Chapter 53

Back to the Wall

Author's Note: The Battles of Altena and Haven are intensifying, soon they will reach their peak. These battles will end in a couple of chapters...let's just say I have something planned and you will finally see what this Divine Thunder is. I hope that you enjoy it. By the way, just because the battles will be ending soon, doesn't mean we'll be having another time skip just yet.

"Fire MACs!" Elizabeth Hall shouted as she sat on the bridge of the Midway, which was part of a battle group of fourteen other UNSC warships that was desperately attempting to prevent any more Coalition warships from breaking through the hole in the orbital defenses. Two MAC rounds flew from the Midway, one blowing a hole right through a Geth frigate, and the other a Batarian.

"Damn it," Hall whispered, whipping the sweat off of her forehead. While the RSN had lost their super-carrier, the Jiralhanae still had one of theirs and for the entire battle it had been obliterating any ship that came into range of it's weapons. The Alliance fleet was taking heavy losses from it and from the other Coalition ships. Things were looking bad and there were no reinforcements available. All nearby UNSC ships had been pulled for the mission that had never happened, they were on their one.

"Elizabeth!" Sarah shouted, fear emanating from her voice. "The Empire super-carrier is making it's way to our location, closing fast!"

"Distance?"

"Half a minute at the very most. MAC rounds and Archers are loaded."

"Relay this command to all other ships, concentrate all fire on the super-carrier, ignore all other ships. Fire!"

As Hall bellowed her orders, the super-carrier unleashed a salvo of plasma torpedos and pulse lasers upon the battle-group. Four of the UNSC ships were instantly destroyed by the bombardment, their shields and armor completely overwhelmed. Three other vessels took massive damage, the plasma tearing away at their shields and melting the outer hull of the front of them. The power loss that those ships suffered effectively made them dead in the water, of no help to UNSC in the battle.

The ships that had been spared from the onslaught fired their MACs and Archers at the oncoming behemoth. While the MACs impacted on the carrier's shields, a wave of pulse lasers rose to meet the missiles. Countless missiles detonated prematurely, causing no harm to the carrier. Little less than half of the missiles made it through the point defenses and even then they caused minimal harm to the warship.

Hall grit her teeth as she looked at the display of the carrier on the viewscreen. Despite the MAC rounds and missiles, it's shields still seemed. "Sarah, status," Hall demanded, glancing at the A.I.

"The Jiralhanae ship's shields are holding at 61%" the Empress replied.

Hall slammed her fist into her armrest in frustration. How the Hell were they supposed to take that thing down without a Super MAC? Then an idea struck Hall. "Sarah are there any nukes left on board?"

Sarah hesitated before replying. "Three, but I doubt that even they would be able to punch through the carrier's shields, even if by some miracle they got past it's pulse lasers."

"Sarah, do you remember that little strategy I told you about couple of days ago?"

Sarah blinked. "Admiral I told you that while impressive the odds of you successfully performing such a feat is 8% at the very most." Hall snarled at Sarah but before she could reply the Midway rocked violently.

The super-carrier had fired another salvo at the surviving UNSC ships, clearly intent on ending the battle. A handful of torpedos hit the disabled ships, completely obliterating them. The rest of the projectiles hit the surviving ships, destroying another four. The remaining torpedos hit the surviving three ships, the Midway a Halcyon-class cruiser and a destroyer, and while the cruiser and the destroy's shields faltered, they still held. The Midway, however, had had more torpedos aimed at it, and was not so lucky.

The Marathon-class cruiser was heavily bombarded by the plasma torpedos, easily peeling the thick armor away. The hull of the bow was completely burnt away as were the sections behind it, revealing the bare skeleton of the ship. Dozens of crew members were sucked onto the vacuum of space before emergency shield generators activated, saving the rest of the ship. Massive chunks of the ship floated away, including parts of the MAC guns, leaving the Midway several hundred meters shorter.

Hall grit her teeth as the ship rocked violently. "Massive damage damage to the MAC guns, both are offline," Sarah reported. "Engineering is reporting a massive loss in power, we're at 32% battle capacity. The slipspace drive is offline"

Hall opened her mouth to give orders, but before she could one last torpedo hit the Midway. It hit the bridge directly. There was a massive explosion as the bridge rocked violently, and the very front of it was blown off, sending a wave of shrapnel into the room. There were cries of agony as the shrapnel buried themselves in the bodies of the bridge crew, killing them almost instantly. An emergency shield activated in front of the gaping hole in the front of the ship, pressurizing the bridge.

"Elizabeth, we are in no condition to fight," Sarah said as she turned to face Hall. "I suggest that we make an emergency retreat and attempt to-ELIZABETH!" Sarah shrieked as she looked at Hall. The Admiral's breaths were coming in short desperate gasps as she clutched her left arm, a dozen jagged pieces of metal sticking out of it. It was not just her arm, the explosion had blown shrapnel into her stomach, chest and one piece had even landed in her right eye, which had completely burst open. She was bleeding badly and would die within minutes if not given proper medical attention.

"Medical team to the bridge," Sarah said hastily into the COM lines. "Prepare for emergency landing."

"Cancel that," Hall rasped as she desperately attempted to maintain conciseness.

"Admiral you don't understand, we don't stand a chance of destroying that thing, we need to retreat!" Sarah snapped.

"Where to? Nowhere's safe with that carrier here." Sarah tried to think of a retort, but for the first time she was unable to counter Hall's argument. "Contact the remaining ships, tell them the plan. You know what to do."

XXXXX

Taylor felt his stomach clench as Sukron stared at him and Tali, a malicious gleam in his eye. 'How...how the Hell is he still alive?" he wondered, feeling his hands clench around his rifle 'Reconstructive surgery?' His line of thought was broken when Sukron fired three grenades at them, forcing both Taylor and Tali to duck behind the sandbags.

"Oh the Spirits must be smiling upon me, both of you are here?" Sukron said, a crooked smile spreading across his face. "Fortunately for you though I am not interested in you two at the moment, I am just here for Rael."

"Fuck off!" Tali shouted, leaning over the sandbags and firing a blast at Sukron, her pellets doing little more than taking the edge off of his shields.

"It would appear that you are rather protective of him," the Supreme Commander commented, firing three more grenades and forcing Tali back into cover. Sliding a fresh belt into his launcher, Sukron took cover behind a burning Wraith. "I cannot help but wonder if you would feel the same way about him if you knew the truth about him," he continued, poking his head around the tank. While he did he saw that his Metal Fist operatives were striking the spaceport perimeter from all sides, with the defenders desperately attempting to repel the surprise attack. He smiled, all of the other UNSC forces were too busy with their own fights to interfere with his.

"The Hell are you talking about!" Taylor shouted, firing three shots at Sukron, forcing him back into cover.

"So he still does not know," Sukron muttered, smiling with glee. "Tell me Zorah, did your father ever tell you what he was doing while I was burying my knife in your chest? Did you ever wonder what he was doing while my scorcher burned away your skin. Did you even know where he was while you were screaming in agony?"

"Shut up!" Taylor shouted, throwing a plasma grenade around the corner of the tank, the explosion weakening Sukron's shields slightly.

"What is he talking about?" Tali said, staring as he father as they both crouched behind the sandbags.

"Do not ask him, he is still unaware of his own blunder," Sukron scorned.

"What blunder?" Rael muttered.

"Rael you fool," the Jiralhanae taunted, glee filling his voice. "I am well aware that President Richards authorized the reconstruction of Geth that you captured to study them, with you heading the research team." Sukron fired two grenades at the sandbags, ducking back into cover to avoid three shots from Taylor and a blast from Tali. "But tell me, exactly how careful were you?"

"Father, what is he talking about?" Tali repeated, starring at her father with a sinking feeling in her stomach. She had a bad feeling that whatever Sukron was talking about had to do with her father committing some unspeakable act.

"Very interesting," the cyborg sneered, "it is very dangerous to take the Geth lightly, I would thought that your kind of all people would have learned that lesson. Your population is at 34 million correct?" Sukron poked his head out and quickly withdrew it, narrowly avoiding a Warp.

"I'm getting tired of your bullshit," Taylor growled, his heart hammering.

"Ah, but you have not even heard the point of all of this," Sukron replied, his grin threatening to split his face. "Tell me Rael, did you monitor the Geth you activated closely? Did you make sure that they did not record everything that they heard? Did you take steps to prevent them from sending out a transmission to the rest of the Geth, telling the Coalition exactly where to find this planet? I know for a fact that all three of these are false."

Tali's head snapped to look at her father, a horrorstruck look on her face. For a second, she merely stared at him. "Tell me he's lying."

"What?" Rael blinked, looking at his daughter.

"Tell me that he's lying, tell me that you didn't give the Coalition the location of Haven," Tali said, her voice choking slightly.

"I really should be thanking you Rael, without the help you gave us we would not have found this planet for months or even years." Sukron fired the four grenades still in his launcher at the sandbags, leaning back into cover and reloading his weapon.

"Father," Tali choked, looking desperately at her father. "Please tell me it's a lie." Rael gapped at his daughter, at a loss for words and completely overwhelmed by the situation."

"Oh the dark, dark truth," Sukron mocked. "Your own father's blunder is the reason this planet is being invaded, that so manny people are dying at our hands." He let out a bark of laughter.

Tali gapped at her father, Sukron's words resonating in her mind. "Y-you did this?" she whispered.

Taylor felt his jaw drop. He had not exactly formed a high opinion of Rael from how Tali had described him, but he had thought that Quarian was merely aloof. He had never thought that he would do anything like this, intentional or not.

"Oh look," Sukron said, staring upwards. "It would appear that they received my orders.

'The Hell is he talking about?' Taylor wondered. He received an answer when a deafening roar tore through the landscape, accompanied by a shockwave that actually caused nearby trees to bend under it's force. A massive heat wave followed the shockwave, making Taylor feel like he had walked into a sauna. Craning his neck to look at the source of the heat wave, Taylor felt his eyes widen in horror.

The Empire ships had descended and were hovering over New London. One of them had fired it's energy projector. The blast had landed directly in the center of the city, buildings within miles sagging to the ground as the slowly melted, the soil already crystalizing into a glass like appearance. As Taylor looked on, he saw that more ships were descending in the distance, bombarding other cities while the other ships over New London fired their own energy projectors. New London was lost, there was nothing the UNSC could do to save it now and who knew how many other cities were also doomed.

XXXXX

"There it is," Tritus muttered. He, Rason, Xeron and Lotan were watching the Vimeirus City main power plant from behind a heavy truck. The Alliance had formed a perimeter around it, infantry and light vehicles passed by every minute on patrols. "No doubt they have a large force inside."

"How are we supposed to get past them all?" Lotan asked, looking nervous as he clenched his spiker.

Instead of directly answering, Tritus lifted his hand to his COM unit. "This is the Emperor speaking, all forces within range of the Vimeirus City power planet respond."

"Emperor," the voice of a Jiralhanae Commander replied. "My legion is within range of the plant as is a limited amount of heavy armor support. What are our orders?"

"Commander you are to attack the Alliance forces guarding the plant, but check your fire. The plant must be recaptured and therefore not harmed. Also Commander we have biotic specialists approaching the plant from all locations, they have orders to assist you."

"Emperor, what will you do?"

"I will lead a small team into the plant and re-activate it. With your attack they will most likely leave only a handful of guards, only a fool would leave it unguarded." As he spoke, a scowl spread across Tritus' face, recalling the report that he had read on Feros. 'I knew that the conscripts were poorly trained, but I thought that even they had enough common sense to leave a handful of sentries to defend their artillery.' "Start your attack now."

"Very well Emperor," the voice said. As he spoke, three plasma mortars flew through the air, smashing into the perimeter defenses, sending five Humans and four Sangheili flying. A massive volley of fire flew from the Empire warriors that had emerged from in-between the buildings, killing dozens of Alliance soldiers. Immediately they returned fire, a tank even firing a shell and destroying one of the Jiralhanae's tanks.

"Now is our chance," Tritus whispered. "Go, go, go." He and the other Jiralhanae scurried forward, their weapons tightly clutched in their hands. Within a matter minutes that had reached the plant, sliding behind a set of crates as a squad of Humans run past, heading to where the main force was attacking.

"Stay behind me Lotan," Tritus whispered. "Let me and the others do the heavy lifting. Defend yourself if you must but stay alive." Lotan nodded as he raised his spiker, which was shaking slightly. 'He is frightened,' Tritus noticed 'but he is trying to hide it...interesting.' "Xeron," he said, turning to face the biotic. Xeron nodded as he reached into his cloak and withdrew a syringe filled with Serum 43.

"Time to see the fruits of your labor Rason," Xeron muttered as he slid the needle into his neck before pressing down on the plunger. He let out a hiss as his muscles tensed, dropping the syringe without a second thought. Xeron's bright purple aura flared up around them, much thicker than it normally was. Rather slowly it began to darken, until it was pitch black, seeming rather unnatural and sinister. "How do you feel?" Rason asked.

"How do you think you miserable old skeleton?" Xeron hissed. "I am in agony."

Lotan looked rather confused as he glanced at Tritus. "Why is he-"

"It is a long story," Tritus interrupted, "I will explain later." Tritus gestured for the others to follow him. The got to their feat, only to nearly be knocked to the ground. A massive explosion tore through the sky, accompanied by a wave of heat and force that was comparable to punched in the stomach.

Lotan, his ears ringing from the explosion and feeling slightly deaf, turned to face the origin of the explosion. He felt his jaw drop as his hand loosened on his spiker, which clattered on the ground as it fell from his hands. "Oh Spirits," he whispered. As he gazed off at the horizon, he saw something rising upwards towards the sky, a rather ugly shape that defaced the sprawling landscape of Altena. It was a mushroom cloud.

"Spirits," Lotan repeated. "How could they-why did-Spirits." The engineer felt his stomach drop, he simply could not register what was happening. "They can not have-why would they-what do they stand it gain?" he whispered, feeling panic spreading throughout his body.

As the others saw the explosion, their tightened their fists in anger, Tritus going to far as to bare his teeth. 'I knew this war would be costly,' he thought, 'but that they resorted to using nuclear weapons so quickly, and on targets so heavily populated, I expected more from them. What you see in these savages Marton I will never know.' The voice of reason in Tritus tried to put this in perspective. After all the Empire themselves had used WMDs against the Alliance, and it would only make sense for them to return the favor. These words of logic did nothing to calm the rage that was now building up inside of Tritus though.

"Lotan," he growled, glaring at the distressed Jiralhanae. "If I know the UNSC like I think I do, they were be deployed more nuclear missiles against us. If we do not stop them millions will perish, so I will ask you one last time, can I rely on you? If you doubt yourself, this is your last time to back out." Lotan stared at Tritus for a few seconds before bending down to pick up his spiker. "Follow me," the Emperor muttered, making his way towards one of the entrances to the plant.

'You were too harsh on him,' Tritus thought to himself. 'He had every reason to panic, a true leader does not take out his frustration on his followers...after this is over I will apologize, if we succeed that is.'

Author's Note: Yeah Rael'Zorah screwed up big time. I basically took his mess up in the Migrant Fleet and multiplied it by a hundred thousand, in terms of bodies that is. WMDs are being deployed across both Haven and Altena, with Haven being glassed, Altena being nuked, and Admiral Hall is in critical condition. Yes, these battles are coming close to their climax.

Sorry that this is a little short and that it took so long, but I have a lot of things going on and I just couldn't find a way to make this chapter longer, ah well it's not like a couple hundred words makes or breaks a chapter.

Also before you go flying off the hook saying that the Haven and Altena battle scenes in here were carbon copies of each other, with the WMDs and all, and that I'm creatively bankrupt, THAT'S THE POINT! I'm trying to set up a Not So Different scenario here. Also I will be taking breaks to revise this story, finally I'm cleaning this mess up.