Chapter 2: First Blood
Ship Master Hoshan J'dutra'ee sat at his command chair in the middle of the command bridge of his cruiser. His bridge was wide spaced as where all the bridges of the cruisers of the Covenant armada. All around him the different stations of his vessels shined with their pale purple colors as they hung silently in the air. Around them where several more Shangheili who very dedicatedly observed each and every station, checking and rechecking the several readouts that the holograms showed.
The Ship Master though about his mission to chart this new system and determine if there was any Human presence, or if not to survey the system for a possible forward base in the ongoing war with the Humans. Anger welled up in the Ship Master as he saw how he had fallen and how he was thought of by his superiors. He like every Shangheili thought of battle and the honor to be brought by it to the Covenant and to the family, that he was being used on such a mundane task was a deep mark on his abilities.
As the time passed, his thought moved towards ways to amend such a bad mark on his reputation. However his reverie was soon ended, as a low continuous wail was heard, marking the end of their journey in slipspace, and like all the Covenant vessels the transit was smooth and hardly felt despite the incredible energies that where being managed in order to achieve faster than light speed.
Immediately upon leaving the alternate dimension of slipspace the Ship Master left his seat and walked slowly around the bridge floor, observing various readouts and the reactions of his officers to his presence. Despite being dismissed by the higher command, the Ship Master did make a point of running a well organized bridge.
For a few seconds nothing occurred, nothing was expected in a few seconds anyways. However the Ship Masters complacency was soon ended as his sensors officer spoke. "Ship Master, we have detected a small fleet of ships near the planet"
"Show me" was the Ship Masters order, and soon a holographic view appeared over the bridge. The Ship Master and his subordinates attempted to recognize the vessels that where being shown, but none knew of any vessels that looked like the ones they where observing. "Do the ship memory banks know what vessels are these?" asked the Captain still analyzing the vessels in the screen.
"No Ship Master, the memory banks do not recognize any of the vessels" was the answer from one of the officers.
"Hmmm, initiate a wide spread scan, give me as much information as you can" ordered the Ship Master.
"Yes Ship Master" was the answer from one of his subordinates as he busied himself carrying out his superior officer's orders.
Everyone on the bridge waited for the response from the sensors officer. There was a small amount of tension in the bridge, for none where sure of what to expect from the unknown vessels. Finally the sensors officer spoke. "Scans are coming in Ship Master. They appear to be made of an unknown alloy composition, and have moderate energy signatures, but there is an interference that is disrupting our scans"
The Ship Master pondered the information, and though about the situation. His mission was only to explore for Human presence or to determine the viability of the planets for a forward base; he was unprepared for a first contact situation. Quickly however the Ship Master made his decision. "Open a communication channel, and inform them that they are trespassing on our holy territory. Tell them that they should leave immediately of prepare to be destroyed"
"Yes Ship Master" was the answer from his communications officer as he sent the signal.
The Ship Master waited for his officer, whilst still trying to figure out the vessels that were presented to him. He had seen the vessels of several races that he had come across, though the Covenant was the most powerful force in known space it was far from the only one, and though many races had been subsumed into their holy pact, many still resisted to this day. Despite this the Covenant realized when other means of subsuming other races where necessary and the only large conflict in recent memory was the war of extermination against the humans.
The last thought once again brought the Ship Master anger forth, as he realized that he was failing in the true duties of his people, as the main forces of the Covenant, and that this type of tasks however important where beneath him. He would make sure to make the Humans pay in kind to demonstrate his worth.
Once again the Ship Masters reverie was finished by one of his officers. "Message sent Ship Master, however I am unsure if they have received the message, and am attempting several communications channels" informed the bridge officer.
The Ship Master assented to this information and got closer to the communications officer. "Try to open a communications channel" ordered the Ship Master as he waited for his officer to comply with his order.
Again there was a couple of seconds of waiting to be done as the officer efficiently complied with the Ship Masters orders and everyone on the bridge waited. "Found a channel in the lowest spectra of slipspace Ship Master, it is weak but enough for visual communication"
"Very well, open a channel" ordered the Ship Master stepping to stand in front of a holographic screen that appeared in the center of the bridge.
As the hologram appeared only static could be seen. "Adjust the image" ordered the Ship Master at the communication officer who proceeded to comply. As the seconds passed the image became steadily clearer, and eventually the image was complete.
The Ship Master observed for a couple of seconds, surprise clear in his features, and he observed the screen from one side to the other in disgust. "Prepare for immediate engagement. Bring all weapons to bear on those vessels and close this blasphemous channel" ordered the Ship Master as his crew readied themselves for the battle that was to come.
The Ship Master was devastated, how had he failed to recognize his enemy? How had he been blinded so completely? It didn't matter. All that mattered was that his objectives and his vengeance could both be accomplished in a single action.
In front of him where the strange vessels that where now enemies of his, manned by the race that he had been trained to kill, and with which he could reclaim his honor. In front of him where the vessels of the heretical Humans, and he would delight in their extermination.
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Alto Saotome found himself dodging the attacks of the enemy fighters, which had swarmed from the massive vessel after only a few minutes. He didn't know what had happened or why they were attacking, but he hated the situation very much.
"Damn, what the hell did we do to piss these guys off?" was Alto's comment over the intercom channel as he evaded yet another blue pulse which almost scrapped his fighter.
"It doesn't matter now, just concentrate and bring them down" said Lee Ozma through the channel as his Gatling rifle fired at one of the fighters, with a minimal effect. "Damn these bastards are shielded" said the Commander as he saw the ripples of the energy shield as his shots impacted on the strange bulbous craft which were attacking them. "Luca, do you have any readings on these bandits?" asked the Commander as he poured more bullet rounds into his opponent.
"Hay, they have an energy shield, but it doesn't appear to be very strong, suggest using the Battroid lasers, they appear to be weak against energy weapons" said Luca Angelloni from his green Messiah as he dodged yet another group of enemies who were trying to shoot him down.
"Well, you don't have to tell me twice" was Alto's response as his fighter craft transformed swiftly into a giant robot, and started to fire the laser blasters on the sides of his head at the nearest enemy. Soon the shields where down and then he changed to his Gatling rifle, finishing the job.
All over the fighters of the Macross Quarter and its accompanying vessels were tied in a mad dogfight against the nimble and fast bulbous fighters. The battle was a massive chaos as the energy plumes of the plasma engines in the fighter's left dizzying array of lights that was beautiful to the sight despite its deadly nature.
The enemy crafts where shaped like a large teardrop with an indentation in the middle. From this teardrop in the middle they charged energy and launched it at the Human fighters, which tried to dodge them, only to have them follow them. From underneath the main gun the enemy fighters spewed lethal pulses of blue energy, which created heavy scorch marks even on the advanced energy absorbing armor of the Human fighters.
To further the problems, their enemies had some type of energy barrier around them that protected them from the attacks of their weapons. Even though the Human fighters were capable of scoring direct hits on the enemy fighters a large number of their shots where rendered useless as their shields absorbed the damage and left the fighters craft unscathed.
Further into the battlefield Alto could see the small battle fleet that they had carried them to this damnable place being shot at by the large enemy craft. Alto saw how the macros Quarter and its escorting vessels fired shot after shot into the enemy vessel. Again and again the large bulbous vessel was hit by the energy beams of the multiple batteries of the fleet and just like the fighter craft the shots where rendered useless as the same energy barrier absorbed the damage being dealt to it.
Then enemy vessel however was not idle and it fired larger versions of the fighter craft blue energy orbs, which rapidly raced in the direction of the Macross Quarter and its attending fleet. Fortunately however these aliens where not the only vessels to posses the technology for creating energy shields, and though visibly moved by the powerful energies brought to bear by the enemy vessel the Macross Quarter and its attending fleet held their places and continued the retaliatory strikes against the alien vessel.
The same was not true though of the fighter squadron to which Alto was currently assigned, as the enemy fighters came in large numbers and attempted to overpower them. The enemy fighters moved in formations of ten, and attacked specific enemies attempting to isolate an enemy and move on to the next target, overwhelming the fighter with superior numbers.
So far it was being very effective as several NUNS fighters had been overwhelmed and destroyed with overwhelming power that overpowered the energy conversion armor of the human fighter craft. And now it was Alto who was on the business end of such an attack squadron.
"Damn, these bastards just won't stop" he said as he maneuvered his fighter trying to avoid the massed weapons fire that was being directed against him.
"Just keep them like that" sounded the voice of Michael Blanc through the communications system as Alto raced to keep from being vaporized by the continuous stream of energy fire. For Alto it felt like an eternity as he avoided numerous shots one after the other, but he was well rewarded as less than five seconds later five of the pursuing fighters where vaporized as high speed bullets pierced through their shields and armor.
As soon as the number of his pursuers was significantly diminished Alto transformed his VF 25 Messiah into its combat robot mode and began to wipe out the rest of the squadron which was trying to return to formation after the loss of their five comrades. In this situation alto let loose with his Gatling rifle and the pulse lasers located on the robots head and effectively dispatched the other five fighters.
Alto then moved his fighter towards the battle fleet, closing in on the swarms of fighters that where harrying the rest of the warships. Then it happened, from the large vessel what appeared as a beam of pure light impacted on one of the NUNS carriers. The carrier's shields flared for a couple of second trying to protect the ship from the brutal onslaught that the beam of energy was imparting. Still it was a useless action as the shields where quickly overwhelmed and the ship was quickly carved in half by the brutal energy beam fired by the large vessel they where currently fighting.
The whole squadron saw the destruction, and though it was a normal occurrence, it was always disconcerting, especially now that their resources where so stretched. "Everyone finish these fighters off, we have to assist the fleet with the giant vessel" ordered Commander Ozma through the communications channel even as he raced towards the offending fighters harrying the fleet.
A series of Rogers was all that was heard through the communication channel as the VF 25's and the VF 171's moved to intercept the enemy attempting to destroy the fleet.
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"Captain the New Providence has just been sunk" informed Monica Lange as she reviewed the information on the large spherical holographic projection that was the main radar display of the Macross Quarter.
"Then we will have to finish this fast won't we Captain?" Bobby Margot the helmsman of the Macross Quarter looking rather calm despite the seriousness of the situation.
The Captain turned to look at Bobby and smiled. "Yes we will, won't we?" said the Captain. "Very well, let's finish this. Prepare to fire the main cannon, repulsion field to maximum" ordered the Captain and the whole crew prepared for what was to come. "All stations transform"
A massive tremor was almost immediately felt by the crew, who remained calm despite the severe movement and continued to monitor the systems of the ship. No one was surprised, for this was something that had been done many times before.
Outside the entire shape of the 400 meter long vessel began to change, its back thrusters moved to a lower part and became two feet. The center of the vessel moved upward on the structure and became a torso and a head where the bridge was housed. Finally the large gun on the left side opened and became the left arm, while the flight deck became a right arm.
The enemy attacked stopped for a second, and at this point the giant vessel moved the entirety of the flight deck to the back of the gigantic robot that had been formed during the transformation of the vessel, and held the main gun in its two gigantic arms.
"Transformation successful Captain" announced the purple haired Mina Roshan looking very confidently to the Captain.
"Very well, target the alien vessel and show them our power" ordered the Captain as he stood from his chair.
"Roger that" was Bobby's answer as he tied his green bandana over his head, and grappling the controls tighter, and as he moved so did the gigantic robot that was the Macross Quarter. The Robot accelerated towards the alien vessel that had stopped firing, and aligned its gigantic cannon at the huge alien vessel.
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On board his cruiser Ship Master Hoshan J'dutra'ee observed the battle against these new Human vessel with growing anger and frustration. Like always the Humans had chosen to stay and fight, hoping to kill a few more Covenant, what foolishness that was had been the Ship Masters thoughts as the battle began.
As usual he sent his fighter squadrons against the Humans, hoping to tie in their fighters and vessels while his own cruiser rained down plasma fire on the infidels. The fleet arrayed against him was a small one, even for Human standards, but that had never mattered to the Ship Master, all that had mattered was that here where new Human vessels that dared oppose him even though he thought they knew they were going towards their deaths.
As the battle began in earnest his fighters engaged the Human craft, and forced them to divert their attention from the slaughter he was about to unleash on these puny and heretical Human craft. Or so he had thought, however as soon as the battle had began everything started to go completely wrong.
The Ship Master had expected the Humans to send countless swarms of their missiles at him, only to have them snuffed out of the sky by his pin-point lasers and laugh at the idiocy of their tactics. He had expected them to open fire with their ridiculous electromagnetic accelerator weapons and be easily dispelled by his shields. Never had he expected the Humans to retaliate with energy weapons, and never in such a huge barrage. The shields of his cruiser though powerful could not stand to such a barrage for long, and thus he decided that he would simply eliminate them like the vermin they where, so he ordered that all the plasma torpedo batteries open fire. He did not wish to abuse of his ships systems by using his energy projectors and lowering his shields when they were being pounded by these new human vessels.
As the bombardment of the Humans began another problem surfaced, these Human vessels where unlike any they had ever faced before. Normally under the assault of his plasma torpedoes Human vessels would cowardly try to evade his weapons in order to try and distribute the damage that they were receiving and continue fighting a little longer while they were massacred. It was futile the Ship Master knew, for his holy instruments of destruction could follow the Human vessels and also because they did not posses any shields, thus all of his shots where always lethal to the fragile Human vessels, especially some of this size.'
However unlike his expectations these Human vessels never veered away from his weapons. Instead they stubbornly held their position and just as the Ship Master tasted the sweet scent of victory the Humans had managed to strip it from him.
The plasma torpedoes impacted on the small Human vessels with their deadly fury and as the energy was dispersed the Ship Master saw in astonishment how they faint outline of a green energy barrier was spread over the vessels that had received the onslaught of his weapons, and continued to rain down their fire upon him like rain falling during a tropical storm.
His fighters were also not doing as well as he had expected. Normally the Human fighters though powerful and more than capable of facing his own seraphs in battle where usually destroyed when faced with superior numbers such as was occurring now. However once again these new Human vessels and their fighters managed to take his sweet revenge from them and continued to defy them by decimating his fighter squadrons.
Of the one hundred fighters that he had sent against the over forty fighters that his vessel had detected, the Humans had managed to thin down their number to the point where they were now on equal terms and constantly diminishing. In short the battle was going extremely wrong. It was then that the Ship Master decided to end the fight once and for all; he would have his honor back one way or another.
"Charge the main energy projector and target the carrier on the right side of their formation" ordered the Ship Master as he continued to oversee the failing engagement.
"Ship Master, if we activate the energy projector we will be defenseless" said one of the bridge officers.
The Ship Master glared at the officer who spoke against his orders. "Do as I say, and never again question my commands" said the Ship Master in a very stern voice at the subaltern, who retreated to his station. "Let me clarify then, charge the energy projector eighty percent capacity. That should leave our shields and weapons operational and still give us plenty of time to recharge and eliminate these heretics"
The rest of the bridge crew began to follow the orders of their Ship Master, and soon the lights where lowered, a sign that the energy projector was charging up. "Energy projector charged as per your instructions Ship Master" informed another of the bridge officers.
"Very well, target the ship and fire" ordered the Ship Master and just as soon a giant lance of energy surged towards one of the Human vessels which was soon destroyed. The Ship Master savored his triumph over this new force of Humans; once again the Covenant forces had demonstrated their superiority over these backwards barbarians.
"Recharge the energy projector and target the next vessel" announced the Ship Master as he rejoiced in his victory over the heretical Humans. However his celebration was cut short.
"Ship Master, massive energy surge from the largest vessel, its.. its"
"It is what officer?" asked the Ship Master to the scared officer who looked at the screen in sheer astonishment.
The officer looked at his Ship Master and simply pointed at the screen with his long triple fingered hand. The Ship Master followed his subordinates hand and as soon as his silted reptilian eyes fixed themselves on the screen hovering over him his four jaws threatened to fall to the floor. "By the sacred rings what is that vessel doing?" asked the stupefied Ship Master as the large vessel transformed itself from a strangely shaped vessel into what could best be described as a giant robot.
As the vessel completed its transformation the entire crew was entranced by the strange occurrence happening in front of their eyes, all of them astonished at what was happening and barely believing it. "By the prophets, why would they do that?" asked once again the Ship Master as vessel once again surprised them by very quickly placing the large flat metal bed on its apparent left arm behind its back and grappling the elongated pyramid on the right arm with both hands before pointing it at the large vessel.
"Massive energy reading detected from the vessel which just transformed" informed one of the officers who had managed to throw off his stupor at the event taking place and managed to return to his post.
This immediately alerted the Ship Master, who quickly reached the officer who had managed to avert him from his stupefied state. "What?"
"Ship Master the enemy vessel is charging some sort of weapon it's going to fire at us" said the surprised officer.
"Impossible, Humans don't posses that type of technology" said the Ship Master even as the readings from the holographic console showed the information right in front of him to see. "Quickly, prepare a slipspace pod with the information of this battle to Admiral Xytan 'Jar Watrinee" ordered the alarmed Ship Master as he realized what was going to happen. "May the Forerunners protect us" where the last words of the Ship Master, as his vessel was engulfed by a powerful quantum singularity.
Just before the massive attack engulfed the large cruiser, a small light purple pod left the cruiser and disappeared from normal space with its precious cargo, even as the vessel which had berthed it was twisted in impossible ways and exploded.
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"Main gun fire!" ordered Captain Wilder, as the charge sequence for the Quantum Displacement cannon finished. The large gun in the hands of the giant robot glowed a bright red color and energy flowed through the many generators, as the weapon ignited and a massive red blast was sent towards the giant vessel.
The red blast impacted the vessel and for a fraction of a second it appeared as if the shields where going to hold just as they had against the rest of the weapons directed at it. But as no sooner had the crew of the Macross Quarter believed their attack had failed, that the energy blast ripped the vessel from fore to stern.
For another fraction of a second it seemed as though that was all that was going to happen, but then the brutal gravity wave created by the small black hole impacted the ship and the gigantic vessel began to twist and turn in ways it was never meant to. All over the ships structure bulges appeared and glowed a deep red, unable to explode due to the gravity that was engulfing them, but as soon as the gravity wave passed the entire vessel exploded in a giant display of sparks and fireworks as the small pockets of the ship that remained where sent in different directions.
"Vessel completely destroyed Captain" informed the bright blonde haired girl in charge of the sensor of the Macross Quarter.
"Good, mop up the remaining fighters, and capture some if possible, make a sweep of the area and then well depart, this is not a safe place to be" ordered the Captain as he pulled his cap over his eyes and appeared to go to sleep.
"Roger" was the answer of the crew as they proceeded to follow their Captains orders.
"Things are only going to get harder from here on out" said the Captain, making the whole bridge crew turn to look at him, while he remained impassive in his chair.
Hours later the last of the enemy fighters had either been destroyed or incapacitated, and a small number of fighters had been recovered. The ships finished their survey of the system and once again opened the purple-pink vortex that signaled a fold jump, and with a scattering of yellow glowing particles the small fleet was gone.
TBC