Chapter 54

Hail Mary

Author's Note: I'm trying to get this chapter up as fast as possible, mainly because I think I finally have the rest of this story planned out. A couple dozen more chapters before I end this I think.

On board the Calculated Strike, the flagship of the Supreme Commander Ultimas and the only remaining Empire super-carrier in orbit above Haven, the Fleetmaster acting as second officer sat in the gravity chair, a stoney look on his face. "What is the status of the hostile ships?" he asked.

"The destroyer's and the cruiser's shields are still holding, but the flagship has sustained massive damage to it's weapons, engines and bridge. A single torpedo would be enough to finish it off," one of the navigators reported.

"As soon as our weapons recharge fire again and wipe them out, then deploy our main invasion force."

"Sir, the surviving Human vessels have fired another volley of missiles at us, several hundred are heading in our direction."

"Fire pulse lasers, I want you to stop as many as you can."

"Understood," the navigator said as he rapidly typed into the console in front of him. As the missiles sped through the vast emptiness of space, the turrets on the front of the Strike rotated to face them and opened fire, sending concentrated bursts of lasers at the missiles. As the hoard closed on the supercarrier, the lasers hit the warheads of dozens of the deadly projectiles. One laser destroyed a missile and exposed the one that was directly behind it. Almost instantly another missile maneuvered in front of the one that had just been exposed, just in time to intercept another pulse laser, taking the shot.

The navigator's eyebrow raised as he watched this spectacle. That had been extremely unusual, why would the missiles bother to maneuver like that? His thoughts quickly vanished as he continued to enter commands into his terminal, making sure that the pulse lasers continued to fire. The pulse lasers were quick, numerous and above all accurate, even as the missiles closed on the ship only a quarter of them were still intact.

As another laser detonated one of the Archers, another one moved to take it's place, directly in front of another missile. The navigator frowned again as he noted the strangeness of the situation, unless he was mistaken the missile that was being shielded was the same one from earlier. Why would the Humans go to such lengths to sacrifice other missiles to protect one that was no different from them? 'Unless it is not a regular missile,' the navigator thought, 'but what could it be?' he wondered.

Another pulse laser fired as the distance between the warship was reduced to meters, destroying the missile that was protecting the one behind it. Instead of another one moving into position to protect it, secondary rockets activated, causing the missile's speed to double. While the other Archers impacted on the Strike's shields, the other one slipped through the hole in the shields that had been opened so that the pulse lasers could exit. The navigator gaped as the missile sped through the hole with the precision it took to thread a needle.

'Impressive,' he thought as the missile sped towards the hull, 'but rather pointless. A single missile to the outer hull will only do minimal damage.' Unconcerned he turned back to his console and began targeting the UNSC ships with plasma torpedos, which had just finished recharged, as the missile hit the ship.

There was a massive explosion that rocked the entire ship as the missile detonated, a cloud of force and fire blooming from the warhead. The explosion expanded outward rapidly until it hit the shields of the Strike that were placed all around it. With nowhere else to go, the explosion was forced back into upon itself, causing the force of it to multiply to massive levels. With it's own shields containing the explosion, the super-carrier was engulfed by the magnified flames, unable to escape the inferno. As it burst through the hull and swept through the ship, the navigator had just enough time to recognize what the missile had truly been before he was reduced to a charred skeleton in a second. The flames consumed the rest of the ship, overloading the reactors and causing them to rupture.

Back on the Midway, Sarah watched in amazement as the super-carrier was destroyed. "I don't believe it, it actually worked." She glanced to her side, "Elizabeth your plan worked...Elizabeth?" Two medics were standing next to the Admiral, desperately plugging up her wounds with biofoam while attempted to pump fresh blood into her system, but she had slumped into her chair, her eyes closed.

"She's lost conciseness," one of the medics explained, glancing at Sarah. "We're doing our best to stabilize her but there's a lot of damage and half of the medbay got blown away with the rest of the ship."

Sarah seemingly glanced off into space when in reality she was checking the status of the ship. "We're in no condition to be fighting," she muttered. "All hands," she said, her voice echoing throughout the ship. "We have sustained major structural damage and must withdraw from the battle, brace for an emergency landing."

"Are you crazy?" one of the medics shouted, "the Admiral is in critical condition, the turbulence created by reentry could be enough to kill her!"

"While I appreciate your concern for Elizabeth's health there are hundreds of crewmen and women that are still onboard this ship. We have minimal defensive capabilities and power, if a single Coalition ship gets anywhere near us then everyone on board, including Elizabeth, is as good as dead. Now unless you have anything else to say I suggest you focus on keeping her alive why I do my job."

Not turning to see the medic's reaction, Sarah stared vaguely in front of here as she took control of the ship's functions. With a turtle like speed compared to what the had been capable of doing before, the Midway began to maneuver towards Haven, thrashing as it entered the atmosphere. As the ship began descend towards the planet's surface flaps extended and emergency rockets fired in an attempt to slow the fall. 'Please Elizabeth, please don't die,' the A.I. mentally begged.

XXXXX

Xeron gritted his teeth as he blasted the door to the power plant off of it's hinges with a Warp, amplified by the combat stimulate in his system. His pitch black aura thickened around him as he used a Charge to propel himself across the room, landing on the far side. The dozen Alliance troopers that were there spun and immediately opened fire, their bullets harmless impacting in Xeron's barrier.

Snarling in disgust he sent a burst of Warps at them, catching a Salarian a Human and a Turian while the others dove for cover. They had just begun to lean out of cover to return fire when Tritus, Rason and Lotan fired on them from behind. Rason's grenades and one of Tritus' rockets exploded in between them, sending them flying, even some of Lotan's spikes buried themselves in one Asari Huntress.

"That is all of them," Tritus said as he slid another rocket into his launcher, as he and the others made their way forward. Glancing around, he saw a massive, purple metal cylinder in the middle of the room that extended from the floor to the ceiling with consoles on all sides, dwarfing all of the other machinery in the room. The main reactor.

"Xeron, other Alliance soldiers will notice the lack of communication from here, kindly clear the rest of the plant before they do so."

"Of course, it is not like you could do anything without me," Xeron growled as he blasted a door off of it's hinges before disappearing into it.

"Last chance to back out Tritus," Rason said as he looked at the reactor. "If the draw isn't enough the strain could very well cause the plant to explode. Are you certain you want to do this?"

As Rason spoke, one of the Turian bodies that coated the floor stirred slight grasping for a rocket launcher that lay a foot away. "We did not come this far just to take in the sights," Tritus replied as the Turian grasped the heavy weapon.

Rason sighed as the Turian raised the rocket launcher, aiming it at Tritus' back. "Well one way or another it certainly will be a sight to-" he was cut off as a burst of gunfire tore through the air. As the two Jiralhanae whipped around, the saw the Turian slump to the ground and drop the rocket launcher, fourteen spikes sticking out of it's back. Lotan was holding his spiker in both hands, shaking violently.

Crossing the room, Tritus put a hand of Lotan's shoulder. "Are you all right?" he asked in a concerned voice.

Lotan nodded stiffly, looking at the Turian. "I did not mean to fire so many," he whispered. "This...this weapon fires so fast."

"It is normal to feel uneasy after your first kill."

"But I killed one earlier, I did not feel this way then."

"It is easy to kill in the heat of battle, there is so much adrenaline pumping through so system and so much chaos that you most likely do not even know what you did. In a calm environment on the other hand, you see exactly what you did. After this it might be for the best that you seek professional counseling."

"That can wait," Lotan said, attempting to compose himself as he approached the main reactor, with minimal success. Reaching one of the terminals, he activated it and began to type commands into it.

"It is not considered healthy to repress these kinds of things," Tritus said as Lotan continued to type into the console.

"Millions of Jiralhanae warriors kill on a daily basis in this war, I can handle this," Lotan said stubbornly.

Tritus frowned, "Those warriors have months of mental and physical preparation before ever seeing combat, a luxury you do not have. Do not force yourself to complete tasks you are not capable of."

"I just...I do not even know who he was," Lotan admitted. "He could have been a father, if so his children will never see him again because of me. Everything that Turian ever was...I just destroyed." He lowered his head, "It is shameful that I am such a coward that I feel guilt when defending my own home."

Tritus put a comforting hand on Lotan's shoulder. "You do not have the mind set for war, and to be honest I am rather glad about that. Are you familiar with the Tribal Wars?"

Lotan nodded. "Most people call it the Ten Thousand Year War, but yes."

"I fought in it, so did Rason." Lotan's head snapped to look at Tritus. "I do not blame you for being surprised, it is not a very well known fact. Let me tell you now that the history books only convey so much. Jiralhanae were trained from birth to be utter savages, taught only to destroy their enemies. Even after contact with the Covenant this continued until the end of the Civil War, only recently have we been coming around. That is why other races hate us, because of how brutally we fought back then."

"But we have changed."

"Not all of us," Tritus remarked grimly. "Many Jiralhanae still wish to return to the ways of the Tribal Wars and cleanse the galaxy of other species. Some of these people take glee in me declaring war on the Alliance." He let out a sigh. "I will not lie to you Lotan, sometimes I lie awake at night wondering if I made the right choice."

"I thought that there was a large possibility that they would attack us if they learned of our rapid expansion."

"There was a chance, and had we opened negotiations with them we could have given them the chance to launch a crippling permeative strike against us. Still there was a chance that they would not have done that, but I am not a gambler, especially with billions of lives on the line."

"If it helps, seeing viciously and quickly they were able to match decades of preparation, it appears that you made the right choice."

Tritus gave a grim smile, "Thank you." As they spoke, a humming noise filled the room as heat began to emit from the reactor, lights all over the room flickering on.

"It is online," Lotan said as he glanced at Tritus.

Tritus nodded as he lifted his hand. "This is the Emperor to the Divine Thunder firing squad. Our test date has been pushed forward, as soon as power is restored, target and destroy the enemy fleet."

"Understood, we are starting pre-firing procedure, estimated time to firing is four minutes."

"This Divine Thunder what is it?" Lotan asked.

"Watch the heavens and you will receive you answer."

XXXXX

Jane's ears perked as she glanced in the direction of Taylor, Tali and Rael after putting a burst of bullets into the head of a Metal Fist operative. Was she hearing things or had what she had just heard been the truth? "Rael'Zorah leaked information?" she whispered. Her thoughts immediately turned back to the battle as a burst of bullets pierced the head of a Metal Fist operative five yards away from her.

"Not the time to be daydreaming Shepard!" Garrus shouted as he slid next to her behind the sandbags she was taking cover behind.

"You don't think I know that?" Jane replied as a tongue of fire flew over their cover, narrowly avoiding them. They both rose up and fired bursts each, collapsing the operative's shields and penetrating the his organs, killing him.

"How the Hell did these they sneak up on us like this?" Garrus asked as they both ducked down. "We didn't see any dropships land anywhere near here."

"You mean like those ones," Jane said, pointing upwards. Garrus looked up and emitted a string of curse works in a Turian language. Another dozen Phantoms were descending to their position, Jiralhanae in dark blue armor visible in the open hatches. The were holding rather odd looking rifles that they were holding up to eye level. "Get down!" Jane shouted. As she shouted the Jiralhanae opened fire, the rifles shooting high velocity spikes.

Several Marines were unfortunate enough to be caught out into the open and were brought down by combined arms fire before they could react. The Phantoms served backwards before slowly descending a good distance away from the spaceport, the Jiralhanae remaining within the dropships and continuing to fire their rifles. "Why aren't they deploying?" Jane muttered.

Back behind the destroyed Wraith, Sukron was about to lean out of cover when he heard a loud thump behind him. As he turned around a massive furry fist slammed into his face, shattering his nose and forcing him to slam into the wrecked tank. "ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND!" Wiping blood off of his face Sukron glared at Ultimas who had just dropped from the Phantom that was flying to rejoin with the orders. "I gave you orders to command the fleet while I handled the ground operations!"

"And I told you I do not take orders from you," Sukron sneered, confident in himself even as blood streamed down his face.

"I disagree, I was given command of this mission, that means I was given command OVER YOU! Now get on the Phantoms, NOW!"

"And why would I do that?"

"Simple really, we're withdrawing."

Sukron stared at Ultimas, disbelief mixed with rage in his organic eye. "What?"

"The Alliance destroyed all three of our super-carriers before any of them could fully deploy and a third of our landing forces were wiped out, so I am ordering a retreat," Ultimas explained coldly.

"Coward," Sukron hissed, "A mere fraction of our forces fall and you want to run away like a sacred child?"

"Unlike you I want to keep the warriors outside of my specialist division alive. We are at a disadvantage, for the moment we are winning but with a massive proportion of our reserves gone it is only a matter of time before the enemy regroups and launches a counter-attack, one that I doubt we will be able to handle."

"You can run and hide if you wish but I happen to have unfinished business here, so if you do not mind-"

"I do not care about your petty personal gripes!" Ultimas roared as he charged forward, slamming Sukron into the Wraith with one hand around the cyborg's throat and the other drawing a spiker that he pressed against Sukron's temple. "Let me make something very clear Sukron, step out of line in a manner that costs us another major battle and Supreme Commander or not I will kill you myself."

"Do not pin your failures on me, exactly how do I think I caused our super-carriers to be destroyed?" Sukron asked, a crooked smile spreading across my face. "Also, kill me? Are you trying to make me laugh? You know what will happen."

"Yes Sukron, your followers will be outraged and wage a rebellion, but tell me something Sukron, how will you be able to enjoy that rebellion when there are super heated spikes in that barely functional brain of yours?"

Sukron stared at Ultimas, the inner gears of his mind gnashing furiously. He wanted nothing more than to incinerate him then and there, but he had plans, plans that had been in the making for too long to throw away. His revenge would come another day. "Very well Ultimas," he said, feigning submission. "Now take your hands off of me before I have an accident with my scorcher."

"Do not make threats unless you intend to keep them," Ultimas growled as he released Sukron.

"I do."

"So do I, now order you men to withdraw before I uphold it."

Sukron hesitated before lifting his hand to his COM unit. "All Metal Fist operatives, pull back to the dropships. We are abandoning the assault."

"Glad to see that you somewhat deserve your position," Ultimas said as he turned and began to head towards one of the dropships.

The second he was out of earshot, Sukron spoke again. "Stealth Phantoms, hold off on that withdraw, I have one last mission for you." Stealth Phantoms were prototype dropships used by Metal Fist for behind the line insertions and precision strikes. Sukron smiled, it looked like he would get his revenge after all.

Author's Note: I got the idea for Hall's maneuver by clicked around Halowiki kind of like what Keyes did on Reach. I haven't read Fall of Reach but from what I can gather Hall's maneuver is different from what he did, I think he literarily punched a hole in the shields while Hall threaded her nuke through a hole that was already there.

By the way people, we need to talk. When I first introduced Admiral Nelson, I got a couple of reviews saying that he was an ass, which is good because that is what I was aiming for, for wanting to drop nukes on Altena. Now that one of those nukes has actually hit people are calling it poetic justice. What? I am sorry what? 'Sigh' I'm starting to get a little worried about exactly what you guys want out of this story and how it's radically different from what I have planned, or at least things are for a couple of you. There is a difference between using WMDs on military targets and using them on civilian targets, a major one. Nelson is supposed to be an officer that goes way too far to destroy the enemy, and to make it interesting I haven't stated that he is committed a war crime because due to the seriousness of the situation, the UNSC will actually ACCEPT what he is doing. And before you pull out the argument "Well the Jiralhanae did it first" let me go on record and say that's a weak defense. If America committed mass genocide of German civilians in WW II then they would have been no better than the Nazis. What I'm trying to get at here is that the Joker had a point in the Dark Knight "Their code...it's a bad joke, dropped at the first sign of trouble." In case you haven gotten it by now let me spell it out (Nuking military targets = somewhat acceptable. Nuking civilian targets = BAD) Hate to break it to you guys but this story is going to be playing the Gray and Grey Morality card, I am doing the very best I can to portray BOTH sides sympathetically, if you think I could be doing a better job of that, please feel free to give me some advice. Also if any of my readers really do despise the Jiralhanae and want them to be wiped out, I suggest you stop reading now because I know that you will despise how this story ends...that's all I guess, I guess I'm just a little nervous that I've been trying to make my Jiralhanae characters three dimensional (Minus Sukron) and that people are cheering that nukes are being dropped on their civilian targets. Again it's just a couple of reviewers, it's just getting me a little nervous.