Chapter 4: The Claire Ann
UNSC Frigate Claire Ann, High Orbit over Terra II, Hydracordatus system
"Captain Ronalds? Could you come here please?" The blazing red headed captain walked over the technician to his right.
"What is it?" asked the forty-year old quickly and quietly.
"I'm getting energy spikes from the blind spot around the planet, I'm cross referencing them right now…but whatever it is, it's getting bigger." The captain tapped his chin thinking.
"I want radio silence, have all personnel go to their battle stations. Oh, charge up the MAC cannon, and warm the missile pods up."
"Yes, sir." As he finished alarms started to ring telling the crewmembers to go to their stations. The captain walked back to his post and tapped a few buttons patching him over the intercom.
" All Longsword squadrons are to deploy and fall into defensive patterns ASAP. Five are to be armed with Shiva class nuclear warheads. That is all." The captain knew what the energy spikes were, they were Covenant battle cruisers coming out of slipspace. He hoped that it was only one or two; with luck they could use clever tactics to win out. But at the rate that the energy spikes were coming he knew that there was more than that. His eyes were riveted on the window in front of him.
"Sir, MAC cannon is at seventy-five percent." He just nodded in return. Then he saw it. A large purple craft started to appear from their blind spot. The bulbous ship moved with incredible speed, outrunning any ship the UNSC had of comparable size.
"MAC at ninety-nine…one hundred percent."
"You will fire on my command."
"Yes, sir" replied the weapons technician. Ronalds was still watching the Covenant battle cruiser come into full view of the Claire Ann, when another started to come around. The smaller craft was at least three-fourths the size of the frigate but could still tear it to shreds with ease. But that was not the last one, five more of the cruisers came around and fell in around the battle cruiser. Yet the spikes kept coming. Then the Covenant did something unexpected, they stopped their advance. He learned why though. Four more battle cruisers appeared along with their smaller support cruisers.
"Is there any way we could make a slipspace jump?" he asked, already knowing the answer.
"No," replied the technician bluntly, "You know we don't have the capability to do a slipspace jump this close to a planet."
But the captain wasn't listening, he was watching as a Covenant flagship came into view. Once the Covenant battle group got into formation, securely protecting the flagship, they started to move forward. He wasn't sure on the distance, but he knew they were almost in range of the huge plasma turrets. His stomach was in knots, he knew that he could either cause some disastrous effect to the battle group and become a hero, or become another unknown captain of a ship that was destroyed. He didn't want it to be the latter. The huge cruisers started to have an evil red glow around them as their plasma turrets heated up, each ship wanting to be the first one to burn through the inferior ship.
" Lieutenant, I want the MAC cannon locked on that flagship along with every single archer pod. Alert the Longswords and tell them to fire the Shivas on a timed detonation in X-ray formation."
"Yes, sir," the Lieutenant started speaking into his headset to the other techs on the deck, "Sir, MAC is locked on, Archers in five seconds."
"Fire in ten seconds, not on my command," replied the Captain who was still staring down the Covenant battle group.
"Oh…my…god… Captain! Captain! I-I find a hole that we could make a Slipspace jump!" stammered a bewilderd NCO.
"What?" he stopped mid-sentence. He had a decision to make; jump and leave the recovery team on the planet or stay and be killed. If he jumped they could bring reinforcements if the Covenant decided to set up base for a while.
"Make the jump, but fire our weapons first."
"Aye, sir." When the tech finished the Claire Ann jolted and its lights flickered as the white-hot MAC shell hurtled toward the flagship. When the shell was halfway to the ship the Archer missiles left their pods and streaked across the darkness of space to their target.
" Make the jump." When he finished sparkling light started to appear around the small UNSC vessel. With a slight push from the engines the Frigate slid into the hole created by the Shaw-Fukijawa slipspace generator and away from the Covenant battle group.
The gold armored Elite looked on the holo-screens in front of him with interest. The human ship had fired a large projectile at the Unending Greatness along with small missiles. He clicked his mandibles in anticipation of eliminating the humans in the most diabolical way possible. Suffocation would be nice, he thought. But he looked back at the screen and saw the tail end effects of the Slipspace jump.
"Do not follow them," he said bitterly. The great one would not want to waste his time with them. Angry with himself the Elite saw the MAC shell moments before it impacted, but instead of impacting on their shields it slammed into the bow of the flagship and tore through the bulbous section. He felt the thumps of decompression throughout the Unending Greatness. Then the Archer missiles slammed into the ship. The holo-screens started to flash red with warnings. Turrets were failing at an alarming rate. Then something caught his eye. There was a small silver object floating towards their ship. He zoomed in and saw that the object wasn't debris but a tube. The Elite cocked his head in curiosity. Reports were coming in from the other ships saying that their shields and plasma turrets were going offline along with decreased power readings. One caught his attention. Another ship, the Protector, had spotted the same silver object.
"What is happening!?" he roared to an unsuspecting Grunt next to him. The Grunt shivered and started to squeal, he ran off before any pain would be inflicted on him. Answering his question was an Engineer who started to chirp quickly. The Elite's translating software told him that there was some kind of magnetic anomaly happening. He turned back to the screens, frustrated at the current events. Suddenly there was a bright flash and huge explosion on the far left side of the battle group. A blinding light boiled over the two Cruisers there. One of the destroyed cruisers had reported the silver object.
"Evacuate the Holy One!" He yelled throughout the ship. On the far right of screen another one of the explosions erupted, this time taking out only one ship. The Elite immediately felt his ship start to move backwards with a sharp jolt. About seven kilometers in front of him there was a third explosion tore apart the blackness. It's shockwave quickly dissipated in the zero-g conditions. He spied the Shiva nuke in front of him with a wary eye.
"Make a slipspace jump!" he yelled out.
"We can't the generators are malfunctioning," replied a red armored Elite behind him. The general was becoming increasingly anxious as his large ship tried to maneuver away from the nuclear warhead.
" The holy one is away from the ship on a path to the planet." Good, thought the Elite, We do not need to worry anymore. He looked at the Shiva one last time seeing a small flame at it's back as it propelled itself closer to the flagship. Then it detonated.