David was rocketed out of his sleep by an urgent, blaring warning sound and red lights. Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep! He jumped out of bed, already knowing what it was, without thinking. Combat Alert Alpha. Covenant were nearby, somewhere. The other pilots were already up and struggling into their flight suits. Nitoka was up and ready, and urging the other pilots to move faster.
"Faster, this isn't a drill! Pasley, hurry up we gotta get down to the launch bay now!" David grabbed his jumpsuit and got into it as fast as he could, tremblingly grabbing for his flight helmet and scattering everything on the table where it sat. He stood up and realized his holster was empty.
"Where's my pistol!" he spat, searching frantically. "I lost my pistol!"
"Too late for that, you won't be using it anyway! Come on, move!" Nitoka said, and pushed David out the door and to the elevator. All of the pilots got in and someone punched the button for the launch bay. The elevator lurched sickeningly and shot downward. They heard the AI over the com channels as the walls flew by them: All combat personnel report to your actions stations. External combat with Covenant immanent. David tried to keep his hands from shaking.
Nitoka addressed them: "All right, boys and girls, here's where we earn our wings. When we get to the launch bay, I want all of you in your interceptors and executing pre-flight checks. Be ready to go when the order comes down, okay?" They acknowledged the order with a salute, and the elevator announced they had arrived with a buzz.
"Let's move!" Nitoka ordered. They moved from the elevator to the platform and quickly slid down ladders onto the launch floor. David sprinted to his Longsword and ran up the ramp into the back, hitting the button to close the hatch. It hissed shut behind him and he jumped into his flight chair. He immediately felt more at ease, with the Longsword at his fingertips. David slid the visor on his helmet down over his eyes, and touched a few controls. A schematic of the interceptor came up in front of his eyes, and arrows moved down the ship, indicating systems. They all showed green.
The com channel came on again, it sounded through the speakers in David's helmet: All personnel, we are leaving dock in thirty seconds. Make sure all airlocks are secured. Pilots, be ready to deploy in forty-five seconds. Engage Covenant fighters on sight. Good luck. Nitoka came on the squadron channel: "You heard that, people, be ready to go. In numerical order, A1 first. We'll decide on a tactic when we find out what's going on."
The ship shook almost imperceptibly. They were leaving dock. The gravity of the situation dawned on David. If they weren't able to take down the Covenant . . . every person on September Station would die. He watched the crewmen leave the launch bay and the airlock doors open into space. The farthest ends of the Station rushed past the opening and disappeared. The first of the Longwords powered out of the bay. David waited his turn and gunned the interceptor's thrusters, rocketing him back into his seat and pushing the Longsword out into space.
The view was magnificent and soothing, with distant nebulas spinning slowly and stars winking at him. There wasn't time to pay attention to it, however. David turned his head and looked toward the Covenant vessels, coming closer by the second. There were three of them, two frigate-sized vessels and a destroyer. Three Covenant ships against two UNSC vessels. The odds weren't good.
The Longswords of A Squadron rose up, and flew parallel to the Orion, which steamed toward the approaching Covenant ships. They hovered in space, seemingly not moving. Their inaction, however, didn't seem like an advantage.
"What're they doin', Lieutenant?" someone asked Nitoka, nervously.
"I don't know, but it's not good," she responded cryptically.
They watched the Covenant vessels float. Their flanks glowed with plasma, and David realized that all of this was very real. One good plasma bolt would turn him and his interceptor into so much floating debris. Yet, the enemy waited, without firing. They stared, waiting tensely. They watched as a white-hot projectile flew from the Orion. It was the ship's Magnetic Acceleration Cannon, which flung super-dense tungsten round at the enemy. The Covenant, far away, easily dodged the round.
A channel came on from the Orion: A and B Squadrons, be aware we have detected inbound bogeys. Boarding craft. You are ordered to intercept and destroy. Red triangles flicked onto David's HUD, denoting boarders. The Covenant's objective became all too clear. They were going to board the station.
"A Squadron, prepare for combat, remove safeties on all weapons. We gotta destroy those boarding craft, people. If just one of them gets to the station or the Winter Moon, our boys are gonna get hell. Form into two Vs, I'll head one, Wingman Hennet will head the other. Let's go, full burn!" They had done this maneuver before in practice, a two-pronged attack. David took his spot at the back of Hennet's V and shoved the thrusters to the redline. The Longsword wings blasted forward toward the boarding craft.
David watched the Covenant ships closely, but still they made no move. I don't like this, he thought. The small, barrel-like boarding craft must have seen them, but they didn't try to evade them. They simply kept flying. The wing lined up toward the small craft and Hennet ordered: "Strafe them with chainguns, ready . . . fire!" David already had a shot; he held the trigger for the 40mm, and a string of massive armor-piercing rounds pelted the enemy ships. They shuddered under the barrage of fire. The wing pulled up and away for another run, and Nitoka's wing swooped down and finished off the ships. They hadn't made a move to resist.
"They didn't even try to dodge! Not so smart, are they!" someone said.
"No, they're clever," Hennet said, "very clever. Something's wrong here, it was too easy." Hennet checked something. "I'm not detecting any life from those boarding craft. Those were decoys! Stay sharp, people. Be on the lookout for anything."
David glanced toward the Covenant vessels as the Orion fired again, and the Covenant nimbly dodged the shot, but did nothing else. They continued to hover in place. David watched them a moment more. Suddenly one of them was wreathed in an electric blue and winked out of view.
"What was that!" David yelled, startled. "One of them just disappeared!"
"Oh, damn!" Hennet cursed. "I've heard about this. They can make really short jumps through Slipspace. Watch around, that ship'll turn up somewhere real soon!"
David turned his Longsword, facing September Station and the Orion. The space between the ship and the station shimmered, and a large, purplish shape appeared. Oddly, there were no lights on in the Covenant ship, and it wasn't moving. Even the engines, facing them, were dead.
The Orion's AI spoke to them, sounding strangely calm amidst the turmoil: All interceptors return immediately and engage Covenant vessel aft of Orion.
"Wing, fire Pike cluster bombs at the engines!" Hennet ordered. The Covenant ship began to light up, and the red glow rose along it's flanks. A firing solution appeared at the bottom of David's view and he tapped the firing control. A swarm of rocket-propelled bombs shrieked toward the Covenant frigate, splitting into a cloud of small, destructive High Explosive warheads. Headed straight for the enemy's engines.
"Hahaha! That's got them! One alien ship down!" a female pilot remarked triumphantly. But the frigate continued powering up and a translucent, silvery shield materialized around it. The cluster bombs rocketed toward their target and crashed against the shield. They detonated on impact. Explosions ripped through space near David, but as the dust cleared the only thing remaining was the Covenant ship, still fully intact and turning to bring it's plasma to bear against the Orion.
David could hear the awe in Hennet's voice as he spoke: "We are in for a hell of a fight."