The UNSC Archangel might have been a Stalwart Class Light Frigate but she had been very quiet the last few weeks. The Archangel had been pursued and attacked by Covenant forces and the crew didn't know how they were tracking her. All they knew was that every few jumps, Covenant warships would be there to attack them. Until now, this final slip space jump was strange; the ship had no contacts on sensors and the D77-TC Pelicans that were sent out to scout out the area, came up with no ships lying in wait to attack them. All everyone on the ship knew was they were safe for now in an unknown system next to a very large and unknown planet.
"This war has been long and hard on most", Captain Lukens said. "So how have we not found out about this planet yet, UNSC ships have had to jump around to lots of systems to escape the covenant". Captain Lukens is an older man with a small white beard in the standard UNSC captain's uniform. What Capitan Lukens was talking to was Lexi the Archangel's Ai. The Ai styled herself after an ancient nordic Valkyrie with heavy leather and metal plate armor combined with chain mail as a wardrobe and having braided long red hair and a tan complexion. A strange quirk of the AI is whenever she was given full control of the ship weapons in combat she normally charged headlong into the fray resulting in her to almost never gain full control of the ship in combat. "Well sir, Yes it is 2545 and this war started 20 years ago but humanity has only been to 0.00002% or so of space, so it isn't surprising we have found a new habitable planet," Lexi said. The planet they were speaking of was an Earth-like world. 1G of gravity, and an atmosphere of 78% nitrogen, 29% oxygen and various other gasses. There were also signs of civilization but the age they were the crew refused to see just in case this world had Covenant on it. After a few silent moments Lukens finally ordered, "Keep sending out an SOS and keep me updated on the status of repairs, we can't waste any time currently." "Sir, Yes Sir" the entire bridge crew sounded off.
TWO WEEKS PRIOR
"Captain, First Sergeant Hammer has reported that they have finished gathering the marine's resupply and are headed for the ship now," Lexi reported. "I do understand that we were low on many ammo types and lost a few Warthogs recently but why did they have to go to the surface?" Responded Lukens in an annoyed tone. "All he said is special resources, Sir." Lexi obviously said.
"Captain, Unknown Slip space ruptures on the east side of Draco 3!" One of the combat officers reported. With an alarmed tone Lexi reported, "Several Covenant ships have been detected in the system, recommended going to battle stations." "Helm bring us around, weapons ready, the Mac, and prep archer missiles, Comms Order Hammer to get back to the ship now we are going to have guests, Lexi raise ship alert status to red alert and take control of the point defense weapons!", after the Lukens made sure his orders were followed, he picked up a comms and requested combat orders right before seeing a covenant CSO-Class Supercarrier and its support fleet appear from the slip space ruptures. Lukens then knew that this was a full invasion fleet meant to take over Draco III and he knew that they would lose but he wanted to try and fight them off.
A few seconds after these thoughts an SVD-Class Heavy corvette appeared though a slip space rupture 17 kilometers off the bow of the Archangel surprising the gunnery officers and blocking any possibility of escape for the moment. The few vital moments after the covenant corvette appeared the weapons officers opened fire with the Mac cannon with a full powered shot on the ship, and fired a salvo of archer missiles into its side. The Mac cannon was able to break the ship's shields allowing the archer missiles to land home but not before several of the SVD's fighters were able to launch and the corvette able to fire off a volley from its plasma cannons.
"All hands brace for impact!" Lukens yelled on the overcome, right before the deafening boom of the balls of plasma shot from the covenant ship hit the rear section of the Archangel. "Captain, the damage sustained from the covenant fire has disabled one of the main reactors cutting our current max speed in half and has knocked out long range communication equipment. Also Sargent hammer and his men have returned to the ship." Lexi half heartedly reported. While Lukens knew the AI could multi-task he also knew that Lexi was a smart AI and so she was made from scanning a human brain. This donor seemed to not like to multitask, making his AI not want to multitask. He also thought that Lexi could have taken her clothes a little too seriously and focused on combat. Snapping out of his thoughts by the weapons officer saying "Captain, enemy ship destroyed but they were able to launch their space grade fighters and their drop ships our point defense is holding the banshees at bay but the seraphs are wreaking havoc on our com systems and they have hit the Mac several times." Calmly and with an authoritative tone Captain Lukens gave a 3 word order "Lexi, weapons free." At this the AI grinned and the entire crew felt the ship lurch to life and they all heard the whine of every gun firing at the covenant vessels.
This was the constant for 15 minutes on the archangel; the ship gained more damage over time until the ship's slip space drive was hit. The Captain believed they were dead in the water until Lexi said "Captain the slipspace drive has powered up and is enacting a jump. I can't control it and it is too dangerous to send anyone to stop it." "F**k," the Captain cursed, picking up the intercom told the crew to brace for slip space jump.
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Present Day
On board the UNSC Archangel
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First Sergeant Lewis Hammer, was a man that all of the marines respected and even some feared, but most of the marines agreed that he is the true commander of the 224th company. He was 6'1" tall caucasion man with a short beard that was out of regulation but no one wanted to tell him to shave it off, and buzz cut but always wearing his standard patrol cap even into combat. Most people agreed he could whip up his marines into a frenzy of war, keep their morale high and their skills even higher. His call sign was hell blazer but most called him the reaper when talking about how he fought in combat.
First Sergeant Hammer was in a meeting with the company officers discussing troop readiness and spare supplies when the call to abandon ship was made. The Captain who was the CO of the company ordered all marines to their evac points and quickly made a meet up point with the limited knowledge of the planet that they had. Sergeant Hammer got his marines quickly organized and to their evac points before rushing off to his escape pod he also made sure the new toys he called in so many favors for were on board pelican dropships. His new toys were three different things, Two M12 warthogs equipped with the new gauss cannons that few ships had. Two M99 Special Application Scoped Rifles that were in short supply in these days of the war, and three M6 Spartan lasers which were the newest weapons to the scene and what he heard were powerful enough to knock out some heavy covenant armor.
On his way to the pod he was wondering why he felt no explosions and who was attacking them. He did know the ship was heavily damaged but he thought it wasn't enough to bring her down. When he made it to his pod he saw everyone else assigned to the pod had already made it there and had sat down in the escape pod. Hammer sat down in his seat and the doors closed. The pod launched with a thump and a shake as the pod hit the atmosphere. The last Sergeant hammer saw of the Archangel before it was on the ground was many pods launching from it and aircraft flying from its hangars.
"Sergeant Hammer! Sergeant Hammer, are you awake?!," a private said. "What yes, I'm awake, private, now where did we land, and is everyone ok or did we have some casualties on impact and how long was I out," Sergeant Hammer said with a grunt. "Sir we are about 25 Klicks from the main crash site of the Archangel," the private said while looking at a map he had to make sure his distance was correct. "We have sustained no casualties and there are two escape pods near us but our comms equipment was damaged on impact and four hours sir." Hammer thought about this situation: they had crash landed on an unknown planet with no known reason for why the ship was brought down and with no explanation to how it happened. The covenant could or could not be here as well and the amount of survivors is unknown at this moment. "This situation isn't good in the slightest. Private, I want you and everyone else here to gather up all of our supplies and to be ready to move out within the hour we need to get to the other pods and get to the emergency meet up point before sun down." Hammer said with a commanding voice. "And hand me that map." "Sir yes sir" the marines all barked out and got to work. Hammer looked through what he was able to grab on his way out of the ship, One BR55 rifle, and M6D handgun, and 3 grenades plus four magazines per weapon. He didn't like his selection but he would have to work with it until he got to the pelicans.
Looking around he saw that the area they landed in was forests with what looked like spruce trees but they also looked alien at the same time. He then started to wonder where the ODSTs landed as he knew he saw their drop pods launch from the archangel. He pushed these thoughts from his mind to put the primary objective first: find any survivors on his way to the meet up point then set up camp. But he did notice a road off in the nearby forest and noted that whatever locals are here most definitely saw their pods come down and would be looking for them.
While the situation could have been alot worse hammer still didn't know what was going on it could be just him and the 8 other marines here that survived the crash with all the dropships being brought down by something. He held out hope that most if not everyone survived. Within 20 minutes the 9 marines quickly gathered all the supplies that were on the pod and anything they believed to be beneficial to them setting up a base camp. "Alright men we will first head to the other pods and check to see if they are alive then we will all head to the emergency meet up point," yelled Hammer. The marines moved out towards the first pod not knowing what was out in the world.
4 Hours earlier
Vinesia Holmgang was proud but bored of her new position. She was the newly appointed captain of the King's watch. Being a captain in the King's guard was a first for her people. The Andrasy, an elf like people but with their ears looking like a feline and a tail of one too, looked down upon by the other races for being "kid like" in the words of the elf's. To the Andrasy they were not kid-like, their people were free spirited and adventures. To Vinesia this is why her current job held her back, she wanted adventure and freedom, she wanted to join the king's explorer corps. She didn't know that the adventure would come to her when she saw the largest fireball she had ever seen come from the heavens and it looked like it would crash into the kingdom of Driga, her kingdom!
As per her instructions she ran straight to the throne room and told the king "My lord some type of large fireball is deciding from the heavens towards the kingdom!" His response chilled her on how nonchalantly he ordered it "Well then just go there and tell the sorcerers to knock it off, if you succeed and come back alive, I'll even consider making you a servant of the explorers." But in a quieter tone she could hear him say "Cause that's all you Andrasy are good for anyways." With her orders and the king's obvious disgust of her presence Vinesia moved as quickly as her legs could carry her out of the throne room running her right into the queen.
With a thunk Vinesia hit the ground after hitting Queen Silvia's Magic Shield. Queen Silvia is old even for elf standards. She had pure silver hair and had many wrinkles from her years but a kind face of a loving grandmother. The queen was also the most powerful sorceress in the kingdom and her magic is said to only be surpassed by the gods themselves. "I'm so sorry my lady it is my mistake please forgive me!" Vinesia blurted at almost incomprehensible speeds. With a kind smile Queen Silvia replied "Calm down Captain Vinesia. It was only an accident and I can tell that something very important has come to your attention so please go complete your mission but as your punishment for this I will take your cake for this week." The queen also had a large sweet tooth so almost any punishment from her for minor infractions was to take their sweets away. "Thank you my Queen, you are so kind, and you are correct. The king has ordered me to investigate a giant fireball that I spotted coming from the heavens."
"This is most interesting as I did also notice that but I didn't sense any magic coming from it so I don't believe it's the work of sorcerers. This may be an attack but this also could be some type of fight of the gods." The queen said more talking to herself than to anyone. Looking back at Vinesia, Queen Silvia told her "Let me send my best sorcerer with you just in case you never know when you will need some magic! He will meet you and your party if you are taking one at the front gates. Good luck and be safe." "Thank you Queen Silvia, you are truly kind. I must head out now before the king throws a goblet at me if he comes out of the throne room." Vinesia said with pure thankfulness in her voice at the queen's kindness. Queen Silvia on the other hand saw how her husband treated people of race not in the great top three races and she was disgusted by it and wanted to change it. She also saw Vinesia the way she saw her grandchildren, so she wanted to help her as much as she could.
With That interaction done Vinesia hurried off to gather her team not knowing what the full situation was. Her Party consisted of a dwarf that was a hand to hand combat specialist, an elf who could shoot a bow from a long way away, and a harpy who was Queen Silvia's best sorcerer. "All right everyone let's get going, I'd rather get this done quickly so I can go back to my research" The harpy sorcerer said.