1211 hours September 15, 2552 (Military calendar)
Gas giant Viperidae
Repaired task group
The five ships ripped a hole in space as they exited slipspace. Hannibal at the center followed on either side by the UNSC Broadside above. UNSC Meriwether Lewis to the port, UNSC Razorback to the right and UNSC Paladin bellow. Within a minute the doors opened and the seven fighters and eighteen dropships all of them armed as well as they could manage. Sensors were active and scanning an ever growing sphere. Alarms went off as ships dozens of them were painted red then yellow for unknown and then black for destroyed. The battle ready crews went from anxious to terrified to ecstatic just as fast. Commander Robinson actually laughed as he recognized what they were seeing "these are the covenant wrecks from Admiral Cole's last stand. He blew the gas giant with over three hundred covenant ships in range these are what are left."
With Commander Robinson being the most senior officer alive and his efforts that saw them to this point the Hannibal was assigned flagship of the small group and Commander Robinson transferred his flag aboard. The commander knowing the UNSC had learned a lot over the last ten years learning everything from covenant energy weapons to engine maintenance and repairs. With the ships overcrowded as they were the life support was barely able to keep up. They headed for the snowy frozen Earth like planet at the edge of the life supporting zone rumor was before the war there was a few small tourist resorts that would be ideal for a small hidden colony with Reach lost and the majority of the UNSC fleet destroyed with it. So it was only a matter of time before Earth fell and humanity went extinct didn't care they refused to cower in fear as humanity was slaughtered.
They were here for a singular reason during the years of insurrection before the covenant arrived in an effort to spread forces to protect shipping and colonies and outpost from the growing threat of insurrection the CMA (Colonial Military Administration) had positioned a force of Mako class corvettes and Charon class light frigates in a failed bid to rapidly dispatch forces to trouble spots in this region. This presented the UNSC survivors a perfect chance, to get the overloaded ships back under control and add to their firepower.
As they soared through the blackness of space and wrecked covie ships toward the captured asteroid the CMA had hollowed out as a cheap dockyard and space station space rippled as soon as they came within sight. Commander Robinson passed the order at the first detection "All ships prepare for battle covenant slipspace rupture detected." In less than a minute as the bow of a massive CAS class assault carrier appeared every UNSC ship shunted every erg of power into charging the MAC guns and firing as they became fully charged just as the covenant became aware of the human ships behind them.
The massive carrier began turning sharply to bring their weapons to bear just as the frigates smaller MACs fired followed by the destroyers the slowly charging shields batted the first MAC aside but the second tore through the port engine cluster less than a second later the double MACs of the destroyers slammed into the alien ship finishing it not a single shot had been fired at the humans. With the possibility of salvage here Robinson decided to split up sending the frigates on to the asteroid station while the Hannibal and destroyers boarded the carrier to find anything useful.
1451 hours September 16, 2552 (Military calendar)
CMA Viperidae Asteroid dockyard
UNSC Meriwether Lewis
Lieutenant Grant watched as Lewis and Razorback approached the asteroid base the surface was blackened and pitted from the supernova over six years ago. Upon closer examination Grant found the main doors were fused together forcing them to manually cut open the doors as the first marines floated through the partially open door he looked at the HUD camera and grinned at the intact and untouched CMA dockyard inside. And the ships sitting pristine in their cradles Grant whistled "Some CMA admiral must of thought when the CMA was folded into the UNSC he could pocket the dockyard and ships and go rouge or something." He mused looking at the Ensign in charge of the six dropships who nodded "load the dropships let's get started on getting these ladies back into the fight. The Ensign looked at the three Mako class corvettes and a pair of Charon class light frigates "Commander, I should inform you we don't have the manpower to get all these ships even partially crewed." Undeterred the commander said "Don't worry about that I had accounted for that as well as soon as we can safely dock I plan on having the majority of the crew transfer to the other ships and head back to the others to pick up more crew." Nodding the Ensign saluted and turned to carry out his orders.
1551 hours September 16, 2552 (Military calendar)
CAS class assault carrier wreckage
UNSC Hannibal
Commander Robinson looked at the steady back and forth as salvage proceeded unabated they had found almost a hundred Grunts locked In compartments or inside phantoms but no other survivors they were in the Paladins brig as soon as they had seen human marines they held their stubby hands in the air and were escorted off the ship so far the AI that was…not really interrogating them but just asking them questions and they answered proving the intel that they were treated as garbage by the other races in the covenant showing that maybe we can get the grunts to switch sides… that was above his paygrade. So far the salvage work had been quite lucrative unfortunately one of the destroyers massive MAC shells had smashed through and gutted the main hanger but in secondary hangers they had found a dozen intact Seraphs thirty more that were nothing more than spare parts as well as over two dozen space banshees on a side note almost a hundred atmospheric banshees witch was unfortunately almost worthless were also found as well as a fifteen boarding craft witch Robinson said would be a better idea to grab than half that in intact dropships with room running tight in the ships Commander Brian Robinson called a halt to the salvage work when one of the techs going through the computer systems reported two significant bits of information had been translated one that Earth had been discovered and a battle force of over three hundred warships meeting up at a mobile space station called the "unyielding hierophant" and two the massive covenant armada mopping up the Reach system had been called away to join the armada. Robinson knew Earth was going to need all the help it could get. Just as the Razorback and Lewis appeared on sensors the overloaded ships now done picking over the wreck moved to rendezvous upon hearing that there was less than thirty people aboard the ships meant to hold over three hundred crewmen pelicans and phantom were immediately launched to bring the numbers back up to near full strength upon hearing the CMA base was intact and held five ships they readied to redistribute crew and material.
1851 hours September 16, 2552 (Military calendar)
Outside of CMA asteroid dockyard
UNSC Hannibal
The newly reinforced ten ships were understrength allowing the overtaxed life support some much needed breathing room. As much firepower as Robinson had under his command ten ships a single cruiser, two destroyers, four frigates, and two corvettes he knew in his bones they would not be able to help earth against over three hundred ships they needed more and he knew just where to go "All ships prepare for jump destination Reach."