Authors Note- This story is also on Spacebattles with some technical discussion if you want ot know a bit more about some creative designs etc.
The UNSC Marine armor in this fic is essentially the Power Armor found in the movie (don't watch it) Starship Troopers Invasion. First off I hate anime but that armor design is the coolest and most realistic that I have seen so far, thus that is what the UNSC Marines in my fic have.
The armament of the UNSC Longswords has been revised slightly as is their size (now the smaller versions seen in Halo Reach.) So please don't tell me that they are different and not cannon. I know. The inclusion of the pimary anti ship weapon of the Longswords is not only my way of addressing why the UNSC has a large Interceptor but also in my mind is the only way a fighter in this Universe (and the normal Halo Universe) can be successful at attacking enemy warships which have such ridiculous Point Defenses.
Planet Harvest
November 9th, 2525 (UNSC Calender)
2 ABY
"I've got enemy soldiers in the ruins of that homestead. Eyes on four of them. Armed with projectile weapons." One Nine said as his voice came through the speakers inside of Alpha 956's helmet as he and his fellow squad of ten stormtroopers picked their way through the rubble that was the outskirts of the city which was currently occupied by the growing Imperial forces that were hunkered down under the protective bubble of a deployed energy shield that nearly covered the 10 mile radius of the city.
If Thrawn wasn't already serious enough about the defenses as soon as the Helmsmans contingent of troops had been added to the nearly 60,000 strong force a battery of eight surface to orbit turbo-lasers were quickly being built to afford a protection from whatever ships this UNSC might send.
If one thing was for certain, Thrawn wanted this planet taken for the long haul.
But the small remnants of the natives defense forces were doing their best to resist the Imperial warmachine. And though he wouldn't admit it to his superiors, 956 had to give them credit that they had put up a stiff resistance for their small numbers and weaponry.
After seeing the decimation of three platoons worth of stormtroopers and AT-STs in an attack and hearing of what the defenders had managed to do to the forces that had arrived in the system before he had aboard the Helmsman ,he didn't scoff personally at the native's use of Projectile weapons anymore, after seeing those weapons punch through Stormtrooper armor with little trouble to kill and maim the soldier within more than enough times he didn't take them for granted like his stupid officers tended to.
"They would change their mind real quick when they started shooting at them" he thought to himself as he shuffled past an abandoned wheeled personal vehicle left out on the deserted street, doing his best to stay hidden as his eyepiece HUDs tracked the environment around him and designated the objective.
The other ten troopers followed suit as 956 crawled into a set of ruins of a wall that ran by the homestead that the enemy was in.
"The Droid cam is up, nothing else in the area so far as I can tell, these krimps must be performing recon." One Nine spoke as the lead sergeant with his orange pauldron crawled along the rubble, more than likely out of the enemy's line of sight.
However despite the Troopers stealth 956 knew that he and the Stormtroopers would have to go loud to take them out due to the position of the homestead and it having a rather large yard, but a well placed thermal detonator would do the trick in one go.
How the hell they had managed to sneak past all the other dozens of much larger patrols and Tie Interceptors providing CAP above the city he didn't know, but it wouldn't matter.
He would much prefer to do the job himself than to simply call in for a quick strafing run of Blaster Cannon fire or one of the roving bands of AT-STs and 2M-1 Hovertanks, but in the case of all those options the squad had been a little too close to the target should a Blaster Cannon round accidently hit them too.
"Everyone set up, we cant get near the place thanks to that open yard, provide suppressing fire for five of us to get around back and lob a couple of Dets in their and burn them out."
"Yes sir." The Troopers all replied as one as 956 readied his trusty E-11 Blaster Carbine.
Taking position behind the cover of the low wall he looked towards One Nine as the Sergeant counted down.
"Three."
The excitement of combat kicked in as he felt a surge of adrenaline, as the more rational part of his mind remembered his Training on Cardia.
"Two"
"One"
"Open Fire!" One nine shouted through the Squad Com.
His heart pounding in his chest 956 popped up out of cover searching for targets as his Blaster came to his firing position.
A brief shout of warning from the enemy came from inside of the house as a fusillade of crimson blaster bolts tore into the front façade of the house, blowing huge chunks out of the concrete like material and punching right through the windows as the other five troopers burst from cover to run full tilt towards the side of the house and flank it.
956 saw a flurry of movement from inside of the house as he spun his sights onto the target.
Too late.
Two cracks and two orange flashes from the assailant's projectile rifle lashed out against the wine of energy weapons.
However that didn't save the UNSC trooper as Five Six bulled the trigger on his E-11 twice, sending two red bolts of energy and gas into the silhouette through the haze and into the house, hitting the enemy square in the chest both times as a brief scream emitted from the enemy trooper as he fell to the floor with two burning holes in his chest and his fatigues on fire, dead before he hit the floor and out of sight.
Five six was about to grin inside of his helmet until he turned to see that sprawled on the grass of the lawn just short of cover was the trailing Stormtrooper of the five that flanked the homestead, with a hole through his helmet and brain matter and gore exploding out of the top of the head, spilling onto the lawn. The first round had hit the deceased trooper square in the chest, denting and deforming the white plastoid armor inward and cracking it, but stopping the round.
The same could not be said for the armor's effectiveness against a shot to the face.
Just to see how a slugthrower could damage Stormtrooper armor like that went against traditional thinking that slugthrowers were useless antiques of primitive worlds, no less the round that split the troopers head open like a melon after punching through the poor man's helmet.
"Move up! Smoke them out!" One Nine shouted as he and the others advanced still laying down blaster fire that had now thouroughly reduced the entire front of the homestead into a molten mass of debris and ozone as several small fires erupted within.
Moving up to the front door One Nine and the others stacked up as 956's IFF tagged all of the friendlies in blue on his Eyepiece's HUD.
"Move in."
The Stormtrooper just in front of Five Six moved and with a powerful kick from his slightly augmented armored leg kicked down the wooden door with a crash as leveled his rifle searching for targets as he moved in and to the side to allow those behind him a shot and to file in.
Before he could take one more step in a trio of cracks from within the house and down the long entry hallway barked and the Stormtrooper's torso withered for a second as the Trooper's dying reaction sent two unaimed bolts down the hallway before he fell to the floor dead with a dented and punctured chest plate.
The one well defined hole was right where his heart would be as blood oozed out of it.
"Kryff!" One Nine screamed as the other troopers swore a stream of curses and sent a flurry of Blaster fire down the hall way in return.
Still firing down the hallway the UNSC soldiers popped back out of their cover and returned fire, forcing Fifty Six to jump over the body of his fallen comrade as projectiles tore past him and punched holes in the walls, going right through them unabated.
"Frak!" Fifty six swore as he and the two other Stormtroopers with him again fired down the hallway, filling it with debris and ozone as One Nine pulled the fallen trooper out of the doorway.
Both sides seemed to dance in and out of cover taking potshots at one another, unable to hit each other as both sides had cover.
Five Six finally popped spun out of cover and readied his blaster just as the UNSC trooper popped out of his cover with a long and unfamiliar looking projectile carbine like rifle in his hands ready to put a slug through him.
Five Six was faster.
He pulled the trigger twice as two blood red blasts turned the man's face into a flaming crater of blood and bone as the enemy soldier's limp body in its odd armored fatigues crashed to the ground.
Five six did not have time to be satisfied with his kill as the other two enemies returned fire in an attempt to avenge their comrade, one shouting insults in a strange version of basic as supersonic projectiles ripped through the air around and towards him as he dove out of the way back into the cover behind the wall.
He wasn't quite fast enough as one bullet struck him on his right shoulder, spinning him around as he grunted in surprise and pain, nearly tumbling to the floor as he looked at his shoulder pauldron, half expecting to see that his arm was now gone.
The armor actually stopped the bullet, but the plastoid was warped to a surprising degree and visibly cracked, certainly not able to take a hit from those weapons again if he got hit there. His shoulder beneath the armor and body glove ached and burned with pain, more than likely a cracked bone as he gritted the pain away underneath his helmet and rejoined the fight.
More cracks of projectile rifles and the whine of blasterfire filled the homestead as the other Troopers filed in and added their fire into the fray.
The second and third UNSC Trooper were soon cut down by red bolts of energy ripping them open by One Nine and another trooper as the trio of Stormtroopers, the most feared soldiers in the known galaxy, nodded and began clearing the house room by room, the troopers always checking their corners and ready for anything that needed a bolt put in it.
"Clear!"
"Clear!"
Blaster fire and the still unfamiliar craks of projectile fire cut through the air this time from the rear of the house as a firefight between the remaining enemy soldiers and the four Stormtroopers whom went around to flank from the rear of the structure broke out.
He and the other troopers with him hurried up their pace as the trio of Imperial soldiers covered their lines of fire while checking the rooms along the way, moving to try and catch the enemy from behind.
As Five six turned a corner to another unlit hallway more bullets sailed past his head as he dove back into cover, the slugs chewing apart the wall around and above him as his squad comm crackled to life.
"Detonator out!"
The familiar brief thud of the red ball of the energy grenade hitting the floor down the hall happened as several shouts of surprise could be heard as Five six and the others kept their backs to the wall.
A second later the Nuclear Fusion grenade's explosive field activated as the tremendous heat from the blast atomized and vaporized anything within the 6 meter blast radius.
The reaction lasted merely a second before dissipating as the smell of ozone and smoke filled the air only to be filtered by the Stormtroopers helmets as Five Six and the others turned around the corner and advanced into the smoke, Blasters ready and Eye pieces switched to thermal modes.
There was simply nothing left of the enemy soldier's bodies.
"Clear!" He shouted as the other Troopers grouped on his position.
One Nine came up and took in the scene, nodding for a second as five six bent down to look at the remains of the enemy soldiers.
They wore a light tan body armor uniform that covered most of their torso and arms as well as their thighs that was complete with a no frills looking helmet that had a now shattered visor section with a holographic display.
Function over form.
As the other troopers milled about making sure their position was secure he found a still intact enemy weapon, the projectile carbine that had just recently been shooting at them.
Picking it up he eyed it with his military eye.
It was lighter than he was expecting, yet also durable feeling. It had a pullpup style layout as he managed to find an eject button as the power cell- no- slug magazine clattered to the floor.
He stooped to pick it up. The rounds were shockingly smaller than he was expecting, and looked much more developed than any slug thrower he had been used to with a deadly looking silver slug at the tip of the round waiting to be launched.
"For a primitive weapons system it can pack a punch. The Verpines would be impressed." One nine spoke as he came up from behind.
"Command is sending an APC to pick us up and investigate. They will be here soon so if you plan on taking a souvenir I suggest you do so now."
Planet Harvest
One Mile Away
"Fuck!" Bryne cursed as the radio link with the Colonial Guard squad finally went dead.
Turning his armored head to face Avery and Jenkins the hardened Marine's stare seemed to penetrate Avery's Power suit nonetheless.
"Are we still going to do this? Those Colonial Guardsmen couldn't even get near as close as we have to, and our part of the plan is a lot more stupid."
Avery inwardly sighed.
He, PFC Jenkins, Bryne and another one of the surviving Marines named Lee had decided that their last ditch plan to take out the Imperials and get inside of their fortress.
Five days ago the Imps had raised what could only be a full blown energy shield over the central core of Upgard and had been growing their base within daily. Defensive towers bristling with weapons emplacements and turrets were rising among the battered skyline of the formerly proud capitol city within and outside of the shield "bubble" and to Avery's and the others amazement slow moving vehicles and aircraft could pass right through unharmed.
With that being the case, Avery hatched up the idea to use their last high explosive that they had manage to grab during the evacuation of the primary defense base, a B-88 Infantry Level Small Diameter Nuclear Fission Bomb, better known as the Nuclear football, which was currently strapped to the back of Bryne's power suit.
If they could detonate the nuke inside of that shield, even the mere 10 kiloton, low radiation "clean" nuke could annihilate the enemy base if that shield contained the blast wave like he believed it would.
However that had required them to get in close, which meant the three other Marines loaded up with the last of their ammunition and several captured "blasters" would sneak through the vast numbers of enemy patrols in and around the city and if necessary fight their way through.
It was a desperate plan more than any, as their food supplies were starting to run low, so low to the point that the few Imperial prisoners they had managed to capture had been killed in order to save the food necessary to feed the human prisoners.
Human prisoners.
Avery still after two weeks was having a hard time grasping his mind around the information and realization that a gigantic unknown Human Empire, separate from the UNSC, existed and was in acquisition of technology more advanced than the UNSC had.
Though he seriously doubted some of the more ridiculous claims of the Empire's size as some of the more arrogant Imperials had claimed.
However in order to get this close Avery and Bryne had decided that a team of Colonial Guard Soldiers would have to sneak into the city and try recon the area in front of them so they could more easily avoid patrols, as it appeared that so far the Empire couldn't pick up their encrypted radio signals.
However that had clearly lead to their demise, as a lucky band of "Stormtroopers" had spotted their position.
Six Colonial Guard soldiers were dead now, their weapons and equipment no match for the Imperials and taken by surprise.
The Colonial Guard and the UNSC Army received only piecemeal funding and equipment compared to the Marines, a result which left the Marines with much better equipment like the Power suit he wore.
Avery gritted his teeth as one of the strange H shaped Imperial fighters screamed overhead, shaking the roof of the three story building he was perched on.
"Johnson, as bad as the loss of those men are it does give us an opportunity." Bryne commented as an Imperial floating APC, a rectangular box of a thing with a turreted medium sized cannon on top, floated to a stop in front of the homestead as several more Imperial soldiers got out of the vehicle as the enemy soldiers exited the now cleared homestead as Avery watched through the SR-99's Oracle scope.
"You have an idea?" Avery asked with a hint of humor.
"Hand me that mobile jammer"
Five Minutes Later
"We are in position." Bryne's voice noted calmly in Avery's ear as he switched his helmet's cams to VISR mode, zooming in on the other Marines IFF beacons as the three Marines shuffled with silent trained precision in their fully armored power armor behind the cover of yet another once inhabited building that lined the avenue.
"Ill take the first shot, taking that officer out and that Stormtrooper with the orange shoulder pauldron, that has to be their sergeants."
"Affirmative, take the shot and we will cut their comms."
Avery shifted slightly as his armor's small servos whirled as he placed his armored visor against the Oracle scope.
Along the readouts of the SR-99 rifle the laser guided marker on the scope came to life and connected to the first round in the chamber.
"Round activated. Select Target" the center of the scope flashed as Avery set the laser designator on the center of mass of the Imperial officer who was overlooking the removal and "disposal" of the Colonial Guardsmen's bodies and gear as the olive drab uniformed man stood arrogantly outside of the floating APC directing the stormtrooper's work.
He pressed the button on the side of the rifle as he settled is scope on his second target, the Pauldroned stormtrooper as he and the rifle's computer accounted for the drop in the round and the wind, factors that at a range of one mile that he would not have had to worry about with a typical M-99 Stanchion Gauss Sniper Rilfe, but then again he was firing a massive 14.9 mm Fin stabilized guided round.
"Target Locked"
Avery glet loose a small predatory grin.
"Initiate." He spoke on the comm as he pulled the trigger.
The rifle's stock bucked against his armored shoulder as he pulled the trigger a second time.
The first round, while aimed at the Imperial trooper, after escaping the barrel , ever so slightly adjusting its course with the small fins that revealed themselves after the sabot casing came apart.
The round turned curved in flight to hit the designated target its small microchip had recorded.
And it did.
The Imperial officer's mid section completely disappeared in a cloud of gore as the massive 14.9 millimeter slug passed through it.
At the same time Avery's second shot, this one unguided, also flew true, and struck the targeted Orange Pauldroned Stormtrooper in the lower torso, passing through the white armor unhindered and creating a grizzly mess of the person inside.
Just as Avery's bullets cut the Imperial Officer in two, Bryne, with the two other Marines, having snuck in close while trying to avoid any possible sensors, activated the very short ranged jammer that Jenkins had been carrying, blocking all outgoing communications as the Marines opened up just as the Imperials began to scramble for cover.
Bryne, firing from a window, emerged and fired his ARC-920 rail rifle , the, 16 mm x 65 mm slug hitting the turret atop of the APC, punching right through the small turret to shatter and explode its compound reactant core inside the mount and knocking the heavy weapon out before it could potentially turn the Marines surprise attack into a slaughter.
The other two Marines, Jenkins and Lee, spun around from behind their cover to spray the backs of the Imperials across the street with electro-thermally fired hypervelocity slugs from their MA6's as three Stormtroopers were cut down.
Just as Avery's rifle spoke again, taking yet another Imperial out of the fight for good, the disorganized troopers returned fire with their Blasters as blood red bolts of energy lanced towards the Marine's position, forcing Jenkins and Lee back into cover as Bryne switched to his SAW and sent a roaring burst of 9mm armor piercing rounds into the Imperials cover as they dove back behind the low lying wall they had used to attack the Guardsmen.
However one of them still was not fast enough as the larger projectiles dented, punched, and tore through the plastoid armor.
The Marines slowly advanced as with burst of his SAW Bryne kept the Imperials heads down as rounds began to chew away and in cases punch through the thick concrete wall.
Avery, having now lost his line of sight, decided that he needed to risk being seen out in the open as he placed the SR-99 on his M-51 Armored suit's back magnetic strip, pulled out his MA6 and leapt off of the roof of the three story building.
He landed with a thud as the armor's servos made the drop seem like nothing and ran as fast as his legs enhanced by the armor could move towards the firefight, moving to the cover of the buildings as he crashed through a small house with his rifle always at the ready.
Harvest
Five six cursed as he threw himself back down into cover as another snarling burst from the armored soldiers' weapon tore through the air where he just was as two others actually punched through the top of the concrete wall turning it into powder.
"Firefik we are pinned down and still nothing on the Comms! They are jamming us somehow!" one of the four remaining Stormtroopers shouted over the comms as Fix Angrily fired a couple of blind shots from his E-11 at the enemy not 20 meters away only to quickly yank his arm back down before another short burst cut through the air.
Five six was about to sneak another shot at the enemy as a low thump sound could be heard just before the fifth surviving Stormtrooper who was in cover behind another section of the wall separate from his was covered in fire as an explosive detonated right over his position, revealing when the smoke cleared revealed the trooper limp on the ground, his armor dented and punctured from shrapnel wounds all over his body.
"Any det's left!?" Five six shouted with anxiety as another burst of fire cut away at his cover.
"One!" another trooper replied.
"Well use it!" Five six shouted as the Trooper nodded and hurled the explosive over the wall.
"Move up and shoot our way out! Get to a new position!" another trooper shouted as the Stormtroopers, their training kicking in, moved as a unit that had not lost its leader.
The concussive force and heat of the Thermal Detonator's blast tore through the air as Five six stood up with his Blaster Carbine at the ready and searching for targets as the other troopers followed suit.
The smoke from the blast still filled the street as he found one of the closer assailants spinning from out of their cover.
He finally got a good look at them as he brought his sights to bare.
They were armored from head to toe in a slightly bulky but still flexible in appearance suit of tanned colored armor with their faces hid behind a fully enclosed armored helmet not unlike a Troopers. In the enemy soldier's hands was an odd but sleek looking projectile weapon with three barrels arranged in a triangle within a barrel shroud. That was an unusual projectile system to say the least. Under that was another larger single barrel that he could only surmise was a launcher.
He pulled the trigger on his E-11 twice as he began to move to the direction of a hopefully much safe cover of a nearby house.
The two bolts hit the UNSC Soldier square in the chest, slamming the soldier back against the wall as the armored enemy stumbled back a step from the impact with two burning marks on its chest plate.
However to Five Six's surprise the UNSC Soldier, instead of falling to the ground, put the weapon back to his shoulder and fired back, only phased and most likely slightly wounded as Five Six tried to dive out of the way while the other Troopers fired in the direction of the other UNSC soldiers, keeping them pinned down as they made a move for a new position.
However Alpha Nine Five Six was too slow as one of the bullets hit his already damaged right shoulder plate, and went right through it this time.
He spun to the ground trying his best not to shout in pain over the comms as the firefight still raged around him, his arm useless as his E-11 clattered away out of reach.
He didn't even know the extent of his injury as he began to black out from the pain, only hearing the climax of the battle through his comm set.
Bryne and Lee had by this point recovered and sent well aimed bursts of fire at the Imperials, whose somewhat suprising attempt at a counterattack had nearly caught the veteran Marine in the fireball of those infernal grenades as he managed to dive out of the way.
The remaining three Stormtroopers were simply cut down before they could make it to their cover.
Silence yet again overcame the sector of the city.
Bryne turned to Jenkins as he raced to the stricken Marine, who had slouched against the wall behind him.
"Are you alright kid?" he asked as his suit's scanners pulled up the status of the Marine's Power Suit.
"Yeah Im alright, it knocked the wind out of me and Im sure as hell burned on my chest, just let the Bio foam injectors kick in and Ill be good." Jenkins breathed as Bryne nodded, the Marine loading his last Programmable 35mm Airburst Grenade into his MA6's underbarrel Grenade Launcher .
The armor had held, but barely. Two smoking near crater like impact sites clearly indicated where the man had been hit. The suit was breached likely and could take a hit in the area again, but it still did the job and worked still. Gone were the days where it took all but heavy weapons fire to kill a Marine in combat.
Those Energy Weapons , or plasma weapons or whatever they were called packed a punch.
Bryne looked to the one he had taken off of an Imp a week ago that was strapped to his thigh plate. At least it would do the job when he ran out of ammo.
A new contact, a friendly blue icon, appeared on the motion and Radar tracker on the top of his HUD as Bryne turned just in time to see Avery burst through a side door of an adjacent house with is weapon at the ready.
"You're late Avery. We are clear." Bryne chided as the Sergeant let out a muttering of curses while walking towards the group.
Johnson nodded to the Imperial APC, settled on the ground driverless.
"You get me a nice ride?"
"Only if you don't fuck up my insurance premiums." Bryne retorted.
Ceti Cheti System.
Approaching Hostile "UNSC Colony"
Imperial Nebulon B Frigate Dark Watch
"Scanners Are not picking up anything of the Repuslor. All we have left are a debris cloud that matches the composition of the hull of a Nebulon B Frigate." The senior scanner officer replied as the man turned around in his seat at his station to face Commander Renad
Aged Thirty Four and only a recent graduate from the Imperial Starfleet Academy, Renad was none the less concerned.
"Then that means they are gone and that's what is left of them. Full sensor sweep again. We need to find what the hell managed to take them out. Shields up and get our TIE's ready. I want to be ready for anything that can be…" the commander was interrupted by an alarm on the sensor officer's consol.
"I have a contact! Moving to behind the moon, range three hundred thousand, and I think it is launching fighters!" the man needlessly shouted.
"Im right here." Renad noted aloud.
"Launch our fighters and take us in. All guns prepped for battle. Battle Stations!"
GA-TL1 Longsword Class Interceptor
Knife-8
"Alright boys full burn for thirty seconds and prepare for target lock. I've got them on the edge of my envelope. Range Three thousand kilometers and closing. In effective accurate weapon's range at 1000 kilometers. ETA 15 seconds. Twenty four contacts. Radar visual coming in." The Squadron leader of the Commonwealth's six on board Longsword Interceptors, Lt. Alexi, or Knife-9, commanded over the squadron comms as Lt. Morgan Fey gripped her controls of her Longsword with anxiety.
"God these fighters are fucking weird looking. What they fuck are those? Radiators? They cant be solar panels." Her Co-pilot, 2nd Lieutenant Houchou Fuun spoke aloud as he worked the primary sensor systems and the main gun.
The Longsword shook and vibrated under her as the gravitationa forces were pressed on her body through her state of the art flight suit, the weak gravity plating and the far more important inertial dampeners working overtime as she throttled the 30 meter long and 40 meter wide sharp wedge shaped dark grey interceptor's twin nuclear powered fusion boosted engines to their maximum speed, enough that were it not for the inertial dampeners a sudden maximum acceleration burn would crush her and Fuun in seconds.
Fey kept her attention laser focused on the view screen in front of her as the stars spun around her on the viewscreens.
"Range two thousand. Arming weapons. Begin maneuvers." The flight lead announced as the Longswords, flying in a loose wedge formation with half a mile in between in craft and separated into three pairs, began jinking towards every direction rapidly as they still approached the enemy fighters at breakneck speeds, never flying directly towards the enemy.
"50 mm Hellilical Railguns check, main guns green. AGSM-10 Fusion Missiles check. Green. AGSM-8 Missile pods check. Green. M-67 Micro MAC Gun check, charged and chambered, 10 round charge ready. Plasma Barrier is up, covering our 12' o'clock. " Her copilot sounded off.
The Longswords were equipped with a full anti fighter and ship loardout, with two anti fighter missile pods instead of the normal one and the anti missile pulse laser meant for missile interception duties.
If they could get through this hopeless looking situation of being outnumbered four to one, and if that Imperial ship's point defenses and shields proved to be too much for the heavily armed Longswords anti-ship AGM-10s nuclear warheads the M-67 Micro MAC was the last thing that could be effective, especially as it was a UNSC fighter's primary weapon against ships.
In an age where point defenses of warships were devastatingly effective, from the traditional 50mm Helilical Railgun CIWS whose range was several thousand miles to any human warship's point defense lasers that could hole a lightly armored fighter from thousands of miles away in seconds and would zap missiles out of the sky, coupled with ever more powerful Plasma Barriers nothing short of swarms of single ships would have any effect on any respectably armed human warship. Something the UNSC had learned during the early years of the Insurrection the hard way before the rapid "Cold War" and arms race that led up to the Rebellion war with the United Rebel Front and its former secessionary star systems.
As a result the UNSC turned to the arming of "Micro MACs" onto its fighters. This allowed UNSC fighters to engage at longer ranges and snipe the hardpoints of Rebellion and enemy ships, usually from multiple vectors at a time to overcome powerful Plasma Barriers with a squadron to either destroy the vessel or damage its point defenses enough to allow the much more powerful anti shipping missiles a better chance to hit the enemy.
Although it didn't pack anything remotely like its larger cousin and the secondary railguns of UNSC ships in terms of firepower, a 140mm slug that weighed 80 kilograms traveling at 600 kilometers per second still would do tremendous damage against "softpoints" of enemy ships, 3.4 kilotons of TNT in kinetic energy on impact.
That was the plan for this op, which she thought was crazy, but luckily Captain Wallace had ordered them to try and destroy the alien vessel first if they could, only to try and open it up if they couldn't destroy it without suffering the loss of the whole squadron.
Of course that was if they could get through this wave of smaller and strange H shaped Alien fighters.
"They are fast, but their squadron is incredibly tight. Lock on missiles." Lt. Alexi calmly ordered as Fey, her senses laser focused, flipped on her multi dimensional X-Band radar.
The AGSM-10 missiles, stored in their pods in the two main weapons bays on either side of the Mini Mac that was underslung along the length of the fuselage and hugging its belly, locked on nearly immediately the large Radar and Thermal profile of the alien fighters.
"I've got lock! Range 1,000 and closing fast, we've got seconds! Fire Fire Fire!" Lt. Alexi shouted over the comms as Fey grinned.
Three of the alien fighters had red lock on icons over their normally green outlined box.
"Firing!" she shouted as he pressed the firing stud on the top of her flight stick and the neural uplink that connected her to the fighter ran a swift verification code that took under a second before the twin missile pods popped out of their bay and launched three anti fighter missiles.
Three bluish contrails of ion engine missiles shot away from her fighter at surprising speed and joined the other 18 missiles as they tore across the rapidly closing distance.
The alien fighters detected the attack and promptly went evasive, spreading out their formation as several performed snap rolls and began performing wild maneuvers in attempting to throw off the missiles.
"Split up into pairs! Flank them from above and the sides! Force them into grouping back together! Prepare for Zero –G snap maneuvers!" Alexi ordered as the Longsword's pilots split up and threw their fighters onto new courses with blasts from maneuvering thrusters and their main engines vectored thrust.
Just in time for the Imperial fighters to close into the very edge of visual range as the missiles struck.
Of the eighteen missiles twelve found their targets as six missed and flew aimlessly into the void.
The flash of "Target Destroyed" appeared at the top of Fey's HUD as two of her missiles found their targets, enveloping the smaller H shaped fighters in overpowering explosions meant to take out much larger craft and simply shattering them.
"No shields repeat no shields! They don't have them on their fighters!" one Longsword pilot shouted as the explosive clouds quickly died in the vacuum of space leaving only the small debris clouds that kept moving all the same with nothing to stop them.
As hoped the twelve reaming fighters briefly bunched up and began to turn to track the three pairs of UNSC Interceptors.
"Track 'em. Fire at will! Engage at your discretion." Alexi ordered as the range had now dropped to point blank.
Dogfighting range.
Fey cut thrust in her port engine and reversed it with her rudders and neaural uplink as the Longsword spun on its axis to track the four enemy fighters that were on her and her wingman's 9' o'clock hoping to flank them.
The Longsword spun around her as a grueling 18 G's of gravity descended on her, half of which were cancelled out by the inertial dampener and flight suit.
Her targeting reticule on the center of her HUD lined up with the leading Imperial fighter.
Without a second thought she squeezed the trigger just as a trio of twin bright green blasts of energy fired from the central "ball" of the alien craft.
The Longsword dully vibrated as the twin 50mm Helilical railgun cannons spat a burst of nearly three dozen hypervelocity magnetically accelerated slugs at the enemy fighter.
It all happed nearly in a second as the slugs and burst of energy weapons fire crisscrossed the miles of separation.
Two of the blasts missed by yards, piercing the darkness of space as the third stuck the dead center of the Longsword's Plasma barrier that flashed red as it discharged.
The barrier collapsed causing temperature spikes on the leading edge of her Interceptor as Fey's mind noted that it had gotten slightly hotter in the cockpit, but the blast's effects were still thankfully absorbed or deflected back into space as Fey's heart caught in her throat.
The alien fighter wasn't so lucky.
The big slugs meant to destroy United Rebel Front fighters tore into the craft nearly without incident and shattered it, sheering it into two before exploding in a brief fireball.
"Fuck yeah!" her co-pilot screamed as she fired a quick burst from her maneuvering thrusters, using her "foreward" momentum to sidestep out of the line of fire and track her nose on the other fighters as her wingman also shredded an enemy fighter as the two remaining Fighters shot past the two Longswords as the Interceptor spun on its axis.
Re-engaging her port engine and punching the throttle to maximum she was crushed back into her seat with massive amounts of acceleration as she and her wingman gave chase.
In her radio chatter from the other pilots confirmed hits and three more enemy kills, but also a scream of defeat.
One unlucky Longsword was speared by four blasts of green energy from two Fighters and was cut in two before the main fusion reactor overloaded.
The tables were now relatively even, five Longswords against seven enemy fighters.
Fey's Longsword's massive acceleration, what made the Interceptor stand out cut into the distance of the two enemy fighters as they split up and went into two directions, one going "up" and the other going "down" as the UNSC interceptors split to pursue.
The enemy fighter performed a wild series of tight maneuvers in an attempt to throw off the Longsword, but despite its size being triple that of the alien craft easily, the human wedge shaped interceptor responded gracefully to her commands and reflexes thanks in no small part to a huge thrust ratio as she slid her targeting reticule right onto the central ball of the enemy fighter now a mere kilometer away.
She squeezed the trigger a second time as the forward leading edge of the "wings" on either side of the cockpit flashed with a burst of electrical fire while the craft vibrated a second time.
The burst of slugs this time struck the Imperial craft dead center, punching through the engine block and out of the other side and the cockpit, shredding it as the H shaped craft exploded violently into spinning debris and dissipating gases.
"That's a kill!"
Imperial Nebulon B Frigate Dark Watch
"He is on my six! Kryff these things are quick…..ghaa….." the voice of the Dark Watch's last surviving Tie pilot cut off abruptly as it was blasted…no…shredded was the more appropriate term as large electromagnetically accelerated slugs from the UNSC's questionably large but now unquestionably deadly starfighters.
"How the hell did six fighters blow through twenty four TIEs with only one loss?! Look at them they are nearly the size of a small freighter!" Renad roared as his bridge crew scrambled about trying to do their tasks.
"Sir they must have some really powerful engines and thrust ratios to pull off being that fast and that large. They are also armed to the teeth and more maneuverable than…."
Renad looked at his XO with a very brief look of rage before his more logical part of his brain kicked in and calmed down.
"What they hell were our pilots doing?" he said aloud as he looked at the viewer and sensors.
The dark angular wedges that were the UNSC "Fighters" had split into two pairs and were now a closing fast to the port side of the Frigate, two of the fighters going "up" and three going "down" and were moving quickly into weapons range as every second passed, looking to attack from both angles simultaneously.
"Arm our weapons. Get ready to blow them away and where is that enemy ship?" He ordered as the sensor officer replied nearly the instant he finished speaking.
"Sir I have them. They are 50,000 kilometers away and running. They are tryng to move into a low orbit above the planet's primary satellite. However we are closing the distance and they will be in effective weapons range momentarily."
"Lets worry about these fighters first…." He didn't get to finish before alarm warning went off.
"Enemy firing missiles!"
The five enemy fighters each launched a surprising six larger missiles as thirty missiles were suddenly screaming towards the Imperial warship launched from only 2,000 kilometers out, they would hit in seconds.
"Knock those things down!" Renad roared.
The firgate's vaunted armament of twelve Borstel RH8 Anti fighter Laser cannons sprung to life as dozens of deadly accurate pulses of emerald green energy and light cleaved into the darkness of space to swat the missiles down.
Three, four, six and then twelve of the missiles were reduced to nothing more than free floating atoms.
It still wasn't enough as the balance of the missiles impacted the shields of the ship.
The ship shook and groaned as a blinding white light enveloped the viewport of the bridge as Renad and the bridge crew were thrown to the deck.
"Nuclear weapons impact! Nuclear detonation against the shields! Shields down to 30 percent! Estimated firepower of enemy warheads in the thirty to thirty five megaton range!" his senior officer called out from a station near the fore of the bridge.
The Dark Watch was thrown some two kilometers and growing off of its previous course as the helmsman corrected its course.
"Knock them out of the sky!"
Knife Eight
"Its still there! Repeat target is still active!" Fey and her copilot shouted in alarm as her wildly maneuvering interceptor closed the gap to dangerously close ranges!"
"Confimed, fire everything we have and our Mini MACs after our nukes hit. We detected a large energy discharge and a drop in thermal and electrical output along the edge of the ship. We think that those may be their shields being strained and losing effectiveness." Lt. Alexi ordered as Fey cursed and fired another rapid burn from her maneuvering thrusters to blast her Longsword onto a new course heading.
"I detected it too. Forwarding it to the Commonwealth. We may be able to crack their shield…" her copilot didn't get the chance to finish his sentence as a blindingly bright spear of green energy shot past her craft.
And struck her wingmate's Longsword which was not a mile behind her dead center.
The explosion was instantaneous as the Longsword was simply vaporized as the craft promptly disappeared from her screens.
"Fuck me!" she shouted as dozens of energy blasts tracked her and the other UNSC Interceptors as the pilot's quick reactions performed wild series of bone crushing maneuvers as the stars spun outside of her fighter.
"Fire at will!" Lt. Alexi ordered.
"Fuun you got the missiles! I've got the MAC!" she growled as on her HUD the targeting reticule of the Interceptor's big main gun sprung to life.
Green blasts of energy filled her vision as they passed not meters behind and above the Longsword hitting the space where the craft had just been, creating a strobbing effect in the cockpit.
The enemy warship was now a speck in her vision that was growing frightengly larger by the second as she tried to do the task of aiming the gun and not being turned into a cloud of molten shrapnel.
"Missiles away! Winchester on nukes!" her copilot behind her shouted needlessly as the Longsword's last two large Nuclear missiles shot away from the fighter.
Another Longsword passed not a mile in front of her, emptying its missiles as well.
It was still too slow in executing its next maneuver as a trio of beams found it, turning it into a flaming cloud of debris before her as its missiles joined the others.
"We are going to be cutting this close!" She screamed as two comet like slugs from the surviving Longsword's MAC's slammed into the shields just before the missiles impacted, setting the electrical energy blister aglow as the slugs harmlessly bounced off.
However the missiles struck the still shimmering shields and enveloped them in nuclear fire of shaped nuclear warheads, briefly blinding Fey as the viewscreens compensated a half a second too late.
Her fighter was still careening towards the fireballs that were dissipating as the enemy ship's form slowly began to reveal itself.
"You have got to be…." Fuun breathed as a series of electrical sparks discharged out into the vacuum.
To her amazement a florescent barrier collapsed with a spark all around the sides of the vessel hugging its form as the energy and thermal readings on her Co-pilot's console dropped.
They had cracked the shields.
But she or Fuun didn't have any time to shout in victory or even comment on it.
"Pull up now!" her copilot shouted as the bow of the Imperial vessel was miles in front of her.
They had under two seconds to react.
Almost on instinct she pulled the trigger on her flight stick.
The Interceptor jolted violently as its mini MAC fired, the frame of the ships groaning as inertial dampeners kept it from flying apart and recoil mitigators kept the ship from flying apart as a 140 millimeter slug of tungsten shot forth like a comet.
And stuck the bow of the ship.
Right on target to the main bridge.
Of course Lt. Fey didn't know just how lucky a shot she had made as she yanked the stick up, throwing the Longsword back onto a new course and away from becoming an oversized hood ornament on the Imperial ship's stricken bow, missing a collision by scant meters.
"We have penetrated their shields! Repeat the enemy ships shields are down and we have holed in on its forward bow!"
UNSC Commonwealth
"We cracked its shields! Repeat we cracked its shields! Hull breach on the forward bow from successful MAC strike on critical area!" the bridge speakers of the beleaguered UNSC Frigate bellowed as the crew for a second time in 24 hours celebrated.
Captain Wallace took one more glance at Dr. Halsey.
"Can your Spartans do this?"
The doctor turned to look at him as if he had just questioned something as outrageous as asking if she were present or not.
"Of course Captain. Now order them to move." She replied bluntly with a hint of veiled anger at his questioning of her soldiers.
The Captain was clearly taken aback for several seconds as he stared at the civilian who dared question his command.
And then moved to the communications officer at his consol.
"Order to Blue Team. Op is a go. Repeat, Op is a go. Hostile boarding action affirmed."
