The cruisers split into groups of two. They went around the sides of the Covenant fleet, battering it with laser fire. Corvettes zipped around trying to avoid being hit and return fire at the same time. Two Supercarriers turned to face a carrier. Dozens of Plasma Torpedoes were launched. The Cruisers shield's shrugged them off and hit back with laser fire. A CPV-class Heavy Destroyer flanked by two RPV-class light destroyers moved in on one of the Cruisers. Several Battlecruisers flew around the Forerunner cruiser, drawing it's fire. Seraphs zipped back and forth dogfighting with Despairs. The Destroyers fired their Energy Projectors, along with all their Plasma Torpedoes. Jul sat in the Captain's chair. He looked down at the console and saw a 3D image of the battle. He saw Corvettes skirmishing with Picket cruisers and Battlecruisers trying to hold off a Dreadnought, with little success. The Energy Projectors fired. The beams connected with the Fortress-class for a solid minute. The Fortress-class ship turned to the left and fired at one of the Supercarriers. The beams of energy flew too fast for evasive actions. The Supercarrier was destroyed. "New Heading," Jul zoomed in on one of the Dreadnoughts circling around his fleet, then a Superdestroyer at full thrust towards the Fortress-class. "Two, zero, nine. Engage that Dreadnought, have the Superdestroyer move back to assist us." The Supercarrier turned sharply and fired at the Dreadnought, which just destroyed two Battlecruisers. A Heavy Destroyer moved close to it firing Plasma Torpedoes while the Frigate Unflinching Resolve engaged along with two other Reverance-class cruisers. The Dreadnought fired at the Cruisers, destroying one. The Exuberant Death fired several Plasma Torpedoes just as the Superdestroyer fired the majority of her Energy Projectors. Two more Frigates began bombarding the Dreadnought with Plasma Torpedoes. The Heavy Destroyer also began firing it's Energy Projector. The remaining Reverance-class cruiser began to fire its Energy Projector but was blasted to bits by the Dreadnought. Plasma torpedoes were launched out from the Supercarrier, while it grazed over the Dreadnought with its Energy Projectors. Several Corvettes flew around the Dreadnought drawing it's fire. The Superdestroyer came around the back of the Dreadnought, and fired again, this time hitting the engines. It died, then there was a huge explosion which caught a group of Phantoms, destroying them. The group of ships all turned to Starboard ready to face the last Dreadnought when three Fast Frigates appeared. They zipped through the formation, destroying four Corvettes before flying away and concentrating on a Battlecriser attacking the Fortress-class. Dozens more Picket cruisers exited Slipspace, along with even more Harrier-class escort, and a Gargantua-class transport.
Dozens of Picket cruisers and Fast frigates were zooming into the Covenant fleet. Corvettes tried to slow them down, but to little effect. Battlecruiser, light destroyers, and Assault Carriers engaged them. The Shadow of Intent was badly damaged, escorted by an SDV-class Heavy Corvette, the Ardent Prayer. The two descended slowly to the surface of the Halo ring. They were attacked by squadrons of Despair fighters when they moved in, but Seraphs managed to hold them off. The Assault Carrier loomed over the landscape, when they picked up a distress beacon from Thel 'Vadamee.
There were dozens of Gazebos and tents set up, all surrounded by an Energy barrier that was at least twenty feet tall. The space they occupied was four square kilometers. Hundreds of Ghosts, Revenants, and Spectres. Dozens of Shadows parked in the middle along with three T-47 Ultra Heavy Assault Platforms. One of the Older V1s and two of the newer V2s. The V2s were considerably smaller, but nonetheless a menacing sight. Shepard entered a Gazebo, one of the largest in the center, and found a table projecting a holographic image of the base camp and of an Elite in what looked like regular clothing. EDI, Joker, Thel, and several Elite Majors stood around the table listening to EDI and the Hologram speak. "With the limited amount of soldiers, the best advisable course of action would be to hunker down and hold out until air support can arrive." The Hologram highlighted several points that would need extra defense.
"Or we could draw the native constructs of this world into a fight with this infection, they appear to consider the, Flood, as a higher threat than us." EDI pointed at several choke points. "We could use scout crafts to lure both the drones and the Flood in here, let them fight it out, then bombard it with mortars to finish off the survivors."
The Elites turned to look at Shepard. His N7 armor was covered in dust, and he carried a dented Plasma Repeater. Miranda followed him in, her Omni-tool scanning one of the Plasma pistols she was given. "Liara and Joker are in another tent, the Elites are operating on Garrus, but they're not sure if he'll survive."
Shepard sat down. He was tired, and thirsty. In just a few hours, he had gone from leading a massive expedition force. to being stranded on an Alien construct in the middle of nowhere with allies that just happened to have the same enemy as him, not to mention the enemy was near invincible. And to top it all off, they had let loose a crazy infection that consumed anything sentient in its path and turned it into a warrior, that would then fight on to consume more. He closed his eyes and dozed off.
There was an explosion. Two Elite minors ran to the edge of the Gazebo and fired up. One of them was blasted into the ground by a yellow beam of energy. Miranda shook Shepard. "We need to go now." She was holding a Carbine in her hands. She exited the Gazebo, her gun pointed to the sky. Shepard followed behind her. There were dozens of Banshees in the sky. A group of Aggressor sentinels was also there, firing at the Banshees. But at the same time, both groups were firing at small, grotesque looking creatures in the distance. Flood. All of the Watchtowers were full of Jackal snipers firing at the Flood. Grunts were setting up Plasma mortars. The two approached another Gazebo stocked with all sorts of weapons. Thel was with Liara, Joker and Edi. Joker held a Plasma rifle in his hand, Liara a Needler, and EDI a T-50 concussion rifle. Elites were forming Grunts into ranks and Yan'me were perched on top of vehicles, tents and Gazebos. "Shepard, you've finally awoken." Thel looked rather calm. "We need the entire base on high alert. We've lost contact with a scout group, but as you can see there are flood forms about a Kilometer out."
"We can't really launch an attack, but at the same time, we can't hole up here." Shepard looked around at the measly base. "Why don't we just get a cruiser to come in and pick us up, then bombard this place from the sky?"
"That would risk whatever ship comes to our rescue bringing the infection out into space." EDI said.
The Sentinels' numbers were decreasing rapidly. It seemed as though the Flood had now learned how to use weapons, and with great effect. The last sentinel fell. Volleys of needle like projectile fell on the Base camp. Though most had taken cover, a few Yan'me and Grunts were hit, and the Lekgolo shrugged the needles off as the bounced harmlessly off their armor, and began smashing the infected soldiers. Plasma mortars fired. The sound was deafening. Thousands of Flood were literally flooding down the mountain side towards the Base camp. The Plasma Mortars caused only small gaps in the Flood ranks, which were quickly filled in by pure forms. They neared the Base camp, five hundred meters. Just then, the Thrumm of a Repulsor engine filled the Valley, and the Shadow of a large Bulbous ship accompanied by a smaller, sleek looking craft covered the area. The ground was bombarded by Plasma and lasers. Banshees crashed to the floor as Flood shot them down, but the two Covenant ships were ripping through the Flood. In about fifteen minutes, nothing was left but scorched ground and dead bodies. The Assault Carrier Shadow of Intent was above the camp. It was badly damaged though. The other ship was more than 4,000 meters smaller, but it was still huge.
"We should leave now. I can get a Supercarrier down here to pick us all up and we can leave this place." Rtas was on the bridge of the Assault carrier.
"And leave the infection to thrive?" Thel asked. "No, we must eradicate it."
"Ground combat is not the way, we should use the Slipspace drive of the Intent to slam into a section of the ring."
"What would that do?" Joker asked.
"If we could knock a piece of the ring in the right direction, it could crash into another piece of the ring, then causing the ring to collapse." EDI said.
"We should do it." Shepard said. "Fighting these things on foot is a Death warrant and we don't have enough firepower to kill everything on this installation and not be blasted to bits by the Forerunners in the process."
"What about the Flood?" Liara asked. "We should take a small specimen, for research purposes. Maybe I can find a cure for it with a little time."
"No." Thel and Rtas said simultaneously. Thel continued. "If the legends are true, then taking even a single spore would be a grave mistake."
"You saw how they learned to fire weapons," Miranda chimed in. "If we're going to do something, we better do it quick before they learn to fly."
There was a loud explosion followed by the sputtering of an impulse drive before a crash and another explosion. The sound of Banshees overhead was heard briefly, but was overtaken by that of Plasma fire and more impulse drives.
The battle had taken place without the knowledge of the Sangheili council. A battlegroup of Turian cruisers, along with a Quarian dreadnought engaged an unsuspecting Forerunner Dreadnought. It was a short battle. Most of the Battlegroup was decimated, but two Cruisers narrowly escaped. Within a few hours of that, a Covenant patrol fleet made up of several Corvettes, several CRS cruisers, and a CCS Battlecruiser approached the Gas Giant Veltman, where they were refused refueling and were even threatened with violence. The Council Members were arguing back and forth about what they should do upon hearing news of the Forerunner attack on Mars, and the Covenant movement to the Iota Horologii system.
"We should send the new ships the Covenant prepared for us to Mars," David Anderson said. "It's not like we can turn around the first Battlegroup they prepared, now."
"They moved OUR ships without our consent!" Irissa yelled. "We should attack them now. They can't be trusted."
Esheel shifted in her seat. "I agree with Irissa to an extent, though, we do not need another enemy."
Quentius said nothing for a while then spoke up. "Perhaps we should amass our fleets and have small distractions so that the Covenant can take out the real tragets."
"And what would these targets be?" asked Irissa.
"We could go after their planets, small patrol fleets, refueling stations." David said.
"We'd need to know where these targets are first. All of our reconassaince vessels have been destroyed." said Esheel. "This campaign bears no fruit. If the tide of this war doesn't turn soon, then the Salarians will pull out."
"It's hardly been two days and you've already come to the conclusion that we can't win?" David looked somewhat angry.
"Around 200 of your ships were decimated by just fifty of those Forerunner ships." Irissa said. "I agree with Esheel, if these new technologies the Covenant gave us can't give us an upper-hand in future battles, then we will also have to pull out of the war."
David turned to Quentius. Quentius looked as if he was mulling over something, then he spoke. "The Turians can only stand by humanity for so long. This war was because of your mistakes. It would be a shame if Humanity were to fall as a consequence of this war, but I have no wish to see my civilization fall along side it when we have no qualms whatsoever with your enemy.
Ripa yelled out of anger. He had put a massive fleet at the Citadel to protect, and he was the fleetmaster. He had just received a transmission from scouts around 12 AU away of a Forerunner Expeditionary fleet heading in a direction towards the Citadel. Right after that, all communications with the scouts was lost. After going through all the information he could find on Citadel and Covenant deployments and missions in the last forty-eight hours, his face became visibly irate. A minor approached him and kneeled asking what course of action they should take, only to be slapped out of the way by Ripa's heavy hand. He turned to the navigations officer. "Dock us with the Citadel, prepare a team of Honor guards and Stealth soldiers."
The Corvette wasn't anything menacing. Not even a kilometer long. But it had some of the best technology around. It was a gift from the San 'Shyuum, and it incorporated everything from every known civilization. From Forerunner to Kig-Yar. It was possibly the most advanced Ship ever, and was certainly faster than anything else. It docked in with the Citadel. Ripa 'Moramee exited, flanked by four Honor Guards on both side, each Honor Guard stood just over 275 centimeters. Ripa was clearly angry, his combat suit made loud thuds with each step. The Honor Guards followed him, and the Stealth squads lurked in the shadows behind them. He knew clearly what he was going to do, he was going to force the council at gunpoint to adhere to his orders and strategy, or he'd recall his fleet and let the Forerunners turn this Space Station to dust particles. The doors to the Council Chamber were locked. It only took a few seconds for the Honor guards to blow them down. Several Turian, Human, Asari, and Salarian guards all turned to face the doorway. The Honor Guards marched in, and through the use of their cloaks, the Stealth team snuck in. Ripa held a Needler in one hand, and had his Energy sword in it's holster. He pointed the Needler at David Anderson. "We save your fleet from imminent destruction, and offer you aid against an enemy you have no chance of defeating on your own, and you repay us by refusing to refuel my fleets, causing ships to be stranded in deep space, then you launch an attack without my knowledge and you lead the enemy back to this very place we're trying to protect!" Two of the Human soldiers approached Ripa and attempted to Subdue him, but he shrugged them off like mosquitoes. "If you want any of your races to survive, you will all listen to my orders. You four have proven unfit to effectively lead an army against a superior enemy." When he finished the sentence, his Comms flared with the sound of frantic bellowing, ship alarms going off, and requests for aid.
The signal cleared and one of the Elite's voices were heard clearly. "They're here."