The Battle of Sans Pareli

The Battle of Sans Pareli was a large battle fought by the UNSC forces against Fog forces, where the Fog was forced to retreat with heavy losses during a risky operation that involved jerks and kinks that the enemy made no sense of.

Fleet Admiral Richard J. Saunders entered this battle as a Commander of the Paris-class heavy frigate NORMANDY, bearing the alpha-numerical code of FFG(H)-301, where he employed his frigate in a looping, twisty maneuver which was subsequently dubbed "the J-turn", after the results often having the performing ship doing a one-eighty. The fierce battle, which halted part of the Fog's four-prong offensive, was subsequently followed by the Battle of Alpha Quadrant, the Battle of Midway, and the Battle of Saratoga.

This is the true account of what happened that cold September night.

The UNSC prowler sailed stealthily alone in the darkness, itself hidden by the cloaking device. It was acting as a spy on the enemy forces surrounding the area. It took out a flip-top communicator from its left pocket and held it to her ear.

"Yahoo, Vermouth! Nice spying mission?"

"You bet."

"So you're gettin' home, ai'nt ya? Sherry's got a nice little batch of cookies. Come in hot!"

"Comin' in hot."

She immediately flared her slipspace drive, and started for home. She held a data stick in her hand.

In the darkness, a massive Fog fleet lay in wait.

To attack Sans Pareli.

"Strengthen the defenses."

The Admiral's voice strung loud and clear.

The UNSC fleet had been assembled over Sans Pareli.

One hundred and fifty-two ships of all sizes could be seen in Pareli low orbit, their shields activated, their weapons readied.

They were further augmented by eighty Orbital Defense Satellites, unmanned satellites armed with lasers. They didn't have much beyond that, them being six-by-twelve meter cylinders with six-meter diameters. They had pretty much maybe two pulsating lasers, which were supplanted by Archer misiles, and a battery of Fortress and Phalanx guns each.

In addition to that, there were a half-dozen Orbital Defense Platforms, equipped with Super MACs, missiles, CIWS, and Energy Shields, among others.

Fleet Admiral James Dakota stood on the bridge, which a teenager will stand in a matter of months as his successor, taking command after he was killed when a shot hit the bridge. But for now. His ship was a Phoenix-class assault carrier, a ship crammed with the perfect mix of firepower and fighters. By his side was the ship's AI, Sernia.

"Sir, the resurrected prowler Vermouth had just returned. She reported that enemy forces are preparing for an attack."

"What about the others?"

"Commander Bartlett of the Paris-class heave frigate Saratoga reports that suspicious bursts of Cherkenov rads coming from heading Two-Seventeen, the AI reads it as a fleet."

"How much?"

"The AI reads the burst as: 120 SDV-class heavy corvettes, 185 CCS-class cruisers, 17 CAS-class assault carriers, and one CSO-class supercarrier."

"Pretty impressive."

"I find that that young Commander has some potential."

"Ah, that guy? Saunders? He'll be the best, I'll bet a thousand quid."

"No time for 'trifles'!"

The Fog fleet appeared out of slipspace, weapons armed, almost immediately unleashed a barrage of solid beam cannons into the UNSC fleet. But the "scramble shields" held, and the UNSC fleet almost immediately responded.

"Woah, what is going on?"

"They're shooting!"

A second barrage of solid beam cannons slammed into the UNSC fleet, rattling the fleet. And knocking everything and everybody of balance.

"MAC online, firing."

Now it was the UNSC fleet's turn.

Bright, shining ropes of tungsten shot out from the UNSC fleet. MAC rounds they were, as the tactic so often called "grandslamming", that lived up to its reputation. 80 SDV-class corvettes were gutted outright, their shields doing little to stop the mayhem. The larger cruisers took up one or two rounds, but the UNSC fleet proceeded to fire three-shot bursts with a thirty-second recharge time. The entire Fog frontline was obliterated. The pulse lasers only added to the chaos, with the cyan beams rapidly draining the enemy shields, before slicing enemy material. The Fog let loose a barrage of solid beam cannons and other whatnot, but they, as usal, rattled off the UNSC shields. The ODPs and ODSs only furthered the mayhem, raining lasers and something that the Fog fears the most.

Three-thousand ton slugs racing at twelve-thousand kilometers, per second.

Each with ten teratons of raw kinetic energy.

Yikes.

MAC slugs and lasers smashed the Fog lines to bits, shredding their front. And the battle became a melee. Missiles, fighters, torpedoes, and all other whatnot were everywhere, as the ships engaged on broadsides in a massive battle. Broadswords and Sabres engage Seraphs and Banshees, ripping each other apart. And now, the UNSC frigate Normandy, flying alone, was attacked by three cruisers and a CAS, and its Commander, the soon-to-be Fleet Admiral Richard J. Saunders, stared down the enemy flotilla.

"Sir, it seems to be massive."

"Damn the size!"

"Incoming corrosion warheads, sir!"

"Helm, evasive maneuvers!"

"Shall we shoot 'em down?"

"Nope."

Saunders lit his cigarette and stared out the window.

"It's about time... That we turn their own weapons on them."

The frigate dodged the shots, and proceeded to move towards the leading ship at full speed. The torpedoes, tracking their target, steered around and gave chase. Just before the two ships were to collide—

"Hard pitch up, now!"

The frigate rapidly pulled itself up, its lower elevator missing the cruiser by a scant six half-inches from the cruiser. The torpedoes, unable to respond to such erratic maneuvers, tried to relock, but missed and slammed head-on into the lead cruiser, disabling its shields. A spread of Archer missiles crashed through its hull, and a subsequent volley of photon torpedoes sent its reactors going critical, causing it to explode. The second cruiser responded with a volley of torpedoes, but the frigate launched a volley of shotgun missiles, their nose cones detaching to reveal a half-dozen smaller rockets to detach themselves, and the rockets themselves detonated the buckshot warheads in their nose cones, getting the effect of, simply, an oversized shotgun blast. The torpedoes were blasted to bits, and a single slipspace missile went to a location aft of the target cruiser, with the resulting portal swallowing the rear half of the CCS. A volley of missiles with proximity detonators exploded near the front half, and while it did not destroy, the resulting blast sent the section into the remaining cruiser, with the resulting impact similar to an asteroid. The cruiser was gutted outright, which left the carrier. A fresh spread of Shiva missiles impacted the carrier, and the resulting EMP completely fried the carrier altogether.

"MAC status."

"Fully charged."

"Fire MAC, target that glassing beam. I've seen enough of death-holes for now."

"Roger."

The MAC slug slammed into the CAS glassing beam, going straight through and sliced it in half.

The battle in orbit was getting fierce, to say the least. Spitfire coilgun turrets, and electron beam cannons, which are many of octuple-barbette turrets, began to rain shots on the Fog fleet.

The UNSC fleet put half of their fleet on an in-system jump, catching the enemy in a pincer. Solid beam cannons intermingled with electron beam cannons as the Fog fleet began to maneuver around, no doubt to retreat. But not so easily. WASP mines were waiting for the enemy. Explosion after explosion enveloped the enemy fleet as ships hit mines and blew up in spectacular series of blasts, breaking shields and scorching armor, as the Fog fleet began to try to maneuver out of the minefield. But the damage was done. The remaining ships that were lucky enough to escape immediately jumped to slipspace. But the remaining ones were all blown to bits.

The Battle of Sans Pareli was over.

But the war wasn't.

But not for long.

September 21st 2554: The Battle of Sans Pareli.