Chapter 5 is up, YAY! Sorry it took a while to post this one, I had a lot of work to do. Hope to have the next Chapter up soon.

Chapter 5: EMP

0620 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)
Reach Northern Hemisphere, HighCom Armory Omega

Ground CommanderAndrei Trotsky and Pvt. Davis watched as Rowan's new Longsword blasted out of the hangar on the way to its destination. Almost immediately after the interceptor had departed Trotsky's radio chimed out. Trotsky depressed the button "Commander Trotsky here. Report." It took several seconds for a reply.
Finally, a voice broadcast through the radio, although the words spoken barely cut through the cacophony caused by what sounded like explosions, gunfire, screams, and static. "THIS IS SECOND LUIT……….. TOO MANY ….. REPEAT, … MANY HOSTILES. RE……… REINFORCEMENTS ….. SECONDARY TREN…. ASAP!"
Trotsky once again pressed the button and broadcast his voice, calmly and clearly to the obviously panicked man at the other end. "Roger that, we'll send as much help as we can. Hold out for a little longer. Trotsky out." Trotsky gave Pvt. Davis a downcast look. "They need as many people out there as possible. Including you."
Hannah, having heard the radio transmission herself, nodded and turned to leave but was interrupted by Trotsky's voice; "Hannah, do me a favor, will you?"
Hannah spun around and gave him a quizzical look. "Yes sir?"
"Give em' hell"
"Is that an order sir?"
Trotsky smiled and nodded slightly; "You can consider that an order"
Hannah face formed a wry grin. "Consider it done." With that, the young private turned and left, leaving Trotsky standing alone in the hangar bay. He knew that she'd carry out her orders well but somewhere deep inside he knew that this was the last time he would ever see the young woman.

0629 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)
Reach Northern Hemisphere, 25,000 ft. above Merion River Valley

Rowan checked the Nav display and then glanced at his radar before beginning the final preparations for the Shiva's launch. His fighter was nearly six minutes from the drop zone but if he ran into any trouble there wouldn't be much time to ready the nuke. He thumbed through the checklist one last time just to be on the safe side and then looked over the warhead's onboard targeting computer. Technically, the techs should have all the technical stuff finalized before he even sat into the pilot's seat but it never hurt to make sure that everything is working perfectly.a
Suddenly a choppy voice came over through his earpiece and threw off Rowan's train of thought. "Martyriai, this is Aquarius one and two. We've been assigned to escort you to the target."
Rowan could detect a trace of malice in the pilot's voice which he could easily relate with. The two fighters had most likely been redirected from the main battle in space to protect him. No doubt that the two pilots hadn't been told the reason why they were escorting a single Longsword. They had most likely been forced to leave their squadron mates in order to guard him. Rowan couldn't blame them for being mad; he would be pretty pissed too.
Suddenly, Rowan's radar went mad; a trio of enemy contacts materialized onto the screen, announcing their arrival in the form of bright, red, blinking dots that identified them as hostiles. Shit. Rowan's earpiece buzzed to life once more; it was from one of his escorts. "Martyriai, this is Aquarius one. We have incoming hostiles. Recommend you disengage. We'll hold em' off as long as we can."
Rowan knew that they didn't stand much of a chance against the Seraphs' but he didn't really have much of a choice. "Roger that Aquarius. Good Luck."
Rowan steeped his fighter into a dive and dropped about five thousand feet before leveling off at around twenty thousand. His radar showed no sign of any contacts, friendly or otherwise. Shit. Suddenly a Seraph screamed towards his Longsword like a bat out of Hell. "Oh Shit!" Rowan brought his interceptor into a steep dive out of the path of the Seraph's projectile. Judging by the numerous alarms that began to fill the Longsword's cockpit with an almost unbearable level of noise, the Seraph's fire had been close, luckily nothing seemed to be damaged. Glancing down at the radar, Rowan could see a second Seraph right behind the other one. Rowan forced his fighter into another steep dive and held it for as long as he could, almost passing out from the intense G-forces caused by the severity of the Longsword's descent that threatened overloaded his fighter's inertial compensators. He noticed that the displayed on the altimeter read 7,000 ft he'd lost a lot of altitude, next to the altimeter the radar still displayed two red dots.
Without noticing or caring that no one could hear him Rowan exasperatedly exclaimed; "Oh, Come on! These guys just don't quit!" The Seraphs' had followed Rowan's Longsword with little effort; Covenant fighters performed notoriously better in atmosphere compared to their Human equivalents. It was about then that Rowan felt a rough jolt run through the Longsword and his cockpit, if it was even possible, became even louder with the buzzing of alarms. "What the Hell?" The Longsword began to lean toward the right at a thirty-five degree angle. Rowan's HUD showed that his fighter had suffered a minor hit to the starboard engine and that he was losing altitude rapidly.
Rowan opened up a Comm. channel to Armory Omega Command; "This is Flight Commander Rowan here, I'm under attack by Covenant fighters and my escorts are down. Requesting help. Situation FUBAR." Rowan only received static. Whether it was from interference or a lack of anyone to receive his message he didn't know. By wrestling the Longsword into another dive Rowan preserved Martyriai's life for several more seconds but he was running low on altitude. Rowan could already see the valley floor and could actually see the Covenant invaders making their way towards Armory Omega.
Given his present circumstances, Rowan though of trying to disengage and maybe attempting an emergency landing somewhere near friendly forces but immediately dismissed the thought. This whole planet is going down in flames, might as well go out in a blaze of glory. A flash of plasma tore him back into reality; Rowan re-routed all available power into the remaining engine and gunned it; temporarily catching his two pursuers off guard as they tried to compensate for they're quarry's sudden boost in speed. The Martyriai was close now, Rowan could see the LZ growing larger through the cockpit window; it was swarming with multi-colored specks. There were also numerous Covenant aircraft flying back and forth from orbit to the planet's surface. Several more Seraph fighters came towards his limping fighter as it descended but by then it was to late; I'll see you bastards in Hell." With a dark smirk Rowan slammed his Longsword into a grounded Phantom that had been in the middle of deploying a Wraith tank.
The heat blast of the atomic explosion incinerated the vast majority of organic material within the landing zone. In addition, hundreds of Covenant aircraft were destroyed within a mile of the explosion, resulting in the deaths of thousands of Covenant. Several seconds later, five-hundred mile-per-hour winds tore thorugh the valley for several miles, their destruction amplified due to the fact that the valley walls channeled the worst of the elements in one direction. In one defiant act, Flight Commander Greg Rowan temporarily halted Reach's destruction, but at the same time sealed its fate.

0629 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)
Orbital MAC Station Validus in orbit over Reach

The Nav officer suddenly yelled across the bridge; "Slipspace ruptures off our Bow!"
The entire station rumbled as it lined up with the closest Covenant Cruiser. Commander Alvarez watched as the targeting algorithms filled his display, calculating the precise coordinates before firing the massive projectile at its target.
The Tactical Officer ran up to Alvarez's side suddenly; " We've received a communiqué from The Pillar of Autumn. Capt. Keyes sent a warning that the Covenant fleet is targeting the orbital MAC's! They've already lost two. The pin-point slipspace jump seems to drain the Covenant vessels of power. The Cruisers seem to be dead in space and their power levels are way down!"
Alvarez stared out the viewport at the enemy Cruiser, there were no lights of any kind, no flash of plasma, and no movement aside from the gentle gravitational nudges caused by the spatial rupture. The MAC round tore into the unshielded Cruisers almost as if to prove the officer's point. "Is it a malfunction?"
"I don't know sir."
Again, as if answering Alvarez's question the remaining two ships began moving and Alvarez could see the faint glimmer as the Cruiser's shields began to charge.
"Well, I think that answer's our question. Target the next Cruiser, fire for effect.
A round from the neighboring station; Ardent, tore through the second Cruiser with little difficulty. Seconds later, Validus prepared to fire it's MAC on the last Cruiser but never had a chance to do so.
Alvarez screamed at Weapons Control; "What are you doing? Open Fire!"
One of the officers turned to him; "Sir, we can't"
Alvarez's face contorted into rage; "Well why the Hell not?"
At that second the entire bridge went dark and the bridge was devoid of any noise whatsoever, leaving it eerily silent.
Then someone said the one thing that was running through everyone's mind; "The Orbital Generators."
Suddenly, the emergency generators came online. The suffocating silence was suddenly banished by the familiar humming of electricity and the darkness was slightly lifted as red warning lights light up, filling the bridge with a red glow and shadows.Alvarez shouted out in alarm, "Report!"
A young officer, Alvarez couldn't tell whoexactly, replied; "Sir, we are low on power. Our supply from the groundside generators has been cut. Right now we're running on auxiliary."
Alvarez looked nervously at the Cruiser outside as it began charging its plasma turrets. "Can we fire?"
"No sir, we don't have anywhere near enough power to operate the MAC."
Alvarez didn't even bother answering; he was completely transfixed by the plasma torpedoes that were coming right towards the Validus.

0639 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)
UNSC Destroyer Argive inside Reach Battle Zone

Capt. Marshall was looking at the tactical display whentwo more green outlines disappeared. "Damn! What the Hell just happened! How'd we lose two more MACs?"
The Tactical Officer turned to Marshall, his face betraying a look of fear; "Sir, report from Adonis, the generators are offline, the MAC stations are dead in space."
"How did they go offline?"
"The Ground Commander, Commander Trotsky, ordered the use of the Shivas on Covenant ground forces, killed a lot of them too, unfortunately the EMP knocked out the generators."
Marshall nodded and turned towards the Comm. Officer, "Recall all fighters. Get me Camp Hathcock. Tell them that Captain Marshall needs to speak to Vice Admiral Whitcomb immediately."
The officer punched a few keys an less than ten seconds later, barely audible over the wash of static; the Vice Admiral's irritated voice filled the bridge. "Tell me that you have some good news Marshall."
Normally, when the Vice Admiral's mood was anything less than ecstatic a captain wouldn't dare do anything but nod and agree with whatever the Admiral was saying. However, these weren't normal times.
"Vice Admiral, we're pulling out of the system. The fleet is in shambles, Covenant vessels are moving freely throughout the system, and our Orbital MAC stations are offline permanently. There's no way that we'll be able to hold it for more than another hour. I'm recalling all fighters and will send an escort to get you off-world immediately.
The Vice Admiral's voice returned after another ten seconds; the communication lag was a testament to how far gone the planet was. "No, I can't give you our exact position. We've left Hathcock; the Covenant stormed the camp half an hour ago. We're using an auxiliary comm. hook-up, harder to detect. The Covenant didn't hit some of the one's in the forest yet.
"Well we'll try to use some of the orbital sensor relays to locate you, I'm sure there's a couple that haven't been hit yet."
Along with the familiar hiss of static, the Vice Admiral's voice was accompanied by the loud reports of gunfire and explosions. In the background someone screamed. "Negative ……don't have much time ……..still have unfinished business here."
There was a sudden shriek that was so severe that several of the officers on the bridge involuntarily covered their ears. Rowan shot a look at the Comm. Officer; "What happened? Did you get the Vice Admiral's location?"
The officer shook his head; "No sir, the connection has been terminated. We can't tell if it was intentional or a malfunction but we do know it originated from their end."
Marshall hung his head, "Very well, recall all fighters. We're pulling out." He turned and gazed out at the green-blue planet below him.