A/N: Don't be surprised if there is a gap between chapters. (Like there already isn't one already) I'm under a lot of stress from school and extracurricular stuff and I probably won't have time to write. But I'll still try and get these out! Enjoy!
Ch. 10 COMEBACK finale
Doctor Crusher blinked at the weapon Carter had just handed her. "I-I'm sorry?"
"You're going to have to use this for me!" He said with pain. "Just point shoot!"
"But I'm a doctor! I heal people, not kill them!"
"These are not people! These are machines! Take it doc; I can't drive with a bad arm!"
Crusher reluctantly took the weapon and held it gingerly in her hands. She turned around and found a chopper rider and fired. The recoil dug into her shoulder, but the pilot received a headshot. She squealed with joy, but grimaced at her shoulder.
"Ouch!" Crusher murmured, rubbing the place the DMR had dug into. "That's going to bruise."
"Keep shooting doc!" Carter called.
Crusher jumped and brought the DMR back to sights. She took out two more chopper pilots, but depleted the magazine unknowingly.
She was aiming at a pilot whose head was incredibly exposed and pulled the trigger. The DMR clicked in response. Crusher looked at the gun curiously.
"It won't shoot!" she complained to Carter. She turned to see Carter with his hand out, another magazine in his hand. "Press the button next to the trigger to release the first cartridge. Then put in the second cartridge and pull back the bolt."
Crusher took the magazine, and followed his orders, albeit slowly and confused. She was satisfied when the electronic display read "15" in bright letters. She leveled the rifle to fire again. She lowered it when she realized there were no more choppers around to shoot at. She placed the weapon on her lap and sat in the seat.
"Do you need this anymore?"
Carter shook his head. "I probably won't be able to use again for a few days."
Crusher looked forward and saw three Pelicans fly over and touch down some hundred yards ahead. Seconds later a green explosion rocked two and sent them veering, a third shot nearly missing the last Pelican.
"We've got banshees!" Carter shouted. Crusher raised her DMR to the craft as five banshees flew over the convoy. Carter pushed it down.
"That won't do much good. Here, have this." Carter reached behind the front seats and felt around for something. Finally he revealed a large, shoulder mounted weapon with two tubes and labeled SPNKR.
Crusher blinked at the weapon. "You want me to do what?"
"Look through the sight and lock on to the banshees. Fire when it starts beeping."
Crusher tentatively took her new weapon. She could hardly lift the clunky object, and struggled to put in on her shoulder. She did as Carter instructed and pulled the trigger.
The rocket zoomed out, almost pushing Crusher out of her seat. She watched as the rocket followed the purple craft and hit it dead on. The banshee was destroyed in a purple and white explosion as parts rained down. A parts of a Borg drone could also be seen.
The Pelicans damaged had righted themselves and had opened fire on the banshees. They succeeded in destroying one, but not before being damaged more.
"Strike Bravo, we won't last in this fight much longer. Take out those banshees for us!" The lead Pelican operator reported,
Crusher saw Carter look at Emile. Emile turned the turret around and opened fire on a skyward banshee. Several shots later it exploded.
Crusher found another banshee. She locked on and fired. The rocket boomed out of the tube for a second time, again following the banshee. Milliseconds before the rocket impacted, the banshee did a loop-de-loop and evaded the rocket. Seconds later, it was destroyed by Worf's LAAG.
Crusher looked through the sight at her third banshee. She noticed the symbols of two rockets glowing red simultaneously. She assumed they had been spent.
She turned and saw Carter again handing her two more rockets without taking his eye off the road. She took the rockets and replaced them from the used container.
She took aim again and totaled another banshee. There was one left. Crusher took aim for what she believed the last time and fired the rocket. The banshee evaded the rocket by turning a tight corner. The rocket kept flying into the horizon.
The banshee pilot was smart in evading its fire. Crusher heard Carter groan.
"Doctor, take the wheel!" He called.
Crusher replaced Carter's position as he jumped out of the speeding warthog.
He stood in the open, attempting to gain the banshee's attention. The banshee noticed Carter and dove to ram him. Crusher looked on in horror as the banshee flew closer and closer to Carter.
At the last second, Carter's shields glowed white. He kneeled and pounded his fist to the dirt in front of him. The banshee collided with the armor-locked SPARTAN and broke into a dozen pieces. Carter broke the lock and dusted his hands, surveying his work.
"Let's get the hell out of here." Carter said when Crusher drove to pick him up.
The Pelicans wobbly touched down, and the convoy boarded their transports as the Pelicans strapped their warthogs in.
Lieutenant Commander Shelby was called to the bridge. She nervously stepped into the turbolift and instructed it to take her to her destination. The lift beeped and hummed its way to the bridge, completely unaware of Shelby's discomfort.
The doors slid open. She marched out of the lift and stood to attention at the bridge. "Lieutenant Commander Shelby, reporting for duty, sir."
Worf was the first to address her. "The captain will meet you in his ready room."
Shelby blushed, ashamed of presenting herself to the captain when the captain was not present. She nodded and walked down the ramp. She pressed the doorbell button and entered when Picard called.
"Commander, I'd like you to meet Captain Jacob Keyes. He is commander of the ground forces planet-side."
The aged man stood and shook Shelby's hand. "Pleasure to meet you, Commander."
Shelby nodded and reciprocated the greeting. She sat down.
Picard began: "The captain is present because you are the foremost expert on the Borg on this ship. He would like to discuss strategy with you."
"I would be happy to, Captain."
Picard nodded. "Will you beam down with the Captain and discuss the strategies with his commanders?"
Shelby nodded. "I will Captain."
"Good. You will beam down at once, then."
Shelby, Keyes, and Picard all walked out of the ready room. Shelby and Keyes were almost to the turbolift when, after Picard sat in his chair, one of Worf's consoles started beeping. After rapid typing, Worf reported his findings:
"Captain, I have detected a massive Borg supercube entering the system from a vector of 285x346."
Picard turned around. "How are there Borg in this reality? Borg are native to our reality and were only transported with us when we came here."
"I do not know Captain, but the scanners are reading the cube to be fifty square kilometers."
Shelby had to grab the wall, she almost fell over. "Fifty square kilometers…?" She gasped. "That's the largest on record!"
Picard was quick to react. "Captain Keyes and Commander Shelby, get to the transporter room! Worf, take us into geosynchronous orbit and continue scans of that supercube."
"Aye Captain." Worf agreed.
Shelby and Keyes ran into the turbolift. They sprinted down the hall and shouted at O'Brien to beam them down.
When they beamed down, the military staff down there was in a rush of panic, confusion, and people. Keyes shouted to gain control.
"Send our ships to aid the Enterprise, but keep them in range of Super MAC assistance! Everyone get to orbital bombardment stations, and call off all attacks and tell them to hold the line! Await further orders!"
Shelby took this opportunity to tell Captain Picard. She tapped her combadge. "Shelby to Picard."
"Yes commander?" Picard replied.
"Captain Keyes is sending his ships to assist, but he's simultaneously ordering his soldiers to hold the line."
"Keyes is a defensive strategist. Tell him I appreciate his assistance."
"Yes, sir."
Picard cut the line as the Enterprise flew into space. Shelby looked up and saw a dozen UNSC ships follow.
Keyes called for one of his officers. "Sergeant Johnson, you're in command while I'm gone."
Johnson saluted. "You can count on me, sir."
Shelby tapped Keyes on the shoulder. "Where are you going, sir?"
Keyes smiled. "You and I are going to fight the battle overhead. Since you're our strategist against the Borg, you'll be flying with me on the Pillar of Autumn."
Shelby's eyes widened. "What? When?"
Keyes consulted his wristwatch. "In about four minutes. Follow me, or they'll leave with us." Keyes started off toward to what Shelby guessed was transport.
"Why would a ship leave without her Captain?" She asked, catching up to Keyes.
"It's happened before. The captain could not be located when the ship was needed in a fight. It took off and the first officer was promoted to acting Captain."
As Keyes was explaining, the transport took off and slowly turned to leave, leaving the cargo hatch open. Keyes waved at the pilot and the transport slowed more; it was already five feet out of the hangar.
Keyes ran harder and jumped across the air and landed feet first in the transport, having some soldiers catch him. Shelby sped to a sprint and followed suit, severely overshooting. Shelby was in much better shape than Keyes, and toppled a marine with his arms out for her. She apologized as she got off of him, having been knocked unconscious.
The Pelican touched down in the Pillar of Autumn's hangar. Keyes and Shelby jumped out and jogged/ran to the bridge. Servicemen and women jumped out of their way.
"Status?" Keyes demanded as they entered the bridge.
"All ships are parallel with the super MAC's, awaiting us and orders."
Keyes nodded. "Fire only if fired upon."
The officer acknowledged and passed the order. Keyes turned to Shelby.
"What should we do?"
"Captain Keyes, we have had two separate engagements against the Borg. We hardly know anything about them."
"Is there enough to make a tactical evaluation?"
Shelby shook her head. Keyes frowned.
"What is the status of the Enterprise?" He asked,
"The Enterprise is staying in geosynchronous orbit, prepared to assist if necessary." An officer replied.
"Captain, we're being hailed." Another reported.
Shelby and Keyes exchanged looks. "Put it onscreen." Keyes said.
Shelby saw Keys slightly flinch as he saw the Borg drone. "Admiral Hanson…" Keyes breathed.
"I am Talyrb of Borg." Hanson said monotone.
Keyes straightened. "What do you want?"
"We want your technology. Resistance is futile. The consciousness of the human, Hanson, has been absorbed into our Collective. We know all of your strategies and weapons. We have adapted to them already."
Keyes got the attention of his comms officer and made a slicing motion across his neck. The officer cut the screen.
"Can they do that?" Keyes asked.
"Why do you think we were running from them?" Shelby retorted.
"Do they adapt completely to our technology?"
"Yes. Something I've been meaning to try is to use large amounts of one thing and maybe overwhelm their shields."
"Sounds good enough for me. Cut the line to Hanson and get me a line to the fleet."
"Channel open, Captain."
"All ships, prepare for MAC launch and archer missile fire. Synchronize Archer launch to MAC impact. Fire on my mark."
Minutes passed before all ships acknowledged they were ready.
"Fire on my command. We have to do this all simultaneously."
Again they were ready. Keyes looked at Shelby and said one word. "Fire."
The ship rocked as the archer missiles were fired. They watched the missiles arc towards the cube. The ship violently lurched as the MAC round was fired. Shelby saw a glimpse of the other thirteen MAC shots.
The shots created explosions large enough to cover the facing side of the cube. When the explosions cleared, there were small sections of the cube were floating in space.
Keyes pumped his fist. "That oughta do some damage!"
From the Borg cube came a thin laser. It began cutting through the hull of the UNSC Durandal.
"All ships, fire another round!" Keyes ordered again. The ship lurched again as the MAC round was fired from the bow of the Autumn. The impact cut off the laser, but the Durandal was still severely damaged. The captain radioed in that he had to retreat for repairs.
The Borg ship seemed to be heavily damaged. "All right, looks like only one more round is needed! All ships fire!" The ship lurched for what Shelby wanted to believe the last time.
Just as the MAC rounds were fired, three Borg-ified Covenant ships slipped in and took the shot, destroying them. Keyes stepped back. "Where the hell have these guys been?" He asked.
"Sir! More of those guys slipping in!" A dozen Borg Covenant ships slipped in. "They're activating weapons systems!"
"Reload our MACs and return fire. If they launch seraphs, launch our longswords." The orders were given and Shelby grasped the railing as she sighed. The Borg were about to be defeated, then these bastards show up out of nowhere.
"How damaged is the Borg cube?" she asked the bridge.
"Scans show limited power flow and scattered communications. Severe damage to the hull and extensive damage inside."
She turned to Keyes. "Any chance we can get one more round into their ass?"
Keyes shrugged. "We won't get full strength, but the Autumn is able to fire three rounds consecutively."
Shelby nodded. "Good enough. Fire on my command."
Keyes gave the orders to reload the MAC but not to leave them defenseless. The there rounds were loaded and ready to fire. There was a Covenant frigate idling right in the Autumn's sights. Keyes got on the comm.
"Someone take care of that frigate near the cube!"
Almost reactionary, three red glowing spheres appeared and slammed into the frigate. Shelby smiled as phaser beams weakened the shields further.
"This is Captain Picard. Leave that one to us."
The bridge watched as the nimble and maneuverable Enterprise flew circles around the bulky frigate, exchanging fire. Enterprise was constantly feeding photon torpedoes into the frigate, while receiving rapid fire plasma bursts and the occasional plasma torpedo.
Keyes sighed as he watched. "What I wouldn't give to have the Iroquois again…"
"This is Picard. The frigate is severely weakened. Destruction imminent." Seconds later after two torpedoes and four phaser bursts the frigate disintegrated into a purple explosion.
"There's your opening, Autumn." Picard said. "See you back on the ground." The Enterprise flew back out of the battle.
"All ships, retreat to S-MAC line!" Keyes commanded. The ships reversed without changing direction, still able to fire at the Borg ships.
The Borg covvie ships followed, ceasing their fire to pursue. The Borg cube crawled forward as well.
"Well, Shelby?" Keyes asked. "Care to give the order? Sometime soon, I hope."
"The Borg don't give you very many chances, Captain. We need to fully take advantage of that chance."
Shelby waited until the Super MAC cannons were firing. "All ships, fire!" she called. The ships fired as many rounds as they could, most only two rounds, Autumn five rounds. They dug into the Borg superstructure of the cube.
The cube sat there for a minute. The humans stared in suspense as they prayed the cube would be destroyed. Chunks of the outside were floating in space. A full five minutes passed.
Finally energy readings dropped and spiked as the cube was vaporized into billions of pieces. Prior Keyes had quietly switched on the comm system to all stations. The cheers roused the spirits of the entire UNSC armed forces on Reach. The cheering was deafening on the ships.
End Ch 10
Fun chapter. Took freaking forever to get out. Sorry about that. There has just been SOOO much stiff. But I'm not using that as an excuse! My dedication to this story has been revamped! I will try my damndest to get more chapters out in a shorter amount of time! Also, review on my style of writing. I'm experimenting with a new kind in a different story I'm writing. Until Next Time!~