other planets in system other than Reach and Tribute. The UNSC TRAFALGAR (SCV-16) is expected to arrive within the next four to six hours along with the 74th Carrier Strike Fleet.
Currently, we are trying to evacuate Reach, but do not have enough ships to get everyone out. All refugees are currently being sent to the Sanctuary system.
If the INFINITY is completed, we could use her extra firepower.
Please respond soon, Fleet Admiral. Reach will be under siege soon.
/END/
…
UNITED NATIONS SPACE COMMAND PRIORITY TRANSMISSION
ENCRYPTION CODE: DELTA
FROM: KING ARTHUR
TO: MERLIN
DATE: AUGUST 30th, 2552
SUBJECT: Re: Winter Contingency
CLASSIFICATION: EYES ONLY, RECIPIENT
[START]
Vice Admiral Danforth Whitcomb,
Reach cannot and will not fall. I have called back Admiral Stanforth and his fleet from a raid on a Covenant planet, expect them by the time you read this. Within his fleet is the is the UNSC PILLAR OF AUTUMN (C-709), containing the SPARTANs needed for OPERATION: RED FLAG. I am also shipping two more brigades of Hrunting/YGGDRASIL Mark I Exoskeletons your way, expect them within six hours.
As for your evacuations, I am sending you forty-six LIFE-class transports for use, being escorted by the frigates UNSC FORWARD UNTO DAWN (FFG-201) and UNSC IN AMBER CLAD (FFG-142). Get the cities first, they are our top priority. All spare vessels will be sent to Sanctuary to make sure the refugees make it safe. Don't worry about Sol, Danforth, the Big Sticks are ready and the Home Fleet is rallied.
As per UNSC Emergency Directive B-37940 you are authorized to use TACTICAL NUCLEAR BOMBARDMENT on any areas fallen into Covenant hands. NAPALM is also authorized on any and all Covenant ground forces as per Directive X-24769.
Please minimize civilian casualties.
Best of luck.
/END/