First Lieutenant Ui'Tyinus leaned back in his chair in Third Flight's ready room and watched the slowly-spinning Halo on a wall-to-wall hologram. The hologram hovered several meters above the head of podium from which the Flight Commander usually gave his briefings. Nearly the entire Flight was there, already in their flight suits, and the only exceptions were the relatively few casualties they had sustained in the fight for the Covenant-held Halo. Ui'Oros sat next to him, her long body comfortable in the plush seats, and gazed down at the floor of the amphitheatre-type ready room. Ui'Nail sat on Tyinus' other side and had his usual grim air as he stared up at the hologram.
Arrayed around the Halo, in miniature of course, were the First and Second Carrier Groups. Several other shapes, their circumference the length of an ISN Carrier, were the first in a series of prototype Battle-Stations. Only a third of them were complete while the rest had been rushed into service with only their primary weapon systems operational. For the hundredth time since the specifications for the Battle-Station was complete, Tyinus punched them up on his armrest. Each Battle-Station was a massive installation, easily capable of housing an entire Carrier's worth of Reapers, Barracudas and Krakens, and had a megaton rail-cannon for its primary weapon. The accelerator tower was a monstrous affair half the size of a Destroyer. Rounding out the Battle-Stations armament were a quartet of RF Rail-Guns, several CSC particle cannons, over a hundred anti-fighter batteries, and dozens of torpedo/rocket/missile launchers. The several kilometer-wide EnShields the stations projected; combined with conventional shielding, gave each Battle-Station the ability to take tremendous amounts of damage.
Tyinus had been fantasizing for days about what it would be like to command that much power.
"Incoming Transit-Wave," the shipboard A.I. in command of communications broadcast over the ship, "Five… four… three… two… one…"
The holo-image magnified on the center of the Halo and the characteristic burst of light filled the interior. Dozens of ships, some of them dwarfing even the Battle-Stations in size, came flooding out of the eye of the device.
"Incoming enemy vessels. Transit-Wave in five… four…" the A.I.'s voice was nearly drowned out by the alert klaxons that began the moment she started speaking.
"You heard her!" Flight Commandar El'Friar shouted, though her voice was broadcast over the PA system in the room. "Double-time to the flight decks!"
Tyinus stood with his squadron and in a nearly coordinated wave the entire Flight poured up the amphitheatres ramps to one of four wide entrances. Tenth squadron ended up somewhere in the midst, their group still all together, as the Flight emerged into a wide corridor that curved gently to around the exterior of the ready room. Marine Security was already running everywhere, all of them entirely composed of Fire Warriors and Machines, to ensure that all the vital areas of the ship were secure in case of enemy boarding parties. Third Flight was like a crimson wave that pushed all else aside as they made their way left towards the emergency lifts to the flight decks. The shining silver walls passed in a blur as the lithe pilots made their way through The Rhine. Soon the lifts were in view and the first Wing was in. These lift were rapid transport, an entire five meter long section of wall had opened up, and there was just enough room for an entire Wing of kor pilots. Within twenty seconds Tyinus' Wing was stuffed inside the confines of the lift. The walls were smooth, as everything about Tau/Machine architecture tended to be, and the ambience would have been quite comfortable if one could forget that in moments they would all be fighting for their lives.
When the lift door slid down a hectic world was revealed to Tyinus. Third Flight's flight deck was a very wide affair in order for nearly the entire Flight to make an emergency landing at once if the need arose. But when over one hundred and fifty Reapers needed to take off in a hurry things got crowded fast. Thankfully the deck crew and the pilots had been working together for nearly a Terran standard year so there were few mishaps. The hangar was perfectly ovular, with the long edge operating as exterior access, and all of the Reapers rested at the rear of the hangar in their appointed launch slots. The emergency lift doors had let them out to the relative left of their fighters.
Nail calmly led his pilots towards their Reapers, deftly avoiding zipping Machine service bots and screaming fio's, and peeled off once he came to his Reaper. Tyinus went directly to his and began running a hand along its fuselage as he walked the perimeter. It was a ritual the entire Tenth had picked up from Nail. Tyinus ran his hand along the lower prong of his Reaper with a grim smile. Half a dozen rough textured rings had been imprinted upon the port lower prong to signify his kill count. Black stood for fighter, red for bombers, and gold for capital ships. None of Alpha Wing had a gold ring yet but Tyinus had a feeling that today would change that.
"How are you, Lobo?" Tyinus asked aloud.
"Cranky," his A.I. partner answered through projectors on the Reaper, "I was re-enacting a historical film called The Princess Bride with a charming Defensive Weapons A.I. I think I need to destroy something."
Tyinus laughed, "I think you'll get your chance, Lobo."
Tyinus sat back in the combat seat that had extended from the bottom of his Reaper's fuselage. A fio'ui, looking understandably overworked, came over with a portable maintenance terminal. Lobo could theoretically take care of nearly all of the flight prep but protocol dictated at least one fio monitor. Two halves of a helmet extended from the headrest and closed themselves upon his head when he leaned back. Tyinus himself swung the breath mask up and latched it to the bottom of the helmet. Then the armored bottom section of the combat helmet was attached to that to completely seal Tyinus' flight suit. Tyinus barely twitched as the interface jack plunged into the interface at the base of his neck. It still caused him more than a bit of embarrassment at how he had screamed the first time. Cold gel filled his crimson flight suit from head to toe as the combat seat began to rise towards the Reaper. Soon he was enclosed in absolute darkness.
Before he could voice an objection the blast-shield on his forward viewport retracted. Dim light began to saturate his cockpit as his control board lit up.
Ready for a system check? Lobo's voice was in his head now via Tyinus' interface.
Yes.
It took less than ten seconds for them to go over the pre-flight checklist and less than five for Lobo to confirm it with their fio handler. Tyinus' Reaper came to life with a heavy thrum.
"You're okay for launch, Ten-Seven. Good hunting, For the Greater Good!" the fio exclaimed over a private comm. channel.
"For the Greater Good," Tyinus intoned as his fighter began to slip beneath the surface of the deck.
Soon his Reaper was in its launch tube beneath the deck. The Flight and Wing Commanders had already departed and were awaiting their subordinates outside the ship. At this point all Tyinus had to do was so back and enjoy the ride. He opened up a channel to Oros with a thought.
"Oros, how about we grab a drink at the lounge after? A Fire Warrior 'Ui wants to show me a game he learned from a human. Darts or something. How about it?"
"Sure, Ty."
"Launch in… five… four… three… two…"
Tyinus focused his eyes forward down the long, tubular tunnel and saw the launch doors iris open. Then there was a jolt of acceleration, felt even through the inertial dampeners, and the red-streaked darkness of the launch tube was passing in a blur. In the space of a blink Tyinus' Reaper was free and Lobo was taking them towards their waypoint where the unit commanders were waiting. Having the A.I.'s do the piloting was a way of decreasing mishaps in the crowded space that was the eye of an ISN Carrier. The entire Armada of Reapers, a little over three hundred ships, was boiling forth from the eye and at the speeds they were traveling the space got crowded very fast. Once the Reapers got into their holding patterns around the Carrier then the Krakens and Barracuda's would make their appearance.
Lobo inserted their Reapers into the Tenth's delta formation four hundred meters off the starboard hull, well within the inner edge of the EnShields, and waited for their orders.
"Patch us in to The Rhine's sensors. I want to see what's going on."
Lobo did so with such quickness that Tyinus suspected the A.I. had already been monitoring the situation. Tyinus stared with mixed horror and awe as he saw the Hegemony force arrayed against them. A massive ship, its blue-purple hull stark against the backdrop of the Halo, centered the Hegemony line. Dozens of strange ships, resembling rocky ocean-dwelling organisms Tyinus had read about long ago, bristled menacingly despite the fact that there were no obvious weapon emplacements on them. Oros opened up a comm. line to him.
"What kinds of ships are those?"
"From what we know of the Hegemony and their allied races those vessels are most likely Yhuzzan Vong," Lobo inserted himself into their conversation seamlessly.
"What about Big Purple?" Oros asked.
"Structurally it bears a resemblance to several different naval technologies. Its specifications match no known Hegemony vessel in my files."
"So, something new," Oros mused.
"Let's just hope it's a pushover," Oros' A.I., Luna, added in a soft voice.
As if to answer her question the primary rail-cannons of all nine Battle-Stations fired simultaneously. A dozen of the Vong vessels broke apart as if a divine wind had swept through the center of the Halo. Tyinus' jaw dropped as the unknown ship took a pair of megaton shells with negligible damage to its hull. Then the entire Hegemony Fleet scattered in all directions to escape the kill zone.
"Are those dropships?" Tyinus asked, his eyes glued to the holographic display before him.
"Affirmative. Over two hundred to be precise," Lobo answered.
Big Purple took a path that put it squarely between the firing arcs of three Battle-Stations. Before the rail-cannons could fire, hellish plumes of plasma energy erupted from emplacements around the enemy ship. The massive plasma projections, easily the size of a small asteroid, streaked toward each Battle-Station. There was no follow-up of missiles or torpedo's though. Tyinus imagined that those blasts were more than capable of stripping away conventional shields but they had never come up against the infuriatingly efficiency of a capital-class EnShield. Each plasma projection, there seemed to be three for each Battle-Station, visibly shrank as they hurtled through the EnShields. To the pilot's horror two of plasma projections still retained at least fifty percent of their volume as they made it past the inner edge. Only one of the stations was fully operational while the other two still had another layer of reinforced hull to be added. Tyinus' growled softly as one Battle-Station began venting atmosphere from two tremendous fissures in its superior hull while the other's rail-cannon upper two-thirds totally detached from the station. The third Battle-Station had several, very wide, slagged portions of hull but seemed to be intact.
The Battle-Station's commander was reasonably upset at the outcome.
A cacophony of light burst forth from the Battle-Station, started by the main cannon's blast, and engulfed Big Purple. The Hegemony vessel returned fire with a varied assortment of directed energy weapons that barely penetrated the Station's Enshields. Then the Hegemony vessel put on a sudden burst of astounding acceleration that pushed it beyond the firing arc of the majority of the Station's weaponry.
It was coming straight for them.
"Pilots," Nail broadcast over the general squad channel. "We are deploying in a wide defensive screen around the Group. Alpha Wing is forming up with a bomber squad out of the Path Of Yui. Transmitting deployment coordinates."
Tyinus' guided his Reaper through the one of the relatively tiny pathways in the Carrier's EnShield and followed Oros as she made her way to the designated coordinates. To Tyinus' surprise they were once again escorting Philly Pride into battle.
"This is Wing Commander," El'Kuih's voice fairly quivered with pride, "The Pride requested our wing as escort. Let's not disappoint them."
The Rhine and the four Cruisers of the Group opened fire with their RF Rail-Guns. Tyinus shook his head as the enemy vessel continued its nearly suicidal charge. Some of the multi-ton rail-shells were making it through the barrage and the effect was showing. Then the Rhine threw up a screen of blinder torpedoes and the enemy vessel returned fire with its absurdly powerful plasma cannons. The Pride put on a burst of acceleration, and so did its sister ships, that put it inside the maximum turning arc of the plasma projections. Space was suddenly brightened by the blinder torpedoes and then again from a source somewhere behind Tyinus.
"We've lost the Yui," Lobo said, quietly.
Tyinus cursed foully in his native tongue as the Destroyers came within firing range of Big Purple. The Pride's escorts scattered as the Destroyers opened up with every forward facing energy weapon they had. Relatively wide swathes of the Hegemony vessel's hull began to slough off under the energy bombardment. Big Purple returned fire but it was primarily directed energy weapons that would have obliterated a baseline Tau craft. These were ISN Destroyers that protected by EnShields, normal shields and possessed the heaviest armor of any ISN ship. Tyinus assumed they were within the firing range of the forward facing plasma projections that had killed two Battle-Stations and an ISN Cruiser when missiles began to fly from the Hegemony vessel to only be shot down by the plasma batteries lining the sides of each Destroyer. That was when all five ISN Destroyers presented their bellies to the Hegemony vessel.
The detonations of the kiloton shells against shield and armor were utterly captivating.
Big Purple came out the other side of the gauntlet with the nearly thirty meters of its port wing gone and atmosphere venting from several places. Impossible as it was, the ship pulled "upward" and rotated in a classic aerospace maneuver that had translated well into interplanetary warfare, as it released a swarm of fast-attack vessels nearly as numerous as an Armada of Reapers.
"Get hot!" El'Kuih spat as the fighters and bombers began zeroing in on the Reapers for an attack run.
Tyinus merged with his ship in the literal blink of an eye. The fighters were Interceptors, even more advanced than the ones he had fought previously, and the bombers gave off some of the same energy emissions as the one that had nearly ended.
"For the Greater Good!" Fio'O Kin bellowed Armada-wide and was answered in kind by a bellow that would have deafened anyone listening without a neural link.
The squadron of Krakens fired a salvo of torpedoes and missiles at the Hegemony ships that was answered in kind. Energy detonations, some of them akin to thermonuclear detonation, washed space in light and heat. Tyinus', his teeth gritted tightly, blasted through the energy wall before it had fully faded. Before he could form one coherent thought his particle repeaters were firing ceaselessly. Oros was right behind him and fired a rocket directly at his tail. Tyinus dodged to port at the last second and the Interceptor before him disappeared in a cloud of debris and particle energy. An Interceptor zipped barely ten meters from his nose and Tyinus rolled his ship right behind it. Earlier lessons had taught Tyinus well the value of striking hard and fast. All four of his particle repeaters fired continuous streams at the Interceptors tail. They converged on a spot one meter and diameter and drilled a perfect circle right through the vessel. Atmosphere vented and the Interceptor tumbled out of control but Tyinus was already moving on to the next target.
It was Hegemony trash on Oros tail.
Approximately two minutes later Tyinus and Oros' Reapers had successfully killed the last bomber in their designated combat zone. Again, through blink luck or skill Tyinus couldn't decide, the entire 10th had come through. Several Reapers were in bad shape and their pilots not much worse. They had nearly lost the Destroyer, Kais' Victory, but the other Destroyers had come through intact. Right now Big Purple was floating only a few thousand kilometers from the center of the Halo ring. It was still relatively intact, despite the fact that it was venting atmosphere from every conceivable surface, and one of its wings was almost totally gone. PathFinder Gunships were circling it like scavengers around a freshly killed carcass but that was not Tyinus' concern now.
"So, Oros, about that drink…"
Her siblings had long ago taken to calling her The First, but the second T-X Prototype had chosen a real name.
Lillian.
The Terminator liked the way it rolled off the tongue and it had been relatively easy to get the Tau to refer to her as such. The humans, as they seemed to be about most things dealing with their Machine allies, proved a more difficult challenge.
No time to dwell now.
Lillian was a Fleet Admiral in the Trinity Interstellar Navy and she had chosen a Destroyer for her command ship. The Honor of Tyr had been the first out of The Belt shipyards and had been instrumental in taking the Covenant-held Halo. Its bridge's design was straightforward and had the dazzling metallic hue of SkyNet construction. There were two levels with multiple entry points. The upper level was officer country, as a Marine security grunt had dubbed it, and the semi-circular deck was dominated by a circular conference table. Facing towards the edge of the level was a raised dais upon which sat the Admiral's command chair. To either side of Lillian sat the Captain and her Executive Officer in their own command chairs. The lower level was filled with control stations manned entirely by air caste Tau. Their long, fragile-looking bodies sat nearly immobile in their combat couches. Each stared at whatever their neural interface was showing them and occasionally tapping commands into their control board to coincide with mental commands. All ISN personnel wore skintight, dark gray jumpsuits, with brilliant patches of color against a left shoulderpad that was the same hue as the walls. Lillian had stopped shaping her clothes so provocatively when she had become an Admiral but sometimes the uniform felt almost as revealing. The humans, very few still, which had joined the ISN, had added a long loincloth garment to protect their modesty somewhat. Anyone listening would have thought the bridge a silent place but that was not so. All it took was the right interface and the excitement the entire crew was feeling would pulse in an organic's skull.
In ten seconds the final stages of Operation: Deliverance would begin.
A huge, spherical hologram that filled the upper half of the bridge was displaying the Halo and a little more than two hundred thousand kilometers of the space around it. Lillian ignored it, as did the rest of her crew, as it was intended for those organics without invasive neural interfaces. Thankfully there were none present asking her useless questions. The Fleet Admiral was directly tied in to her ship's sensors and she could tell what was happening as though she were watching it.
"Inform the Saint Louis that they do not have an optimal firing position."
"Yes, O'Lillian," her primary communications officer replied through their shipwide Battle-Net. Lillian broadcast to all her Captain's on a private channel. "Four seconds, Captains. Remember that they said the Tau as a people were finished. Remember that you fight for a new home. That you fight for a free people. For the Greater Good!"
"For The Greater Good!"
Then an awe-inspiring pillar of light shot from the surface of the Halo and expanded in its center. When it dispersed there was a fleet of one hundred and fifteen vessels of varying sizes and design. Most of them were of Hegemony design but no one fired because twenty-three new T-X signals suddenly broadcast over the Battle-Net.
"Silence!" Lillian roared over the 'Net as she assimilated the data her sisters were feeding her. "Louis, Maiden, and Zulu, form on me. Unit-Seven-Three-Four, move your fleet to the designated coordinates. The rest of you hold position until the last of us Transit-In."
There was a chorus of affirmatives as the Admiral relayed coordinates to the Transit Control Center. Three sister Destroyers formed a line around the Tyr. Soon the three shining needles were stationary in the relative center of the ring. Light and resonant sound distorted the world for an instant and then was gone. Now the Fleet Admiral faced a naval officer's worst nightmare. There were two hundred and seventy-nine Hegemony vessels fighting in the immediate vicinity of this Halo. A fair portion of those hovered in close proximity to the Forerunner construct as they waited their turn to Transit-Out. These fifty-odd ships were unarmed transports of varying design. The ferocity of the combat made telling friend from foe tricky but Lillian had the tools for the job.
"Isolate ship by Tau life signatures. Open the 'Net."
At the same time that the science officers tagged the vessel by Tau life signatures, the communications officers opened up a limited, local Battle-Net. Twenty-five T-X signatures began broadcasting immediately and Lillian was quick to react.
"Separate and engage. Refugee Fleet elements will attach themselves to you. For The Greater Good!"
"For The Greater Good!" came the reply as the Destroyers raced into the maelstrom.
All along the broad front the Refugee's had established, their ships began bowing back so that three shallow bowls began to form. There were only thirty Hegemony vessels facing the Refugees but their models were newer and their systems updated. Several Refugee vessels had already been so heavily damaged that they were slowly listing away from the battle. Out of the center of each bowl came a Trinity Destroyer bent on unleashing hell. The bowls quickly folded into the sides and then followed the path of their chosen Destroyer. The result was three formations that resembled arrows complete with fletching.
Boiling spheres of energy were dispersed by forward EnShields as the ISN Destroyers closed with their enemy. Then missiles and torpedoes made of hysperalloys and ceramics were deployed. A defensive screen of fighters was also focused on the Destroyers. The ballistic weapons were slowed down measurably by the EnShields and were easily destroyed by anti-ballistic plasma batteries. A nanosecond after the last missile was destroyed each Destroyer's Void-Shield dropped. The display of light was bright enough to see as though a miniature star had been born. Only a fraction of the fighters survived the initial burst and they quickly scrambled out of the path of the charging Destroyers. Each Destroyer was responsible for obliterating several smaller Hegemony vessels before they plunged into the midst of their section of the enemy fleet. Thus the Destroyers began their spinning dance of death as their mega-ton Rail-Cannons spat vengeance at the oppressors of the Tau and humanity.
Within two minutes the combined efforts of the ISN Destroyers and the Refugee Fleet had wiped out the Hegemony presence. Several more Refugee ships had been rendered inoperable.
"Send a message to our Fleet. Hold position but I want the Blade of Gel'faun to Transit-In prepped for search-and-rescue." Lillian opened up to the 'Net. "All Refugee ships are ordered to Transit to your Home Galaxy at once. Welcome to the Trinty of Light."
Author's Notes: I decided to enlarge this section in order to give a glimpse of what exactly a Trinity ISN Battle-Station is. I was thinking of making an addy to further illustrate one of the roles of a Pathfinder in the Trinity Marine Corps. If anybody wants to see that just dro me a PM because if not I should get back to writing my other fic. Thanks for reading.