1405 Hours, 20 October 2552 (Military Calendar)
Onboard Cairo Station OWP-142 in orbit of Terra
Deployment+00 Days: 00 Hours: 01 Minutes: 25 Seconds
T-Minus 9-minutes till Contact
The Master Chief followed the running Master Sergeant into Armory C-1, the most centrally located armory onboard Station Cairo. Behind him came a solid dozen UNSC Marines, who promptly bolted for the stations to suit up into their M52M3 BDUs. Those BDUs while they weren't as tough as the plating for Mjolnir Armor, it was still plenty tough, capable of absorbing multiple shots from plasma weapons.
But he currently needed a weapon and he walked up to the Armory Officer. The man looked over the Spartan. "What do you need, Master Chief?" he asked, it was straight and to the point question.
John already knew what sort of weapons he wanted. "A BR55 SR, an MA90 CAWS, and an M6D." he replied firmly. The BR55 was a powerful weapon at the bottom of the Anti-Material Class, the MA90 was a powerful close range full automatic capable shotgun, and the Magnum simply because of the power of the pistol and the fact that pulling a Magnum at the right moment had saved his life on more than one occasion.
The man nodded. "Give me a moment Master Chief." he said and then disappeared into the armory. He came back less than a minute later carrying a Battle Rifle, the Automatic Shotgun, and the pistol. He laid the three weapons out and the Master Chief quickly inspected each one and satisfied that they were functional nodded his thanks.
Then he went and collected ammunition for his weapons, he grabbed eight magazines for the Battle Rifle, making sure to check each magazine to see that they were loaded with the same type of ammunition. Then he grabbed five magazines for the MA90, plus three magazines for the M6D, he quickly loaded a magazine for each weapon. Then he grabbed six M9D HEDP grenades and this was followed by six 35x100mm Hydra Micro-Missiles, two of which he slotted into the twin launcher in his right gauntlet, the other four went into launchers that were mounted in his armor's shoulders; finally he grabbed a Combat Knife. Satisfied with his ammunition load he then darted out of the Armory, Master Sergeant Johnson right behind him hefting a massive M247 MMG chambered for the same ammunition as the BR 55.
"Cairo Internal Defense, where do you need us?" The Master Chief asked over his suit comm as klaxons continued to warble.
"Give me a second Chief, alright, take Combat Team Alpha and assume primary defensive positions at Recreation R-01. Uploading quickest route to your suit's navigation system now. The Maglev system is currently too busy to get you there quick enough." Lieutenant Stanislava Ivanivna Petryk replied over the comm and then his suit chimed as the route was uploaded to his armor, a line appearing on his HUD in order to lead him to where he needed to go.
Marines scrambled out of the armory, hurriedly finishing strapping on gear as they filed past. As they did so, the Master Chief began to follow them and then he heard Johnson's voice make itself known over the hammering of titanium clad feet. "Alright Marines, so these filthy split chin squid-head sons of bitches have found Earth. So let's prove to these alien bastards that they couldn't have picked a worse enemy than the human race, we're going to blow the hell out of these dumb bugs so that they have a pool of their own blood to drown in and when we don't have anything to blow them the hell up with and then we're going to strangle them with their own living guts. Am I right, Marines?" he demanded.
The Master Chief couldn't help it, he cracked a grin at the Master Sergeant's speech as the Marines boomed in one seemingly synchronised voice. "OORAH!"
"Mmhm, damn right I am! So move it out, double time!" the Master Sergeant boomed.
The cyborg took that as very good advice and with a quick hand signal began to lead the Marines through the maze of passageways that was Cairo Station. The place was becoming a hive of activity, as they headed to their defensive position, they were joined by a UNSC Security Team, regular crewmembers.
Immediately the Master Chief noted that the posture of the Security Team changed from pants shitting terror to one of relief as they headed to the recreation center. He didn't blame them, whenever the Covenant boarded, the Security Teams always took the brunt of the casualties. But considering how rapidly into disarray that Covenant forces went whenever a Spartan took to the battlefield, their odds of surviving today just went from practically non-existent to plausible.
"Time till contact?" he asked as they approached the Rec Center.
"Ninety seconds Chief." Cortana replied coolly, but she also sounded eager and had a tiny hint of glee in her voice, the Master Chief figured that Station Cairo's AI, Seabiscuit, must have given her the main gun. He honestly couldn't blame Cortana, being able to pull the trigger on a Mark V SMAC and send an 1800-metric ton round screaming into the void at some 56,000 kilometers per second was something that was quite possibly the most exciting thing you could do.
Ten seconds later, Combat Team Alpha and Security Team Gamma arrived in Recreation Room R-01. It was in comparison to most spaces onboard UNSC space stations and warships fairly large with a Transparent Titanium-A viewport off to one side, along with several holographic news stations, several holotables (one of which had a paused table tennis game), on the other side the holotables that dominated the center of the room, were a few more news stations, while along the far wall was a small Coffee Bar with several coffee machines.
The Master Chief took cover behind one of the Holotables that was broadside on to the massive heavily armored door.
"I want fields of fire on that hatch." Sergeant Johnson said as he set up behind him on the recreation room's "loft" floor. According to his motion tracker, the Security Team were setting up near the Master Sergeant as well. While the Marines took up positions around the Holotable and Holostations.
1407 Hours, 20 October 2552 (Military Calendar)
Onboard UNSCS Charles de Gaulle
Sortie+00 hours:00 minutes:10 seconds (Lieutenant Commander Kuroda "Witch" Kunika Sortie Clock)
T-Minus Seven Minutes to Contact
Kunika snapped bolt upright when the voice of the shipboard Virtual Intelligence sounded in her ears. "Scramble! Repeat all squadrons scramble! This is not a drill!"
"KUSO!" she swore before grabbing the throttle body and glancing over her shoulder, confirming that the blast deflectors were upright, then shoving the throttle to full military power. The fusion drives came up from their low power state almost instantly, a mind-numbing rumble began to build as the engines came up to power.
Into the Danger Zone we go. She thought as she snapped a salute at the shooter, who then pushed the button. The 75-ton Broadsword lurched and accelerated, the force of the Electromagnetic Catapult acceleration pinned her to her seat as it hurled her fighter into the air.
"You on my wing Artemis?" she barked into her radio as instructions from the carrier's VI flashed across her HUD:
Climb to Angels 60 ASAP, enter holding pattern for the rest of the squadron, and establish data link connection with AWACS Heavy Cloud for briefing.
That didn't sound good in the slightest, she remembered the last time that her squadron had been scrambled and words like that had flashed across her HUD.
"I am ma'am, what the fuck is going on?!" Carla replied, she obviously hadn't gone through a combat scramble before and there was fear in her voice.
She wanted to reassure the poor girl, but in her heart she couldn't, but she decided to be a bit diplomatic. "I honestly have no idea what could have caused this, maybe some idiot hit the panic upon seeing another Innie fleet from the Outer Colonies coming to bolster the defense of Terra, again."
That seemed to make her wingwoman feel better. "Alright Witch, what are our orders?" she asked as they climbed through Angels 15.
That was easy enough. "Climb up to Angels 60 ASAP, once we get there we will enter a holding pattern and then establish a data link with AWACS Heavy Cloud for briefing."
There was a pause. "Well what are we waiting for? Let's go."
That was something that caused Kunika to smile. "Let's" and then she pulled the stick back and advanced the throttles. The engines howled and the Broadsword raced up through 30,000 feet in a matter of seconds, as they zoom climbed, her respect for Carla increased more and more. Her skills at flying formation were impeccable.
"Ma'am, the de Gaulle is rolling everything. Garmr Squadron has launched and it looks like the other squadrons are launching."
That made her pause, she had heard the alert from the ship's VI. But actually hearing that their CV was launching everything. It caused a stone cold lump to form in her stomach, for she had a sinking feeling that she knew what was the reason for a scramble.
As they approached Angels 45, she began leveling off and to her surprise she already found a battle network was up and running. She just hoped that the gut feeling that she had was wrong. "Artemis, what's your loadout?" she asked, just in case.
"Same as you ma'am. Five hundred rounds of thirty mike-mike for each of the two coilguns, eight Medusas in my ventral dogfighting missile bays, twenty-four Lancet All Target Mini-Missiles in the dorsal dogfighting missile bays, nine Scorpion AGMs in my forward centerline bay, six Diamondback ALRAAMs in my aft centerline bay, and my conformal bays have a full load of TALDs and eight Rapier AMRAAMs." Artemis replied smoothly and professionally, but there was a note of worry in her tone that was admittedly well disguised.
For once Kunika was pleased that they had gone for the full stealth loadout, which meant that while they weren't carrying anything externally. It also meant that if need be they could do a suborbital flight and attack something on the other side of the planet.
Having done that before, Kunika had to admit that it was extremely fun and one of the few reliable ways that you could kill Mantis Long Range Anti-Aircraft Cannons or have a decent chance of killing a Tyrant Theater Anti-Aircraft Cannon from the air and living to tell the tale. But it was even more fun when the Covenant didn't have any high altitude anti-aircraft firepower because you then felt like a God smiting a mortal that had disrespected you.
"Witch, what do you think is causing all of this?" Carla asked meekly as they finished leveling off.
"I am about to find out, establishing a data link with AWACS Heavy Cloud." she said as commenced handshake protocol and then her fighter was connected to the battle space, the specialized Condor variant could coordinate all UNSC Aerial Forces within 10,000 Square Kilometers. Something flashed over her HUD, it was from her fighter's CI:
Datalink Established
She waited several seconds until finally she heard a man's voice. "This is AWACS Heavy Cloud, all UNSC aerial forces under my jurisdiction listen up. As of 4-minutes 30-seconds ago, WINTER CONTINGENCY has been declared for Sol System, they are coming. All Terra based units execute your individual defensive assignments, all non-Terra based units standby for additional instructions as the situation develops."
The words were so clipped, professional, cynical, and above all - there was a note of audible fear. The words caused the bottom of her stomach to drop out from her and plunge into freefall without a parachute. WINTER CONTINGENCY. The last time she'd heard those words had been at Reach, a veritable fortress among the stars at the doorstep of Terra.
She knew what it meant, all United Nations Space Command Defense Forces, Planetary Militia Forces, and Irregular Formations within Sol System were being scrambled and brought to full alert. Just like Epsilon Eridanni had become before it, Sol was slamming the doors shut and would force the Covenant to lay siege to the system. But she knew the power of the Covenant, having fought in this war for ten long years. She knew what they could do and just how powerful they were, in that moment all of her fears became manifest, she could imagine the nuggets of VFA-666 doing only one thing against the Covenant and that was dying.
The voice of her wingman shook her and brought her back to the real world. "Lieutenant Commander, ma'am? What's going on, why is Charles de Gaulle scrambling everything and why is the battle network lighting up like a Christmas Tree?" she asked, worry and concern was evident in her voice.
For some reason, she wanted to try and placate the American, but she couldn't bring herself to do so. "I am going to give it to you straight Lieutenant." she said, her voice suddenly as clipped and professional as Heavy Cloud's voice had been. "Winter Contingency has been declared, I know you've done well against them in the simulator. But they are here, even if we work together as a wingpair, survival isn't assured."
There was silence for several long moments, she knew what was coming next. It was something that was utterly terrifying. "Oh my gods, ma'am. I never expected them to find Earth, why? Why now? I need to get into contact with my family, find out that they're alright." the poor girl began to ramble and continue rambling.
She knew differently however. "Lieutenant, stop! You're going to have a panic attack." she growled out and to her relief, Artemis did in fact stop, but it sounded like she was on the verge of tears. "Listen, the families of UNSC personnel have priority for both evacuation to the bunkers and for evacuation off world if worse comes to worse. They'll be alright, I promise okay?"
There was a pause, the silence became awkward before finally Carla replied. She sounded watery, as if she were trying to hold back tears. "Okay, it's just. I am on the other side of the world right now and the Covenant could be landing gods only know where." she said.
Ah right, she was militia. She probably didn't know how big the Home Fleet really was. "Artemis, in order for the Covenant to land, they're going to have fight their way through both the Terra Defense Force and the Lunar Colonial Defense Force, not to mention they would have to deal with the STO gun batteries and missile launchers that are emplaced on Luna and here on Terra, plus the Orbital Defense Grid for Terra. If this is a scouting force, the Covenant will be scouting a turbo powered meat grinder." she explained.
That caused her wingwoman to pause, she could tell just because it took a moment for her to answer. "Oh, I guess I didn't consider that. Hell, I didn't even know that."
Damn straight she hadn't considered that, but then again, Kunika knew that deep down. She was going through the same level of fear right now as well. Her family lived on Luna, she knew that those domed cities were in actuality extremely tough. But she was still extremely worried, even though she knew that right at this moment those dome cities were being frantically evacuated to hermetically sealed bunkers that could withstand a near miss from a 150-megaton nuke. Which was no mean feat all things considered. "For the record, I am scared for my family too. But we got a job to do, if we're lucky, the Fleet will hold the Covenant off and we don't need to do anything at all."
"That's reassuring ma'am. But what if the fleet can't stop them?" she asked.
Kunika sighed deeply as the other Broadswords of Garmr Squadron began to form up. "If the fleet can't stop them and they make planetfall in Heavy Cloud's AO, then it's going to be a very busy day for us."
She already knew what was going through Carla's mind. "What do you think my odds of survival are? I've heard about the casualty rates suffered by nuggets."
And there it was. Kunika knew that the odds of survival for a nugget to survive their first few sorties weren't great. Most current estimates placed it at about 1-in-5 nuggets didn't survive their first combat with the Covenant, which to be frank weren't great odds even now. Even she had been nearly killed in action when fighting the Covenant for the first time, after she became Squadron Leader. It had become exceptionally difficult afterwards flying, mostly because after every campaign her squadron would have replacements and at the start of a new campaign, a lot of those replacements would die and the cycle would begin again.
But Reach had been the worst she'd ever experienced, not only had her squadron not been at full strength, but most of the veterans had been KIA'd as well. It had been utterly horrific, particularly August 30th, gods that had been bad. The Destroyer himself had arrived to personally command the armada that would break Reach. She'd seen The Destroyer in action, more than once she'd been nearly killed by some of his more clever tactics and strategies. More than once, she'd been shot down by some of those tactics and strategies that he employed.
If this Winter Contingency was a fleet being led by The Destroyer, she knew deep down that Terra wouldn't be able to hold. If he had brought anywhere near enough ships to tie down the Home Fleet and then grind Terra into dust. That was something that was honestly very terrifying.
"I am going to give it to you straight Artemis. Survival is not guaranteed, not when the Covenant is involved, even if you execute everything absolutely perfectly." she admitted to her wingwoman.
There was a pause and then Carla spoke in a low, terrified voice. "That bad? Ma'am, if, if I don't make it, can you please be the one to inform my family?"
That wasn't the most absurd request she had ever received, but considering the circumstances, it was one that if anything, would be simple to do. "I will Artemis, you have my word."
"Thank you Witch, that takes something off my mind." Carla replied, sounding at least a little relieved that if she died today, that her squadron leader would be the one to inform her family.
Kunika paused as the briefing finally finished, she had split her attention between her wingwoman and it. Now she finally spoke. "Alright Garmr Squadron, listen up. We have a Winter Contingency situation, the Covenant have found Earth, but until we know where the bastards are going to be landing, we're in a quick reaction force role. In light of this, arm your weapons but keep the final safeties on. So as of right now, we're playing a waiting game. But I am positive that before long we'll be playing whack-a-xeno. We've all run the simulations, we know that these bastards are tough but we also know that they aren't invincible. Stick with your wingmen and you'll see this day through." she said, putting confidence into her voice.
9th Age of Reclamation, Solar Cycle 3404
Onboard Solemn Penance
5 Mini-Cycles until arrival in the Erde-Tyrene System
The gravity throne for the High Hierarch of Regret hummed into the primary Combat Information Center onboard Solemn Penance. It was a large edifice, a roughly oval compartment that was 65-steps long by 40-steps wide with a height of 15-steps. At the center of the compartment was a raised platform where the Shipmaster commanded the ship, looking down into the pit that ringed the platform in a half circle that contained the various stations. At the front of the compartment were several holographic screens that currently showed nothing barring the wisps of slipspace, occasional flashes of light that illuminated the distance in this weird dimension.
One of the Mgalekgolo in the compartment suddenly rumbled, the words being more felt than heard. "High Hierarch present!"
Each and every one of the various Sangheili who were in the compartment stopped what they were doing and with a ringing thunder they all knelt in the presence of one of their most esteemed leaders. The discipline that alone took, it brought a glimmer of a smile to the High Hierarch's face. But he knew that there were more important things to do than kneeling in his presence.
"You may rise and return to your duties." The High Hierarch responded, his words filling the chamber and causing the gathered Sangheili to rise and resume their tasks.
He willed his Gravity Throne forward to join Shipmaster Savu 'Zonamee up on the command platform. "Status." he demanded.
"We're exiting FTL in roughly five mini-cycles High Hierarch. One thing that I am concerned about is that we're only bringing but a miniscule fraction of what Solemn Penance and Days of Jubilation are both capable of transporting. If there is any meaningful infidel presence, we might not have enough troops to secure the artifact and fight off the humans." Savu reported as he gazed at the clock that was counting down till they exited slipstream space.
Soon the glory of the Forerunners would be laid out before him, their secrets would be ripe for the taking. His name would be spoken forever on the voices of those in the Covenant. Being forever remembered as the one who found the means to begin The Great Journey. It wasn't High Hierarch of Truth nor High Hierarch of Mercy, it was him, High Hierarch of Regret. The youngest of the High Hierarchs who would prove to the rest of the Council that his brash nature of spearheading an expedition this deep into human space wouldn't result in disaster but it would pave the way to glorious salvation.
He gave his command. "I want the Excavators ready to be deployed as soon as we get to the artifact. All of them. I want to unearth it as quickly as possible so that the Great Journey can begin."
Savu saluted, his arm crossing his chest with a hearty clang as his armored forearm connected with the chestplate. "By your command High Hierarch. I will notify the Huragok to prepare the Light, Medium, and Heavy Excavators. Should we prepare the Super-Heavies and Ultra-Heavies just in case the artifact is an extremely large one?" he asked.
There was a pause from the High Hierarch as he contemplated the events. "Yes, you should. We will more than likely need them. Also, I would wish to oversee the excavation of the artifact personally, to see its glorious form unearthed with my own eyes." he proclaimed.
Savu nodded. "It shall be done as you command High Hierarch." the honorable Sangheili replied before he turned to the various holographic displays that surrounded his station and tapped a control.
There was a chiming sound that echoed through the compartment, signalling that the ship intercom had been activated. "All Huragok in charge of maintaining the excavators, begin preparing them for deployment, I want at least five Heavy Excavators ready to be deployed upon arrival." the Shipmaster commanded in a deep booming voice.
Several seconds passed and then a chorus of whistles came from the holo console as the Huragok in-charge replied, Regret nodded at the response. They were going to get on it immediately, so that the glory of the Forerunners would soon be revealed.
He paused as something came to mind. "Notify all the ships that are carrying Excavators, I want them prepared to be deployed as well. I also want our escorts to be deployed as pickets, standard procedure here. The last thing we need is a human task force getting the drop on us while we are in the gravity well with no capability to maneuver."
The Sangheili gave the High Hierarch a startled look, surprised that he was so knowledgeable in such matters. Indeed, the Hierarchs were usually about as smart when it came to the details of void war as the Jiralhanae were when they were brought into the Covenant. Or in other words they had virtually no idea whatsoever. But he was no ordinary Hierarch, indeed he had seen the frontline of this war and had seen the Covenant fight humanity, he thus was more knowledgeable than other Hierarchs on this matter. Then the shipmaster gave the approximation of a grin.
"Noble High Hierarch, you're surprisingly wise in the concepts of void war. That's what I was going to do, may I ask how you learned this much?" Savu asked and High Hierarch Regret gave an ever so faint smile.
"It was some twenty Solar Cycles ago, I was onboard the Harbinger-Pattern Super Destroyer Proclamation Tithe with the then current Arbiter. We were looking for ships of the Gods and our search had pointed us to the human world of Arcadia where we engaged human ships. It was enlightening seeing our Shipmasters actually fight the enemy and hearing the commands used. It was also humbling because more than once I was nearly knocked out of my throne by weapon impacts." the High Hierarch admitted as he discussed a hunt that had once seemed so promising and yet, had swiftly gone sour once their prize was within their grasp leaving them with nothing but the taste of ash in their mouths.
To his surprise Savu actually rumbled a laugh. "I know what you mean High Hierarch, you haven't fought the humans properly until you've been knocked off your feet by one of their weapons hitting the shields."
Regret didn't know what the shipmaster meant by that remark and assumed it was just a weird warrior thing. The Sangheili that weren't his protectors had all of these weird habits that he never truly understood and figured that he would never be able to understand. He turned to contemplate the countdown timer, which was now rapidly counting down. Soon he would see the glories of the Forerunners laid out before him.
Meanwhile, Savu began barking orders. He had been fighting the humans for decades and had learned to trust his instincts. He had explained as such to the High Hierarch of Regret that for whatever reason if he gave orders that didn't quite make sense to him, there was reasoning for it even if at the time said reasoning didn't seem sound. It was something that the High Hierarch of Regret had seen to an extent on the ship Proclamation Tithe, but he never truly understood.
"Entering Realspace in three…." The navigator began to say suddenly and the High Hierarch couldn't help but lean forward, the Great Journey would soon be able to begin, due to his actions and his actions alone.
1412 Hours, 20 October 2552 (Military Calendar)
Onboard UNSCN Pioneer DDG-2070, part of Battle Group Starry Skies
T-Minus 2 Minutes till Contact
Battle Group Starry Skies raced to its ambush position, forty Capital Ships and their supporting units. A delightful mixture of twenty Marathon class Heavy Cruisers in four five-ship divisions, four Artemis class Artillery Ships in two two-ship divisions, eight Valiant class Large Cruisers in two four-ship divisions, four Eion class Light Carriers in a single division, three older Vindication class Battleships in a single division, and the flagship was a newer Indefatigable class Battleship: UNSCN Starry Skies. It was an amount of firepower that before one even took into account the missiles, torpedoes, heavy rail guns, secondary coilgun mounts, ship-killing laser cannons, and ship-killing particle cannons and the firepower of the various supporting ships, was absolutely insane.
"Status on MACs!" Ori growled as he strapped himself into his acceleration couch, he was fully enclosed in his skinsuit, it was something that would fully protect him should CIC be opened to the void. Pioneer rumbled as quickly formed up with the rest of her division, five Destroyers all of them newer than Pioneer.
"MACs are hot, sir!" Rodney called back as he frantically tapped away at his console, the massive capacitor banks were flush with power.
Not for the first time, he wished that Pioneer had been outfitted with energy shields, even just the omni-directional shield system that the UNSC had first employed on their ships in the late 2530s would have made him happy. But the Pioneer class hadn't been designed with such refits in mind which meant while she had the power generation for it, she just didn't have the space to have such systems installed without sacrificing something. The larger Halberd, Midlothian, and Cole class Destroyers did have the space however.
"Ops, are all Combat Teams and Security Teams manned and ready?" he asked, referring to his ship's really only defense against Covenant boarding parties.
"They are sir, automated defenses are ready to deploy defensive turrets, depressurize sections of the ship, or modify the outputs of the gravplates at a moment's notice. The poor sorry bastards won't know what hit them." Inna replied coldly, she had survived several close encounters with the Covenant before and that professionalism was showing through now.
"Emergency thrusters are armed sir, slaving control to Uzziah." Flowers said, tapping at his keyboard.
"I have control." Uzziah replied after a moment.
Ori nodded, it was as he expected of his crew. They were quick and professional in the face of probable annihilation at the hands of the Covenant, but he knew that his crew was excellent. However, their ship should have been retired quite possibly decades ago. But he knew why Pioneer was kept in service, she had in some form become a symbol to the UNSCN, just like Say My Name and several other ships that had fought the Covenant and had survived for this long. She was a remnant of the old guard, one of the few remaining vessels in the UNSC's pre-war fleet. But he knew that this patrol had in fact been planned to be the last one for UNSCN Pioneer before she was recycled and her materials used in the construction of a new Pioneer, a Midlothian class Destroyer.
Just a few more checks to go through. "Status on point defenses, secondaries, and missiles?"
There were a few incessant taps and then the Lieutenant spoke up. "Point-Defenses are spun up and hot sir, ready to intercept any Plasma Torpedoes or single ships. Secondary coilguns are ready to lend a hand to point defenses or engage enemy ships, all Fusion Archer Pod doors are open and hot and nukes are ready to launch."
"Very well, Uzziah, any orders over the BeeNet?" Ori asked, he was getting anxious. Where the hell were the bastards?
There was naught but a pause. "Orders from the flag, the Vice Admiral want's a preplanned massed missile salvo at the believed exit vector of the Covenant forces from all ships, double pod salvo, follow on with MACs." Uzziah barked and Ori paused, eight pods each containing 40 Archers, from roughly 160 ships. Apparently Vice Admiral Karsten Raeder wanted to throw an insane amount of shit at the Covenant in the form of over 50,000 Archer Missiles, each mounting around a 5-megaton Casaba Howitzer warhead. The sheer amount of relativistic plasma beams that the Covenant would be bathed in would be utterly insane, this was a salvo of missiles that if they had been using ortillery models of the Archer outfitted with even conventional nukes, it would effectively scour a planet clean of life.
He shook himself. "Slave our FCS to flag and lockdown controls!" he barked firmly.
"Aye sir!" Rodney said as his hands flew across his console tapping out commands like a machine gun. "FCS slaved, locking down controls!" he called and then retracted his hands from the console.
Across the center screen, a web of trajectories spread across it like a spider web to the rough point in space where the Covenant were believed to be exiting slipspace. Tiny holographic countdown timers ticked downwards inexorably towards zero.
Twelve seconds left till the first shots were fired.
Seven seconds.
Five seconds.
Three seconds.
Two seconds.
One second.
When the clock ticked from one to zero, Pioneer shuddered. A basso tenor rang through her hull as eight Archer Pods each disgorged no less than forty M52 Archer Missiles, they spun in space through their monopropellant RCS systems in tiny puffs of gases and then their fusion drives ignited. They screamed across space, accelerating at hundreds of Gs, at a velocity that not even UNSC Coast Guard Void Cutters could hope to match even when sprinting.
Heavier missiles and torpedoes, Howlers and Hyperions lanced out as well from the heavier ships in the fleet. It was a salvo that in its speed was utterly terrifying, tens of thousands of tiny dots were screaming across space. But now the waiting game began, the missiles would take time to crawl their way through the void despite their immense velocity.
The waiting, god the waiting. But then, he realized the brilliance of the Admiral's plan. It was clever, very clever. All of these missiles and nukes would reach where it was believed that the Covenant would exit slipspace, at just about the perfect distance for their lethal warheads to do the most damage.
"Receiving another countdown, it's for the MACs!" Uzziah said.
Ori suddenly realized what the plan was and it was absolutely brilliant. The Covenant would be wondering where all the missiles came from and the nukes would bathe them in radiation. Leaving them open to the MAC rounds which at the velocity they were going tended to hit like a freight train that just went off a sheer cliff. Leaving them absolutely blind to the incoming MACs and other means of kinetic death that the UNSC had at its disposal.
Again those countdown timers began to sink towards zero. It was going to be a staggered salvo. "Removing final safety interlocks and slaving MAC FCS to flag!" Rodney barked as again his hands worked frantically before slipping away from his console.
The seconds rapidly counted down, Ori hit the all hands freq at three seconds. "All hands brace for recoil shock!" he bellowed and precisely one-second later the salvo buzzer rang. Power surged from the capacitor banks onboard Pioneer and through massive cables each as thick as a man to electromagnetic coils which flared with crackling power. The Mini-MAC positioned below the Light MAC had its coils flare first and it drew a round weighing 50-tons through a barrel that ran some 50-percent of the ship's length, the huge round red-shifted away from Pioneer at nearly 18,000-kilometers per second. There was a tremendous boom that rang through the ship as the whole thing rang like a gong, but the process wasn't over yet. Micro-seconds after the firing process for the Mini-MAC completed, the firing procedure for the Light MAC followed, power surged through cables and coils flared with energy, a 100-ton slug went from a cool black to glowing white hot in the time that it took for it to traverse the barrel. The immense recoil shock caused Pioneer to again ring like a bell as the huge slug red shifted away.
The secondary screen to starboard showed over one hundred MAC guns of varying types firing, not to mention Heavy Railguns, it was a virtual cloud of tungsten and depleted uranium that was being flung down range. "Reload cycle on pods one through eight and both MACs commencing." Rodney replied as he tapped his display. "Energy capture successful, MAC Two is recharged at 50% and increasing."
Ori nodded at that statement, watching the screens as missiles and projectiles screamed across the void. That's when he noticed something, the Artillery Ships hadn't fired. But then it hit him, they had SERIES-8s, essentially a Ship-Mounted SMAC with all that entailed. Those things had the ability to annihilate practically anything that the Covenant had.
Space rippled, the inky blackness of the void suddenly began to waver like a heat mirage in the desert. Moments later, light and energy flashed. "Multiple Slipspace ruptures detected." Inna called, several moments passed. "Ships entering realspace!"
9th Age of Reclamation, Solar Cycle 3404
Onboard Solemn Penance
Entering Erde-Tyrene System
"Two...one...transitioning to realspace!" The Super at Navigation boomed and the holoscreens were filled with blue-black light as the slipspace drive engaged and tore a hole in reality. Moments later Solemn Penance charged out of the rip and into the Erde-Tyrene System.
Instantly all hells broke loose, sirens began wailing and one of the displays flashed over to tactical view. Regret and Savu simultaneously recoiled in shock and horror as the Major at sensors all but screamed. "We're under fire! Human missiles and torpedoes inbound, over thirty thousand, kinetic projectiles right behind them over two hundred! Human ships detected! A hundred, two hundred, by the rings, High Hierarch there's thousands of them!"
For an instant, Solemn Penance was alone. A single warship against thousands of human warships, not even she had the firepower and durability to take them all on. Then realspace tore itself apart, four Battlecruiser Battle Groups each containing three Battlecruisers with seven escorts came flying out of the tears in reality, moments later Days of Jubilation tore a hole in reality followed by the Reverence Pattern Grand Cruiser Sublime Thunder.
Regret was suddenly wondering how in the name of the Gods did the vermin known as humanity have such a massive presence in this system. It was impossible, the glory of the Gods was supposed to be here, not the heretics and infidels by the score. Something kindled within him, something he didn't know, it felt like a roaring inferno had erupted within his stomach and yet it didn't hurt. Gritting his teeth he boomed out, his words surprisingly cold and alien to him. "The heretics and infidels stand in our way between us and the Great Journey, scour any heretic and infidel that gets in our way!" he commanded.
But his words were lost in the chaos, Savu was barking out orders in such a rapid fire manner that they seemingly merged together. Then the High Hierarch heard a shouted phrase from the Major at sensors who still sounded hysterical. "Enemy missiles approaching detonation range! Thermonuclear warheads detected, at least two hundred. All hands brace for impact! Brace! Brace! Brace!"
A new siren joined the carphoney of noise, a high-pitched rapidly cycling scream filled the compartment and with a series of heavy booms something suddenly grabbed his throne and a Mgalekgolo rumbled in the High Hierarch's ears. "Hang on!"
"Point Defenses active!" A deep continuous rumbling began to roar through Solemn Penance as her lasers and defensive lightmass weapons began to fire upon the incoming missiles. Cyan dots flared into existence upon the ship's hull as invisible beams of light shot out at the missiles, punching them into hazy balls of vapor as orange light blasted out from octopule emplacements at the missiles which began to frantically weave through the defenses.
"Shield status!" Savu demanded.
"Shields at 100 percent, they went active the moment sensors detected incoming. But most of the other ships are still trying to raise their shields! We entered real space in cruising formation, not a combat formation! We have no interlocking fields of mutually supporting fire from the other ships!" Ops replied calmly yet frantically.
The Major at sensors screamed again. "ENERGY SPIKE!" an instant later there was a pair of horrifically loud booms that caused the entirety of Solemn Penance, a ship that weighed nearly a trillion human metric tons (hard as it was to believe, the humans idea of using everything with a base ten was catching on for measurements in the Covenant) to shake as if struck by an groundquake. The Mgalekgolo holding the High Hierarch's throne staggered as any Sangheili that was standing fell to the deck.
"STATUS!?" Regret demanded, this couldn't be happening. It simply couldn't!
A blinding white flash filled one of the screens. "Sublime Thunder is down! Human artillery ships just hit us!" Sensors screamed again.
Regret suddenly realized what that flash had been, he'd seen it over the human world of Arcadia. That was the death flash of a ship, Sublime Thunder and its immense firepower had just been removed from his fleet in a single climatic stroke. Then the various screens turned white and Solemn Penance rumbled and lurched in an alarming fashion as Ops reported that shields were down to fifty percent.
"We stay here and we'll die." Savu snarled angrily as more impacts shook Solemn Penance, the kinetic slugs they'd been warned about earlier. "All ships accelerate to attack velocity and assume combat formation! I want fighters launched immediately, boarding craft prepared, and all ground formations readied for deployment! Status on the fleet!" he roared with such steel that the High Hierarch flinched.
He suddenly was a spectator, this was the Shipmaster's show.
Another klaxon howled its cry and suddenly he could hear noise through the passageways over the rumbling lightmass weapons that were frantically trying to defend the ship. It was the crew and soldiers racing to their stations, they probably couldn't believe what was happening either. "Accelerating to attack velocity aye!" The Sangheili navigator said before running his hand over the acceleration stripe and pushing it all the way forward.
The engine noise increased exponentially and Solemn Penance began to accelerate through the cooling plasma that had enveloped her from the nuclear blasts. The ship charged, the surviving vessels following her like ducklings. Another voice crossed the compartment. "Grand Cruiser Sublime Thunder is down with all hands as are half the frigates, battlecruiser Ascendant Patience is down with all hands and Sacred Resolve has been torn in half. Days of Jubilation has taken at least five kinetic impacts along with major damage from human missiles and torpedoes, combat effectiveness has been degraded majorly however her shipmaster is reporting that she's still combat capable." Ops said as the report went on. Regret was appalled at the damage suffered by Days of Jubilation, her dorsal hangar was completely mangled and gashes and tears marred her silvery nanolaminate hull in dozens of places along with several noticeable craters.
"How many human ships fired upon us?!" The High Hierarch demanded shrilly, he couldn't believe that the humans had desecrated something so holy and pure with their presence.
"Standard battlegroup, some one hundred sixty human warships. Other battle groups appear to be trying to maneuver for an intercept. Ah, human gun platforms detected over Erde-Tyrene." Sensors replied, having seemingly managed to get over his hysteria but the fear was still there.
"How many?" Savu demanded in a voice that surprised Regret, he seemed terrified of those things.
"Three hundred in clusters of three, each cluster has attack satellites supporting them."
"Understood. We need breathing space, ion cannons and energy torpedoes, engage the enemy battle group." Savu ordered.
"Aye, shipmaster engaging." Weps replied and tapped away on his board, the flanks of Solemn Penance heated as twelve of her energy turrets began gathering power. Angry crimson collected on the multi-shot launchers as twin-pronged ion cannons, replacing the normal particle and plasma cannons on the ship that Solemn Penance was based on swiveled around. Targeting the human fleet who had their primitive fusion torches blazing with anetic light as they raced to close distance so they could properly engage them.
"Firing." Weps announced.
Solemn Penance blazed with light and fire, no less than sixty energy torpedoes were launched as each energy turret fired five times in rapid succession sending hypervelocity plasma screaming across the void as the ion cannons began hurling bolts of yellow light into the void at a rate of five bolts per micro-cycle. The range was 1.6-gigasteps, or essentially the range where tentative shots would under normal circumstances begin streaking across the void.
Seconds later Weps cackled. "Ion Cannons are scoring hits, hah. Even with their shields, their light ships can't take the sort of power that these things have and their Capitals aren't much better."
On the tactical display, the human battlegroup began to scatter in alarm as dots began winking out and death flashes from vessels dying began filling the holoscreen that had its cameras pointed at the humans.
"Human ships launching nukes to counter energy torpedoes." Sensors announced.
Savu gave a firm nod. "Alright, we've bought ourselves time. Let's get into the inner system as fast as we can. All ships maintain combat formation but accelerate to sprint velocity."
1420 Hours, 20 October 2552 (Military Calendar)
Onboard Cairo Station OWP-142 in orbit of Terra
6 Minutes after Contact
Admiral of the Fleet Lord Terrance Hood rushed back into CIC after making a quick trip himself to the armory in order to don his skinsuit and grab a magnum along with ammunition. "Status Seabiscuit!" he barked.
"Battle Group Starry Skies engaged the enemy as soon as they emerged, they scored multiple kills. However sir, that Super Assault Carrier has weapons we have never seen before in both the CIWS and long-range artillery roles. They're vastly more effective than the Shrikes that the Covenant normally employ in the CIWS roles and whatever those long-range artillery guns are, they're vastly more effective than the Covenant's usual long range artillery as they cut through our shields and armor alike they are made of paper mache. Vice Admiral Raeder is reporting that his screen has suffered major casualties, nearly 20% and that he has several light cruisers already down as are the Heavy Cruisers Hammer Down and Rainbow Warrior." Seabiscuit's disembodied voice replied as his avatar, that of a racing horse in full tack with a rider materialized on the holotable. "Enemy ships are now accelerating in-system, using an extremely large salvo of energy torpedoes to gain distance from Battle Group Starry Skies. Their acceleration has also ruined the intercept for Battle Group Event Horizons of the Jovian Defense Force." he reported, his 'rider' speaking.
Lord Hood paused as he looked at the available units and didn't swear, no he didn't. But he wanted too, so much for this being done the easy way. The Covenant had two Assault Carriers, ten battlecruisers, and fourteen frigates racing towards the inner planets of Sol. But the Covenant fleet was changing its formation, something didn't quite seem right.
"That's odd, the Covenant are only now moving into an attack formation. Normally if they are invading a human occupied system, they do so already in attack formation. Seabiscuit, did the Covenant enter the system in an odd formation?" he asked.
The AI nodded. "They did sir, I believe they exited slipspace in a cruising formation. Which indicates that they didn't know we were here. It was probably just as much of a shock to them as it was to us."
The Fleet Admiral nodded as he looked at the varying formations and contemplated which could be used to their advantage. "Alright, order BG Event Horizons to not engage, but have them ready to move in case they decide to hit one of the Jovian Moons. Signal Belt Defense Force Command, I want them to have some Torpedo Boat squadrons and Heavy Corvette squadrons along with two Heavy Frigate wolf packs make an intercept in the asteroid belt. They are to engage with their torpedoes and GKKVs from long range only, make sure it's mentioned that the Covenant apparently got some new toys." he ordered and then as the projected track of the Covenant fleet appeared on the holotable he paused.
"Order the Martian Defense Force to stay put and make sure that Battle Group Alluvion's Vengeance acknowledges that order. But have the ODPs and artillery ships send shots their way if they come within three gigameters of the planet using GKKVs." he added, making sure to remember one of the various Innie Fleets that had been arriving over the past few months, all of them had their world lost to the Covenant and they wanted revenge. But ONI wanted to keep them on a short leash and had them assigned to places where they could keep an eye on them easily and to his knowledge, each had several Prowlers with orders to ice any ship that tried anything funny and had made it as such apparent to those commanders.
"Aye sir, orders going out." Seabiscuit replied calmly, as he spoke those words the orders were already going out. Such was the capability of an AI that could do trillions of calculations per second.
The AI paused. "Sir, report from Battle Group Starry Skies, they couldn't stop all of the energy torpedoes that Super Assault Carrier slung their way. Battleships Nightwish and Tosa had their prow plates penetrated by a torpedo each and had their spinal batteries completely destroyed along with suffering heavy damage to their forward citadel plate with a huge swath of the ship forward of the Citadel burned out. The Large Cruiser Trinity Sabre had her citadel penetrated and a Reactor SCRAM from a torpedo hit, prior to that she took hits from those new cannons and suffered a magazine detonation. The Heavy Cruiser Montezuma's Revenge placed herself in front of the Artillery Ship Climax to shield her, taking four hits in the process which caused a reactor breach, she's gone sir. Light Carrier Casablanca took two torpedoes and nearly got outright cut in half by them. The torpedoes were in the Ultra-Heavy class, which explains the damage suffered. Vice Admiral Raeder is requesting for permission to have his heavily damaged ships make for the Ganymede Yards so they can be repaired."
"Granted." Hood rumbled as a casualty list appeared popped up, he winced at the casualties. There were thousands of names from dead and wounded crew members in that list. They were the first to die in the defense of Terra itself, it was a list that he knew by the end would have millions of names, if they were successful. He was lying to himself if he thought he knew everyone in the Home Fleet in passing at least. That was a lie, the fleet was so huge that it was simply impossible. He only knew the various Admirals in the fleet and some of the Commodores. Sighing, he gave out his next orders, this time to the shipyards, prioritizing the two battleships from Battle Group Starry Skies for repairs.
"Status on Battle Groups and Void Action Groups around Terra, Luna, and 16 Psyche?" Hood asked.
"All ships are at battle stations sir. Though I just notified Admiral Halsey that Battle Group Enterprise was the last Battle Group to report in. Uh, he's not happy." The Lieutenant at Ops said and despite himself, Hood had to stop himself from laughing, Admiral Robert Halsey had a personality that matched one of his more famous ancestors and if he was last reporting in, then you could be damn sure that he wouldn't be happy.
"Alright, I want a CAP up. Have the Battle Groups position themselves just as we practiced along the Lunar Perimeter. ODPs are to load GKKVs and engage once the enemy reaches 5-gigameters from Terra." Hood ordered, it was the standard defensive plan and had whenever the Covenant had attacked a planet with a halfway decent defense grid, made sure that the aliens had taken horrific losses.
"Orders going out sir." Ops replied.
Seabiscuit spoke up again. "Sir, report from Belt Defense Command, the Covenant ships are moving too fast. They're forces won't be able to make the intercept."
Dammit. So much for whittling the enemy down, the Covenant were simply hauling ass in-system. It was a reminder of just how fast their ships were in comparison to the UNSC's own vessels. Yes, they had been at war for nearly thirty years, but they just hadn't cracked the code on whatever the hell the Covenant used for engines. Hell, just by looking at it, he could tell that the bastards were being smart, they're projected path had them giving Mars a wide berth but giving them a literal straight path to Earth. They were sprinting in-system at hundreds of gravitas. A rumble passed through the decking as Ciaro began to orientate itself towards the Covenant ships that were approaching.
"Range?" he called.
"Range is 10-gigameters from Lunar Perimeter." Weps answered.
Only a few more minutes at most, he had to get a battle group into position. "Battle Group Warspite is to assume blocking position and engage the enemy."
"Aye sir, sending out orders." Seabiscuit replied and then there was a pause. "Vice Admiral Harper is responding, his battle group is moving to the blocking position assigned." the AI replied.
"Order Carrier Division Richtofen to assume defensive positions around Battle Cluster Cairo." Hood ordered.
"Aye sir, sending out orders." Seabiscuit replied.
"Sir, the enemy is launching Attack Ships, fighters, and boarding craft! Lot's of them!" Sensors called and Hood paled as the two Assault Carriers began to unleash the horde. Hundreds of boarding craft, Space Banshees, Seraphs, and Fast Attack Ships began to race from their holds.
9th Age of Reclamation, 3404 Solar Cycle
Onboard a Aser-Pattern Intrusion Craft
Super Tyl 'Muzamee
Clad in a black body glove wearing armor similar to the Majors but in orange color, Super Tyl 'Muzamee tried his best to maintain his footing as the Aser Pattern Intrusion Craft raced into the void at a high rate of speed. The Gravity clamps which held him in place wouldn't cause him to fall over which would result in everyone getting bowled over, but if he did lose his footing. He would collapse into a rather embarrassing heap on the decking.
However, he maintained his balance easily, he had done this numerous times before. He had to admit however, he hated fighting the humans onboard their own ships. Give him a city or open plains any day of the week, but fighting the humans inside their own ships and stations? He dreaded that and for good reason. The corridors were far too tight to easily avoid grenades or gunfire, their automated defenses had all sorts of nasty tricks up their sleeves, and hatches could turn into vertical coffins with a single well placed machine gun. It was in other words a sort of hell that he had heard more than one General say was a good way to get rid of heretics within the Covenant. Just stuff them in a boarding craft with poor equipment and the problem would solve itself.
Indeed, being on boarding duty against the humans was often regarded as a punishment detail. As it was usually a good way to get rid of miscreants and other trouble makers. But he didn't really care, if you liked excitement or just drew the short straw to borrow a human idiom, then doing a boarding action was for you. But it paid to be prepared and to that end, he had a plasma pistol, a sword, six plasma grenades, and a plasma rifle.
The Intrusion Craft rocked and shuddered, occasionally he could hear through the audio simulators the cracks of the defensive pulse lasers firing. They were racing towards the human ships now, their fighters had to be engaging for him to be hearing the pulse lasers firing. Again the Intrusion Craft rocked and shuddered as what he could only assume were kinetic slugs from human fighters impacting the shields as the lasers continued to fire.
He could already tell that something here was different, much different. He didn't know why, but he just knew. The way that the craft was shaking and rocking the shields must have been taking a beating from constant attacks. A moment later there was a muted roar as the ventral particle cannon fired a shot in retaliation against something that had the misfortune to enter its firing arc. The Particle Cannon spoke again precisely two micro-cycles later.
The lasers continued crackling as the Intrusion Craft shot forth. He couldn't make out the conversation that the crew was having, but judging by how he could hear a fair amount of swearing from the pilot, faint as it was. He assumed that things weren't going well, but then again being on an Intrusion Craft and attempting to board was always hairy.
The Particle Cannon thrummed again as the craft lurched. This cycle went on for what seemed like eternity until he heard the commander bark. "Thirty micro-cycles till latch on! You're boarding a human Defense Platform! Take it out! They're tearing up the fleet."
"Understood!" he growled as he flicked the safety off his longarm, the weapon officially wasn't sanctioned by the High Council, but High Hierarch of Regret had given the weapon his blessing. In terms of ROF it wasn't much of an improvement over the sanctioned Plasma Rifle, but in terms of range it was much better. He had come to value the power of the weapon across three separate campaigns and it had saved his life in more than one encounter.
"Ten Micro-Cycles till latch on, we're inside their Point Defense. Good luck Void Warriors!"
There was a heavy clang followed by the sound of mechanisms working as the tube extended and began melting its way through the armor, he swore he could hear metal cracking as it melted through. Then there was a sharp hiss of atmosphere as the tube equalized pressure.
The door hissed open and Tyl vaulted out of the boarding craft and into the corridor of a human defensive platform. His armored hooves slamming into the ground with a massive shaking clang and he raised his plasma rifle. There were humans to kill and he was eager to do so.
He barked his commands, sending a Lance towards the security checkpoint as he led others to breach a room that had the human word 'Recreation Room' over it.
An Unggoy placed a plasma charge on the door and scampered away to a safe distance. "Charge set!" it squealed.
"Burn it." Tyl commanded.
Heat and force washed over the two Lances as the plasma charge blew in the heavy Titanium door, reducing some of it to vapor and a significant portion to glowing slag. Majors Teza 'Naromee and Civa 'Nusovee pulled out plasma grenades. Set them to airburst and tossed them in, they detonated with shrieking roars.
Then their Unggoy charged in gleefully, followed by the Sangheili themselves. Moments later Tyl charged in leading his Command Lance.
Gunfire filled the compartment and was answered in kind by plasma fire.
AN: As a wise man once said. This is War. So expect characters to die and frequently.
An Energy Torpedo is how Bungie portrayed Plasma Torpedoes, when they strike the target, they effectively act as an Energy Mortar round with penetrative capabilities, boiling their way through armor and then the magnetic bottle breaks they act sort of like a hollow point bullet inside the ship. They can do massive damage depending on the weight class.
Now then, onto Covenant Ranks just to make things easier, these are the ground ranks:
Minor - Equals UNSC Sergeant, often commands Files, wears Light Blue armor
Major - Equals UNSC Lieutenant, often commands Lances, wears Maroon Armor
Super - Equals UNSC Captain, often commands Century, wears Orange armor
Ultra - Equals a UNSC Major, often commands Cohorts, wears Silvery White armor
General - Equals a UNSC Colonel, often commands Phalanxes, wears Yellow armor - Some Generals are Zealots and as such wear the General armor set but in Gold and Black
Skirmish Master - Equals a UNSC Brigadier General, often commands Legions, wears Coral colored armor
Battle Master - Equals a UNSC Major General, often commands Hosts
Field Master - Equals a UNSC Lieutenant General, often Commands Crusades
Field Marshal - Equals a UNSC General, is typically in-charge for an entire theater
War Master - Equals UNSC General of the Army
For the purposes of this story, it's highly unlikely that anything above General will likely get shot at by the UNSC.