Hello again, and welcome back to my MechWarrior/BattleTech - Halo crossover redux.
Thank you all for your wonderful feedback and support. I deeply appreciate it.
For those of you wanting to see the first confrontation between the Covenant and UNSC/SLDF, this is the chapter for you. Also, I've decided to mark a perspective shift in the same paragraph with three consecutive periods after a sentence. That way, I don't have to constantly divide the chapters up in a messy manner. In addition, Chapter 8 has been fully revised.
As always, leave a review, and enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own the Halo or MechWarrior/BattleTech franchises. They are the respective properties and trademarks of Microsoft Studios, 343 Industries, Bungie, FASA Corporation, FASA Interactive, Catalyst Game Labs, WizKids, Piranha Games Inc., etc. Any material original to the franchises belongs to their respective developers and publishers. Any material not original to the franchises is of my own invention. I do not own any music listed in each chapter. Any music listed belongs to it's original composers and/or artists.
BattleTech OST - Ochre Wall
UNSC Commonwealth
Approaching Chi Ceti IV
November 27th, 2525
Onboard the Paris-class Heavy Frigate Commonwealth, John-117 was walking towards the bunk room onboard the ship. The briefing that all of the Spartan-IIs had received whirled through his mind like a hurricane. He was having some difficulty processing what he had learned.
An alien alliance coming to try and destroy us, he noted to himself. This was the first time that he'd even heard of alien life. The fact that it was hostile, though, clearly indicated that this was going to be a fight that Humanity, as a whole, needed to win, or it would be destroyed. The briefing was also the first time that he'd seen the head of the Star League's intelligence agency: Nicholas Kerensky. That had been surprising, and it proved how serious this was.
What grabbed his attention most was his unusual destination. His thoughts were interrupted when he entered the bunk room. The bunk room was fairly spartan, with the floor of the room being occupied only by a few chairs and tables. On the left, one could see lockers for the crew of the ship, while the right had a wall with slots for the bunk beds. A single view port allowed him to see outside of the ship at Chi Ceti IV. From this distance, it looked like a ball of rock and mud.
This was Blue Team's shared bunk room. Looking around, he could see Sam-034 and Kelly-087 sparring, while Frederic-104 had his feet hooked onto a beam in the ceiling, allowing him to do pull-ups. He heard Sam shout, "Damnit!" as Kelly hurled him to the ground.
"You're still dropping your shoulder," Kelly observed.
"I know!" Sam snapped, then he regretted that. "Sorry. That was uncalled for."
"It's all right," Kelly replied. "That's bound to happen. We're a team, but teammates know when to help the other members out." Extending a hand, she hefted him back to his feet.
They noticed John standing patiently at the door. Immediately, all members of Blue Team stood to attention, with Frederic dropping from the ceiling onto his hands, before landing on his feet. As soon as they had come to attention, John asked, "Does Project MJÖLNIR mean anything to anyone?"
The others frowned thoughtfully. "Gotta be some kind of weapon," Fred suggested. "Brass isn't very imaginative with code-names."
The intercom on the door crackled just as Fred finished. "Spartan-117, report to the bridge."
"Yes, ma'am," John replied. Turning to the others, he said, "Sam, get everyone ready. On the double!"
"You heard the petty officer!" Sam called out. "Dog the distractions and into uniforms, Spartans!" With that, the members of Blue Team quickly got into their uniforms, while John made his way towards the bridge.
The Commonwealth's spacious bridge had room for 20 people, though it only had ten inside at the moment, all tending to their duties. Dr. Halsey looked at the Captain of the ship. A tall and stalwart man with Asian facial features, dark brown eyes and black facial hair, Captain Wallace looked more like a Mongolian warlord than a UNSC Captain. He also had the determination of such an individual, as well as the stubbornness that came with such a personality. Right now, however, Wallace was concerned with the other arrival that was expected to come today. "Any sign of the SLDF WarShip?"
One of the officers on his ship frowned. "Not yet, sir. I see… wait a minute! I've got a contact, bearing 3-5-0 mark 0-4-0!" As he said this, the ship in question arrived.
Looking to her left, the crew watched as a patch of space glowed a brilliant blue-white color, before near-instantly extruding into a shape. When the light faded, it revealed a ship that was nearly twice as long as the Commonwealth. Much of its hull was rounded, with the upper section of the hull being fairly rounded and flat, while the bottom had another rounded section bulging underneath. Three powerful engines in the rear pushed the ship forwards, while the hull had weapons mounted in strategic locations.
Haley stared at the ship for a few seconds, then recognized it as an Avatar-class WarsShip. One of the heavier line ships the SLDF had, the Avatar-class was the replacement for the aging Aegis-class WarShips that had been built. They were excellent WarShips, and boasted enough firepower and armor to tear apart a UNSC ship of the same classification.
"Ship is on scope," an officer reported. "IFF tags identify it as the SLS Vishnu."
"One of the principal deities of Hinduism," Halsey noted. "Interesting."
"I know that line of ship," Wallace added. "Avatar-class WarShips are named after Hindu deities. Quite fitting, given the armament that they boast." Turning to the COM Officer, he said, "Open a COM-link."
"Roger." A moment later, the COM Officer said, "Channel is open."
"Good." Clearing his throat, Wallace said, "This is Captain Wallace of the UNSC Commonwealth. Please state your intentions."
A response came back almost immediately. "This is Captain Orwell Gardner of the Vishnu. We came here on behalf of the SLIC's Director, and have an SLDF Blackhearts team onboard. We were sent here to retrieve our scientists and engineers from Chi Ceti IV and to assist with any operations if necessary."
"Roger, Captain Orwell. You were expected. Welcome to Chi Ceti IV."
"Thank you," Captain Orwell replied.
Just as he said this, the Sensors Officer said, "Sir, I've picked up a faint sensor contact at 120 billion klicks."
"Can you confirm?" Wallace asked.
"Affirmative, sir."
Then Orwell reported in. "Captain Orwell here. We've picked up a sensor trace. We believe that it is a WarShip of unknown specification. We're getting in contact with Director Kerensky immediately. Stand by."
As the COM channel clicked off, Wallace looked at the sensor information. "Probably a ghost contact," he decided. "Sensor ghosts have been known to pop up from time to time."
"Are you sure?" Halsey countered.
Just as she said this, John walked onto the bridge of the ship. "Dr. Halsey. Captain Wallace," he said.
"There it is again," Halsey noted.
"Doctor, that puts our ghost at eighty million klicks," Wallace growled, a slight tone of irritation in his voice. "Even if it were a ship, and I don't concur that it is, it would take an hour for it to get within weapons range. Besides, its disappeared again."
The COM crackled again. "Captain Orwell reporting in."
"Go ahead," Wallace replied.
"We've just received orders from Director Kerensky, sir. We've been ordered to go to battle stations immediately."
"Exactly what I was about to recommend," Halsey added.
"Are you sure?" Wallace asked. "We have plenty of time, unless there's something you're not telling us."
"This is not widely known, Captain, but the alien ships at Harvest disappeared, then reappeared much closer than before."
"An intra-system jump?" John asked.
"We believe so, Spartan," Halsey said.
Wallace shook his head. "Not possible. "I can tell you for certain that Sliptream Space cannot be navigated that accurately."
"You mean, we cannot navigate it with that kind of accuracy," Halsey countered. "Besides, the SLDF has shown that they can navigate their version of Slipstream Space with that level of precision. Their newest jump here proves it."
Wallace was about to give a retort, then thought better of it. "All right," he decided. "Bring the ship up to Combat Alert Alpha. I want everyone at their battle stations. If this turns out to be a false alarm, then no harm done. If it is for real, then you, Dr. Halsey, will have saved some lives."
"Thank you," Halsey replied, a smile on her face. "We'll take the drop ship. I will see to it that these Spartans make it to Project MJÖLNIR."
Just as she said this, though, alarms began to sound. Warning klaxons blared and red emergency strobe lights lit up on the bridge. On the Navigation Officer's screen, the words 'PROXIMITY ALERT' appeared, while the screen itself turned from the color blue to blood. "All hands to battle stations!" Wallace ordered. "This is not a drill! Reactors to 95 percent! Come about to course 1-2-5! All hands, brace for impact!"
Just as he said this, a rupture into Slipstream Space erupted into existence near the bow of the Commonwealth, with the Vishnu barely avoiding being chopped cleanly in half by the Slipstream Space Rupture. A moment later, the ship that the Vishnu had identified as a potential hostile emerged, with the ship banking hard to it's starboard side. The Nav Officer on the Commonwealth, spotting the rupture, immediately threw the ship into a hard starboard bank, barely missing the unknown ship…
Onboard the Vishnu, Captain Orwell watched as the ship banked, allowing him to see the hull profile of the unknown ship. Almost immediately, he recognized it from a bulletin that the SLIC had released to all SLDF WarShip captains and crews. It's a Covenant WarShip, he immediately noted. "Lakshmi, what are we looking at?" he asked.
A moment later, the holographic image of a four armed Indian woman dressed in clothes from the Ancient Indian era appeared over a holographic pedestal. "It is a Covenant WarShip," she stated. "Unknown class. Roughly roughly three hundred meters in length, 146 meters in width. Power output is equivalent to an SLDF WarShip of our class, sir."
"Can you get a fix on their weapons and armor?"
"Negative," Lakshmi, the AI of the ship, replied. "There is an energy barrier around the ship preventing me from getting an accurate scan. The ship is turning to engage both us and the Commonwealth."
Just then, the Fire Control Officer shouted, "SIR, INCOMING ORDINANCE!" At the same time, Orwell watched as the Covenant ship fired off a series of purple-white projectiles towards the Commonwealth. Like the bulletin issued days earlier had informed him, the projectiles seemed to arc, their flight paths twisting and turning as they flew towards the Commonwealth. Most of them missed, but a few smacked into the Commonwealth's port side, tearing off copious amounts of armor, and leaving glowing craters on the hull.
"Get us between them!" Orwell shouted. "Reactor and engines to one hundred percent! Fire Control, get a targeting solution and hit that bastard as hard as you can! Lakshmi, you have Point Defense control! Launch all Aerospace Fighters!"
"Aye, sir," Lakshmi replied as she took control of the ER Lasers and LRMs mounted on the ship's hull as part of the ship's Point Defense system. At the same time, the Vishnu's ASF compliment, mostly Tomahawk and Ahab clas ASFs, flew out of the hangars and formed a protective net around the Vishnu, even as the larger of the WarShips flew towards the space between the unknown ship and the Commonwealth…
Onboard the Commonwealth, Halsey, Wallace and the others staggered slightly as the unknown ship's projectile struck the vessel. Wallace, getting himself upright again, shouted, "Fire Archer missiles! Full spread!"
"Roger," the Fire Control Officer acknowledged. As the other ship began to fire again, missile tubes on the port side of the Commonwealth opened. Fire spewed out of them as a flight of Archer Missiles were fired. The missiles streaked toward the Covenant ship like angry comets, with the shipboard AI assigning them erratic flight paths to avoid destruction by point defense systems. Sure enough, the other ship fired anti-missile plasma boluses to defend itself. Two of the missiles were hit, but the rest made it and smashed into the ship… or rather, they would have.
To the surprise of Captain Wallace and everyone on the bridge, the missiles smacked directly into a blue-white energy field that shimmered into existence where they struck. The energy field rippled, before fading out of existence once more, leaving the hull of the ship unmarred. Halsey, who watched the missiles impact, immediately said what was on everyone's minds. "Energy shields?! That's… amazing!"
With that in mind, Wallace said, "Bring the ship around. Arm the MAC."
"Sir!" one of the officers shouted. "The Vishnu is moving directly between us and the unknown contact! I think they intend to provide us cover!" It was true. When Wallace looked outside, he could see the Vishnu quickly moving between his ship and the unknown ship…
Onboard the Vishnu, Orwell could feel the ship vibrating as the engines pushed the ship at maximum acceleration. On the tactical feed, he watched as the ship smoothly moved in-between the Covenant WarShip, with the Vishnu's larger size visually blocking the Covenant ship from seeing the Commonwealth. "Sir, we have a firing solution!" the Fire Control Officer reported.
"Good," Orwell said. "Given that we're dealing with energy shielding, I think that using ballistic weapons isn't a good idea. Fire our compliment of Heavy NPPCs and Naval Lasers! Time to show the Covenant what we're capable of!"
"Aye, sir!" With that, the weapons mounted on the hull turned towards the Covenant ship.
For all of their experience in naval combat and advanced technology, the Covenant were not prepared for what they were about to face: a Human faction capable of standing toe-to-toe against them.
As soon as the Covenant ship fired another spread of what appeared to be Capital Missiles, the Vishnu unleashed an all-out assault. A bank of NL35s that were on the starboard side of the Vishnu fired towards the Covenant ship at maximum power. A single brilliant red sparkle of light erupted on the surface of the bow shields, flaring them. At the same time, two Heavy Naval PPCs fired, sending particle bolus' flying towards the Covenant WarShip at extreme velocity. When those bolts impacted, the shields flared considerably, while a brilliant blue-white flash emanated from the impact points.
As soon as the Naval PPCs had fired, the projectiles from the Covenant ship smacked into the Vishnu. Orwell felt the ship shudder from the impacts, with the deck seemingly banking hard to the left. Holding on, he shouted, "STATUS?!"
"Armor ablation detected! Starboard bow and midship!" the Damage Control Officer shouted.
"Captain," Lakshmi added. "When the projectiles impacted, I detected a large spike in heat in those areas. My hypothesis is that the projectiles are actually bolus' of plasma that are fired off from the ship, with a central core holding the bolus together."
"Can our armor withstand that assault?!" Orwell asked. "Has the hull been breached?!"
"Negative. The hull has not been breached. Our armor should be able to withstand the assault."
"Good thing we upgraded to Ferro-Carbide," the Damage Control Officer reported. "From the looks of it, each hit from one of those is comparable to being hit by two Heavy Naval PPCs simultaneously."
"Keep firing!" Orwell ordered. "We've gotta keep the Commonwealth covered! Bring us around and prep the NAC/30s for when that energy shield comes down!" With that, the ship began turning hard to starboard. As it did so, the next pair of Heavy Naval PPCs fired.
This time, they had an effect. As soon as the third particle bolus from the Heavy NPPCs smacked into the shields, the shields flared, then sputtered out of existence. The fourth particle bolus traveled to where the third had impacted but then, much to everyone's surprise, traveled on, unimpeded, and smacked into the hull of the Covenant ship. Immediately, the high energy particle bolus tore and melted its way into the hull, piercing it.
"Damage!" The Fire Control Officer shouted. "We tore a hole into the hull!"
Not satisfied with that single hit, Orwell said, "Fire the Naval Autocannons! Prepare a Peacemaker missile and a salvo of Killer Whale missiles! Send a message to these bastards!"
On the bow of the Vishnu, the two NAC/30s mounted there turned slightly towards the Covenant ship as the bow lined up with said Covenant ship. A moment later, both of them fired, spewing purple-white plasma as they ejected a one tonne ferrous shell. Invisible to the naked eye, they shot through the space between the two ships at extreme velocities. Within just a portion of a second, they tore into the hull of the Covenant ship.
Both of them had a devastating effect. The first shell tore into the hull of the ship, then began bouncing around inside as it smacked into harder components. The second shell ripped into another portion of the ship, before coming to a stop with it's sibling inside of the ship. The forceful impacts shoved the Covenant ship's bow straight up.
Then the Vishnu fired one of it's eighteen Killer Whale Capital Missiles. When outfitted with the 500 kiloton thermonuclear warhead, it was known as the Peacemaker, with that warhead's purpose being anti-WarShip combat. The missile streaked through space, dodging plasma bolus' fired by the enemy ship, before smacking into the hull of the ship. There was a brief flash of light as the nuclear warhead detonated on contact with the hull of the Covenant WarShip. When it faded, Orwell could see a massive hole that had been melted into the hull of the ship. "Report," he ordered.
"Enemy ship has suffered damage to its starboard bow," Lakshmi reported."The fourth Heavy NPPC shot, as well as both shots from the NAC/30s, have done extensive damage to the hull of the ship. The Peacemaker nuclear warhead has also done some damage to the hull of the ship and I am detecting moderate levels of radiation where the hull's been melted away. Scans indicate that there is a hull breach."
"Prepare to fire more Peacemaker missiles," Orwell ordered.
"Sir, if I may?" Lakshmi asked.
"Go ahead."
"It might be better to capture the ship intact. If we do so, we can gather data on what the ship is capable of, while also gaining the chance to improve upon our own technology," Lakshmi suggested. "Still, you are the Captain. If you want to see the ship destroyed, that is your choice."
Orwell clasped his hands together and looked at the Covenant WarShip as he considered her words. It was clear that the hulls of Covenant WarShips were made of some stern stuff, though he did notice something odd. They don't have ablative armor mounted onto the hull, he noted. To him, this indicated a critical weakness in the Covenant's WarShip philosophy: without extra armor to protect the hull, any projectiles that punched through the energy shields would tear through the hull and into the rest of the ship. "Contact the Commonwealth," he ordered a moment later. "Belay the missile order." With that, he waited for a response from Wallace...
Onboard the Commonwealth, the crew was silent after drones they had launched to watch the battle showed them the intensity of the attacks the Covenant ship had unleashed, as well as the brutal counterattack the Vishnu had retaliated with. Halsey in particular was impressed by how much damage the Vishnu had dealt to the Covenant ship. "Incredible," she whispered. "I knew that the SLDF had energy weapons on their WarShips, but to see it in person is another thing entirely.
"I can agree with that," Wallace added. When he'd seen the red and blue-white sparkles that had come from the Vishnu's energy weapons, he had been impressed, to say the least. In addition, he now knew that, by moving the Vishnu between the hostile ship and the Commonwealth, Orwell had not only spared the Commonwealth further damage, they had sent a clear message to the attackers.
Just them, the COM Officer said, "Sir, I've got a transmission coming in from the Vishnu."
"Send it through," Wallace ordered.
A moment later, Orwell's British accented voice came in over the COM. "You gentlemen all right?"
"We're OK," Wallace replied. "Thanks to you. What happened? We only saw part of the battle before that nuke took out our drones. In addition, who are we dealing with?"
"Director Kerensky of SLIC informed us that we were allowed to do so. The unknowns that attacked us, Wallace, are members of an alien alliance known as the Covenant. We found out when they sent a transmission towards one of our ships at Harvest. Since then, we've been working on gathering as much intelligence on them as possible.
"As for what happened, we fired off our banks of Naval Lasers and Naval PPCs towards the enemy ship. From what we can tell, the Heavy NPPCs did most of the legwork, but the NL35s softened up the Covenant ship's energy shields. Our fourth NPPC shot tore into the hull, and we fired off a pair of our NAC/30s. Finally, we slapped them with one of our Peacemaker thermonuclear missiles."
"We can definitely see that," Halsey noted. "Looks like you melted a hole into the Covenant ship's hull."
"That we did," Orwell said. "The enemy ship's starting to move off, likely to make repairs and to seal the hull breaches. They might go for round two, though this time, we're going to hammer them with everything we have."
"Sirs, permission to speak freely?" John asked.
"Permission granted," Wallace replied. "What is it, son?"
"If I may suggest, given the damage that the Vishnu did to the Covenant ship, it might be possible to capture the ship."
"Are you certain that's a good idea?" Wallace asked. "We're not sure if they -"
"I think I see what our Spartan's trying to say," Halsey interrupted. "The Covenant, if that's what they are called, have technology that is significantly more advanced than our own. By capturing one of their ships, we'll not only deny them a valuable asset, we'll also gain the chance to study their technology, which will in turn lead to improvements of our own technology. It's risky, yes, but I think it's our best chance of learning more about our newfound enemy."
Wallace frowned, his lips pursing as he paced around the bridge slightly. A moment later, he asked, "Orwell, you still there?"
"Still here," came the reply.
"Can you provide cover for the Spartans if they decide to perform a boarding action?"
"Definitely," Orwell replied. "Our armor took some hits, but not as bad as I thought. In addition, our energy weapons appear to be highly damaging to Covenant energy shields, at least for their WarShips. If the Covenant tries anything, we'll hammer the enemy ship with our Naval PPCs and Naval Lasers until they get the message. In addition, we've got an SLDF Blackhearts team aboard the ship. They'd love the chance to see the interior of a Covenant WarShip."
"Then it's settled," Wallace decided. Turning to Halsey and John, he said, "I have my orders, to get you and you to Chi Ceti IV at all costs. Should you decide to board this 'Covenant' warship, the Vishnu will provide support and covering fire. In addition, the Blackhearts, if they're as good as Orwell says they are, will also board if they choose to do so."
"Understood," John replied with a salute. "We'll get the job done." With that, both he and Halsey left the ship.
(Author's Q&A)
RoyalTwinFangs: I'll leave that to you to speculate on. As for the latter question, the fight scenes above should answer that.
THATs1I3ntGUY: I see. Well, that likely won't happen. As for why? To quote the words of Sun Tzu, the author of the Art of War, 'In the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take the enemy's country whole and intact. To shatter and destroy it is not so good. So too, it is better to capture an entire army whole than to destroy it, to capture a regiment, a detachment or a company entire than to destroy them. Hence, to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.'
galacticarmor2 Alt: I see. I'll consider those, though we won't be seeing a multicrossover here.
SulliMike23: They definitely won't be. That won't be for a while, though.
Believer218: Good question. I'll figure that out as we go along.
Guest: Definitely. This will be a war that will change the face of the galaxy forever.
The True Skull: I wouldn't say that. It's not going to be like that. I'm going for a more grounded and realistic approach here.
edboy4926: Thank you.
Starfigter: Yep. That he will.
Chronus1326: A good question, one that deserves an answer. They found out once they decrypted and translated the message and it's information.
Danny79: Agreed.
shypunk: Thank you.
Violet Toyger: It wasn't so much as writers block as it was figuring out where to go next. Still, I appreciate your kind words and I thank you for them.
Enriks-Da-Writer: Thank you for your kind words. As for new types of 'Mechs coming out, we'll definitely have that happen.