Author's Note: So this chapter took me a long time to write. It didn't occur to me until after I started writing, but this is the first time I've ever attempted to write a space combat scene, so I didn't really know what I was doing. I couldn't figure out whether or not I wanted to go a more "realistic approach" or a more "sci-fi approach" and ultimately, I think I ended in a somewhat awkward spot in-between. Because of that, I'm not sure how this chapter turned out. That's also why this chapter is a bit shorter than usual.
Also, something I want to point out before anyone gets confused: this chapter and the next several chapters will no longer be in chronological order. I will be jumping forward and backwards in time as I jump from perspective to perspective. For example, the events in this chapter are taking place at the same time Tariq and his follow tankers (the UNSC Army tankers) are being informed about the Covenant invasion. On the other hand, at this point, neither Selene (the civilian police officer) nor Adel (the UNSC Marine) have been informed.
It's going to get a little bit confusing, and I apologize for that, but hopeful I'll be able to make it clear for everyone.
Chapter 3
UNSC Katara Pass(1)(CA-747), Battle Group Tethong
Interplanetary Space, Ambracian System
May 6, 2545
0811 (Eleven minutes after contact)
Rear Admiral Pramod Tethong
"BRACE FOR EVASIVE MANEUVERS!"
Rear Admiral Pramod Tethong gritted his teeth as his flagship, the UNSC Katara Pass, ignited her starboard emergency thrusters, throwing the entire 90,000 metric ton cruiser to the side, the acceleration throwing him hard against his restraints. The minor discomfort was worth it though because barely a second later, a plasma torpedo came streaking in, missing the Katara Pass by a few dozen meters, but nevertheless still detonated due to its close proximity. The entire ship shook as she rode through the ensuing explosion.
"Damage report!" Captain Bakshi, commander of the Katara Pass barked out.
"Minimal damage to the outer hull, but the explosion knocked out the automated controls for the point defense turrets on our forward and starboard bow!"
"Get damage control parties down there to repair the damage and have some gunner's mates on standby to man those turrets in case they can't, on the double!"
"And pick up the rate of fire on the main cannons!" Tethong interjected. "I don't care if we're outside of effective range for the MACs! Make that destroyer chose between getting a good lock on us or risk taking a direct hit!"
"Aye sir!"
"Ryukyu, give me a sitrep on the fleet!"
Tethong's aide, a smart AI by the name of Ryukyu, immediately appeared by his side.
"The UNSC Breanne's Creek(2) is reporting power loss to both her primary fusion drives, but her captain has confirmed the ship will be able to maintain her position in the formation," he reported. "However the UNSC 18 Scorpii(3) took a direct hit to her forward bow, and I've lost all contact with her bridge. Furthermore, I'm detecting multiple breaches on her hull and she appears to be venting atmosphere."
"Put it on my screen!"
An image of one of Tethong's escort ships, a Charon-class frigate, instantly appeared on his tactical display. It was just like Ryukyu stated: the ship had taken a direct hit, probably from a plasma torpedo, to her bow, which had instantly boiled away her armored plating then melted its way through several decks. Secondary explosions were erupting all across the surface of the ship and there appeared to be some sort of green mist emerging from her stern which Tethong recognized as coolant for the main reactor. Her engines appeared to have shut down and although she continued to advance at high speeds, Tethong knew it was because they were in space and not because of anything her crew was doing. The 18 Scorpii was clearly dead in the water.
"Dammit! Alright, tap into the 18 Scorpii's internal intercom system and order the crew to abandon ship!" Tethong barked, even as escape pods began ejecting from the ship. "Have the Gladius(4) and the Sagan Blue(4) come about to pick up survivors, then order them to jump to Actium; those corvettes aren't going to help us very much right now!
"Sir."
"Order the fleet to increase their speeds: red line their reactors if they have to! We have to close the distance and get within maximum effective range of our missiles before the Covenant take out any more of our ships!" Tethong roared, before turning his attention back to the battle at hand, seething.
The 18 Scorpii was the second ship Tethong had lost already and given the fact he only had fifteen warships assigned to his battle group, he couldn't afford to lose anymore. He wished there was something he could do other than rush headlong at the Covenant but unfortunately, that just wasn't possible: out here in interplanetary space, it was simply impossible to hide a fleet consisting of one Marathon-class heavy cruiser, seven frigates of various classes, four Halberd-class destroyers and two Gladius-class heavy corvettes. Nor could they try to engage the Covenant from afar: while there was theoretically no maximum range to projectile weaponry in space, Covenant electronic countermeasures and point defense systems were such that most anti-ship missiles would be intercepted or destroyed megameters before impact, and MAC rounds were unguided so all Covenant ships had to do was move out of the way. No, the only way Tethong could hope to do battle against the Covenant was to get into the space equivalent of "knife fighting" range and essentially engage the Covenant at point blank range.
Of course, in order to accomplish that, Tethong and his battle group had to run through a gauntlet of fire…
"VAMPIRE VAMPIRE VAMPIRE! Incoming plasma torpedoes bearing two five six!"
"Launch chaff and standby to ignite port side emergency thrusters!" Bakshi yelled from her seat.
Through his display, Tethong could see three metal objects launching from the Katara Pass at high speeds in different directions. As soon as each chaff was about a kilometer away, they all began emitting a high magnetic signature, one that would hopefully cause the plasma torpedoes to lock onto them, and not the ship.
In the distance, Tethong could see three plasma torpedoes come streaking in, easily seen because of the vibrant red contrails they were leaving in their wake. Two of them immediately broke away and began chasing after one of the decoys, which detonated in a brief but violent flash of light as the torpedoes hit. The third torpedo however, continued straight forward.
"Standby to ignite port side emergency thrusters!" Bakshi barked out and the ship's helmsman quickly moved his hand over the ignition button. "Standby..."
Tethong nervously licked his lips as the torpedo continued to head straight for the Katara Pass.
"Standby..." Bakshi ordered. "Act -"
Without warning, the third torpedo abruptly broke away and began chasing after one of the decoys instead. There was a bloody explosion as the torpedo hit home, but the Katara Pass was unscathed.
Tethong let out a mute sigh of relief, but he knew they couldn't keep this up.
"Ryukyu, how soon until we reach maximum effective range!?" Tethong demanded to know.
"Three minutes sir!"
"Is there any way to -"
Tethong broke off as he just happened to look up in time to see one of his destroyers, the UNSC Martel(5), take a trio of plasma torpedoes amidships. The explosion literally cut the vessel in half, sending both halves of the ship spiraling in two different directions. There were clearly no survivors.
"Dammit," Tethong spat. "Okay, we're close enough! Ryukyu, scramble the fighters! All ships, lock on to that destroyer with all batteries and open fire!"
His display instantly lit up as all remaining ships in his battle group opened up with everything they had on the Covenant. Orange-red tracers, light gray contrails, and brilliant white flashes filled the area as his ships unload hundreds of 50mm shells, Archer missiles, and magnetically accelerated ferric-tungsten projectiles at their target, a single Covenant CPV-class heavy destroyer, crossing the distance between the two fleets in a matter of seconds.
The results were… less than satisfactory.
The MAC rounds were the first to arrive, being the fastest of all projectiles. Despite their speed, the Covenant destroyer was able to deftly maneuver around all but two of the rounds, which struck the destroyer's energy shields causing them to light up, but otherwise causing no other damage. In the meantime, pulse laser turrets located on the dorsal side of the ship's hull came to life, instantly shooting and destroying half the Archer missiles long before they could reach, while the other half of the Archer missiles abruptly veered off course, no doubt the result of Covenant electronic countermeasures. Finally, the 50mm shells struck home but given their small size, they did little to no damage to the kilometer and a half long ship.
"Second volley!" Tethong fanatically ordered. "All ships, fire when ready!"
His fleet fired again. This time, having fired from a bit closer position, the results were more noticeable. At least five MAC rounds struck home while about a third of the Archer missiles were also able to hit the destroyer's shield, causing it to not only light up, but flicker as they began to lose strength. Unfortunately, that was not something Tethong could take advantage of as the Covenant quickly began to return fire.
"Evasive maneuvers! Hard to port!" Tethong screamed as the Covenant destroyer lit up with return fire.
Tethong was slammed against his seat as the Katara Pass began making a hard turn a second too late to avoid Covenant plasma fire. The entire ship shook as she was struck by several plasma cannon bolts, each bolt making a loud CLANK noise that echoed through the entire ship as they struck home. At once, reports from around the ship began filtering in
"Multiple hits across the hull -"
"- plating in sections Alpha, Charlie, and -"
"Both MACs are green across the board however missile turrets Item, Echo, Yankee -"
"- reading multiple breaches in the outer hull -"
"Captain Bakshi! Engineering is reporting the cooling system to the primary fusion reactors has been damage! Chief Engineer Luray is saying we can no longer run the reactors at full power otherwise we run the risk of an overload!"
"Flush the coolant into the reactors, then switch over to secondary systems," Bakshi ordered. "Tell Lieutenant Luray to get his crews working on a temporary fix, I want those reactors back online as soon as possible! In the meantime, divert power from the main engines to the MACs, target the plasma beam emitter on that destroyer and fire when ready!"
As updates from the crew came streaming in, damage reports from the rest of the fleet were also filtering through Tethong display. Things were looking grim.
Plasma cannon fire was raking across the hull of the Breanne's Creek, causing the entire ship to be awashed with explosions, though her armor appeared to holding as she continued to maneuver and return fire. At the same time, a series of plasma torpedoes and plasma cannon bolts simultaneously struck the UNSC Oberon(5), a Stalwart-class frigate, which disintegrated with all hands lost. Massive amounts of energy started swirling on the underside of the Covenant destroyer's bow before a single beam of blue-white lanced out, spearing another one of Tethong's escort frigates right in the stern, neatly separating the frigates main thrusters from the rest of the ship. To the crew's credit, they continued to unload on the Covenant, unfazed by the near death experience. Meanwhile, the Covenant appeared to be in a fierce duel with the three remaining destroyers from Tethong's destroyer squadron, with pulse laser being fired at a frantic pace as the UNSC destroyers advanced on the Covenant destroyer from above.
"Admiral?" a voice sounded in Tethong's ear.
"What is it Ryukyu?" he distractedly asked, wincing as the Katara Pass took another series of hits, though her armor continued to hold.
"Long range sensors are indicating the main body of the Covenant fleet is slowing down. They appear to be hanging back. However, I am detecting the signatures of three more Covenant warships on approach."
"On screen!"
A composite image of the Covenant fleet appeared on his display. Like Ryukyu reported, the main body of the Covenant invasion force, a single CCS-class battlecruisers and her escorts, had come to a dead stop thousands of kilometers away from the fighting, safely out of range of the UNSC. It was a bit unusual, as that single battlecruiser had enough firepower to reduce Tethong's entire fleet to molten slag in a single volley, which led Tethong to suspect that ship were filled with something valuable, probably an entire invasion force, but whatever the case was, Tethong was just glad he was somehow managing to accomplish his objective of stalling the Covenant advance. His main concern however, was the single SDV-class heavy corvette and the two CRS-class light cruisers that were approaching the battle at max burn. As they drew closer, what almost appeared to be a small cloud began to surround them.
"The Covenant are launching fighters!" Ryukyu warned. "I'm reading over two dozen Type-31 Seraphs and three times as many Banshees."
Tethong grounded his teeth together. They were having enough problems with one ship already; add in three more ships and fighters? There was no chance they could win this engagement. But they couldn't retreat either. If they tried to run, all the Covenant would do was pick them apart from afar. No, Tethong had to stay here and fight. And die here, as it was rapidly looking like.
Still, Tethong could try to make the best of the situation. If his fleet could do enough damage to these ships, he could potentially create a hole in the Covenant formation, one that following waves might be able to exploit.
"Ryukyu, turn over control of all Longsword fighters over to Captain Yoder of the 227th Destroyer Squadron then order him to break contact with that destroyer, come about, and engage the incoming Covenant ships. Designated them as targets 1-Bravo, 1-Charlie, and 2-Charlie. Tell Hiram his objective is to do as damage to those ships as he possibly can! Rally my remaining cruiser strike group and assigned them different attack vectors on that Covenant destroyer, mark as target 1-Alpha! We've got to hit that destroyer from different angles, disable her shields and remove her from the fight before we get swarmed with Covenant fighters!" Tethong winced as the Breanne's Creek was speared right through her fusion reactor by one of the Covenant destroyer's energy projectors, causing the Breanne's Creek to finally disintegrate into one giant fireball. "Do it, and do it now!"
Tethong was shoved against his restraints as the Katara Pass rapidly accelerated to the side as her helmsman attempted to maneuver her into a position where she could approach the destroyer from above and hopefully on the other side of the Covenant destroyer's deadly plasma beam emitters. Her gunners continued to rake the destroyer with missile and autocannon fire, quickly depleting the Covenant's shields, but not as quickly as Tethong would have liked as he know Covenant reinforcements were closing in. He glanced over at his destroyers to see how they were doing.
Captain Yoder and his ships had already disengaged and were on an intercept course towards the approaching Covenant ships. The entirety of the fleet's compliment of Longswords were accompanying them but from the looks of it, Yoder had opted to forgo using them in the traditional fighter screen role as all the Longswords had broken away from the main group and were vectoring towards one of the Covenant cruisers, ignoring all the Banshees and Seraphs that stood in their way. Tethong couldn't say he disapproved. At the rate they were losing ships, they would only last but a few more minutes. Having a fighter screen or not wasn't going to change that fact.
"Continue firing on target 1-Alpha with the MACs and point defense guns but lock all Archer pods on target 1-Bravo and fire when ready!" Tethong ordered.
"Admiral, we've already expended seventy-five percent of all our munitions for the main guns," Bakshi warned. "We can't maintain our current rate of fire for long."
"Expend the rest," Tethong demanded. "There's no point going out with ordnance still in our lockers"
"Aye sir! Weaps, give me a firing - WAH - !"
Bakshi disappeared at the same time the entire ship was sent reeling by a plasma torpedo that struck her amidship. For a few precious seconds, all Tethong could do was blankly stare at the spot Bakshi's hologram once stood.
"TAO, what the hell happened to Captain Bakshi?" Tethong roared.
"We've lost all communications with the bridge sir!" the young lieutenant in charge of the CIC instantly replied, his fingers flying across his workstation. "Cause unknown!"
"What, is it a communications glitch?" Tethong demanded.
"No sir! It appears that the... that the bridge is... I'm getting reports that we have a hull breach right where the bridge is located sir! I think the bridge has been..."
"Destroyed," Tethong grimly finished for him. "Shit. Alright, switch over all systems over to the secondary bridge and contact the XO; inform Commander Tassano he's the Captain now."
"Aye sir!"
"Maintain our heading and continue fire on that destroyer!" he commanded even as another one of his frigates began to fall apart under an intense barrage of plasma cannon bolts. He glance at his rear display, depicting the status of Actium's Defense Fleet. By the looks of it, they were only about halfway mobilized.
"Come on Spaatz, hurry up," Tethong urged under his breath. "We're not going to be able last much longer out here."
XXXXX
UNSC Kilkis
High Orbit, Actium
Admiral Spaatz
They weren't going to be able to last much longer out there.
As Tethong's ships continued to, one by one, wink out of existence from Spaatz's tactical display, he could tell they had, at best, minutes before Tethong's entire battle group would be destroyed, leaving the road to Actium clear once more. And with Spaatz's fleet only halfway done mobilizing, there wasn't going to be much he could do to stop them. While Tethong had lasted longer than expected, he didn't last nearly as long as Spaatz had hoped. He needed more time, but it was clear from Tethong's performance sending ships out for the Covenant to shoot up just wouldn't do.
"Kanin."
"Sir?"
"How many interplanetary ballistic missiles has the Air Force converted over?" Spaatz asked, his eyes glued to his screen as yet another one of Tethong's ships went dark.
"Seven sir, though they'll have six more ready within the next five minutes."
"Can't wait that long. We need to act, now." Spaatz sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "Alert Air Force Orbital Defense Command: arm all seven available missiles and standby to fire them at the Covenant."
"Sir, may I remind you, at this range, those missiles will require a target to lock on to in order for their guidance systems to work properly," Kanin warned, even as he set about executing Spaatz's orders. "However, Covenant ECM will prevent us from obtaining such a lock."
"I'm well aware of that Kanin."
"Then, with all due respect sir, how do you intend to circumnavigate this issue?"
Spaatz sighed. "We can't obtain a lock on the Covenant, that is true," he admitted. "However, we can obtain a lock on them." He pointed at his screen.
Spaatz could see Kanin lean in to see what he was pointing at, and watched as his eyes widened with realization.
"Sir, that's the Katara Pass," Kanin exclaimed. "Are you bloomin' suggestin' we fire upon on our own ships?"
"Admiral Tethong is not going to be able to last much longer, and unfortunately he wasn't able to buy us the time we needed. We need some way to slow the Covenant down and this is the only way we can do that without losing any more ships," Spaatz said, feeling an inscrutable need to explain his actions even though as a four star admiral, the only authority he needed to answer to was UNSC High Command. "And I'm not suggesting you do it, I'm ordering you: lock on to the Katara Pass' transponder and make ready to fire."
Kanin was silent for a moment.
"Yes sir," he finally said. "Alertin' ODC. Standin' by to launch on your command."
Spaatz nodded, then took a deep breath before letting it out slowly. "All missiles…"
"Fire."
XXXXX
UNSC Katara Pass
Interplanetary Space
Admiral Tethong
"Target 1-Alpha's shields have been disabled!"
Tethong sat up straight in his seat. "Divert all batteries back to 1-Alpha and begin targeting their main batteries!"
"Aye si - VAMPIRE VAMPIRE VAMPIRE! All stations, all stations, we are getting locked on by six – no seven interplanetary ballistic missiles!"
"What?" Tethong blurted out. "Ballistic missiles? Do you mean plasma torpedoes?"
"No sir! I'm tracking seven inbound SSM-75 'Svarog-IV' IPBMs bearing one seven three! Time to target, five mikes! Request permission to kill with birds?"
His mind struggling to catch up with all the information he had just been given, all Tethong could think to do was say, "No! Wait, who the fuck fired them?"
The tactical action officer looked up from his display.
"Actium," he replied, confusion coloring his voice before quickly returning his attention back to his station and Tethong could hear him saying into his radio, "Alpha Delta Foxtrot, this is Charlie Alpha seven four seven: abort, abort, abort. Charlie Alpha has been buddy-spiked, I say again, Charlie Alpha has been buddy-spiked, how copy over?"
Tethong threw a startled glance at his display, which had updated to show seven small objects rapidly closing in on his ship. "What the hell Spaatz?" he couldn't help but wonder out loud, even as the Katara Pass shook as it was bombarded with plasma bolts. "Why are you shooting at my ship when the damn Covenant is right… there…"
Insight struck him in an instant. Due to the distance between Actium and the Covenant, and the speed at which both were traveling at, firing an IPBM without obtaining a proper lock would be akin to firing an unguided round out of one of the ODPs, with a very low probability of a hit. However, a lock was impossible as Covenant ECM was designed to prevent that very event from occurring. But, by firing the missiles directly at Tethong's ship, Spaatz could get the missiles to within range of the Covenant at which point the Tethong's gunners could guide the IPBMs to where they could do the most damage. Furthermore by having the missiles approach from directly behind the Katara Pass, not only could Tethong physically protect the missiles from Covenant point defenses, the mass of his ship would also hide the missiles from their sensors until it was too late!
"Belay that order!" Tethong roared. "Helm, all engines ahead, full! Bring us in closer! Weaps, forget about their main battery, direct all weapons towards that destroyer's pulse laser turrets; take out their point defenses! Signal the rest of the fleet to do the same!"
"ADMIRAL! Target 1-Alpha is rotating around and I'm detecting a massive surge of energy on their ventral bow! I think they're attempting to take us out with their excavation beam!"
"Target their plasma beam emitter with the MACs and fire as she bears!"
"Sir, with our primary reactors offline, we won't be able to fire the MACs and bring the main thrusters to full power at the same time," Ryukyu pointed out.
Tethong grounded his teeth together in frustration. "Cease fire on the MACs, divert all available power to the main thrusters!" he finally decided. "Helm, get us in close and fast! TAO, TTT on those vampires?"
"Time to target: three mikes!"
"Weaps, standby to seize control of those IPBMs and guide them onto the Covenant: I want two missiles directed at 1-Alpha, three on 1-Bravo, and one apiece on 1-Charlie and 2-Charlie! Ryukyu, standby to fire the port side emergency thrusters! On my mark!"
The crew quickly set about executing his orders and Tethong snapped his attention back to his tactical display.
"Come on, come on, come on," Tethong impatiently muttered as he watched the Covenant destroyer spin around, trying to their energy projector to bear. Their bow was awashed with massive amounts of power, and Tethong knew with that amount of energy, the Covenant would be able to gut the Katara Pass with a single shot. "TAO, status on the vampires!"
"TTT, ninety seconds!"
"ADMIRAL, WE'RE GETTING LOCKED ON BY THE COVENANT!"
"MAR –"
The Covenant fired.
XXXXX
UNSC Kilkis
High Orbit, Actium
Admiral Spaatz
Spaatz grimly bowed his head in silence as the UNSC Katara Pass slowly fell apart on his display. The Covenant energy beam had gutted the Marathon-class cruiser from bow to stern, literally cutting the ship in half, lengthwise. Small explosions were erupting all over the remains as whatever oxygen remained in her corridors explosively decompressed, forcing both halves of the former ship to slowly drift apart. Spaatz anxiously waited for signs of movement, but unfortunately long range sensors could not detect any sign of escape pods leaving the ship, nor any distress beacons. Clearly, the UNSC Katara Pass had been lost with all hands.
With the loss of their target, the computers onboard the Svarogs' warheads immediately defaulted to seeker mood and began targeting the nearest vessel not broadcasting a friendly IFF signal: the Covenant destroyer Tethong had marked as target 1-Alpha. Barely less than a couple hundred kilometers away, Covenant electronic countermeasures were unable to prevent the missiles from obtaining a lock and because of Tethong's actions, the Covenant's remaining point defense turrets had been destroyed, which meant the destroyer was unable to shoot the Svarogs down.
Spaatz impassively watched as the Svarogs deftly shoot through the debris field left in the wake of the Katara Pass' destruction, and head straight for the destroyer. Frustratingly, the destroyer immediately deployed over a dozen decoy beacons and fired her emergency thrusters, causing the first six missiles to miss.
The seventh missiles, however…
Spaatz flinched and turned away as bright light filled his screen as the last remaining Svarog detonated in a white flash. As the light died down, Spaatz risked opening his eyes again, only to see his image had disappeared entirely.
"What happened?" Spaatz demanded. "Where's my image?"
"Image is gone sir, because we were using the cameras on Captain Yoder's flagship to obtain real-time footage of the battle, except the Captain Yoder's ship was just destroyed by target 1-Bravo," Kanin quickly explained. "With Battle Group Tethong now completely destroyed, we no longer have access to real-time feed therefore we are attempted to obtain footage from several imaging satellites in geosynchronous orbit around Tenedos, however due to the distance, there's a lag time of several minutes sir."
Spaatz pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. "As soon as you get connection, put it on screen; I need to know if we managed to take out that destroyer or not."
"Aye sir."
With nothing else to do but wait, Spaatz found himself impatiently tapping his foot on the ground.
"We're receivin' telemetry now sir," Kanin suddenly announced and as he did, Spaatz's display came to life. "Please note: this footage is approximately five minutes old."
Spaatz absentmindedly nodded in acknowledgement.
Kanin must have rewind the footage because it actually started with all seven missiles speeding towards the destroyer, similar to what Spaatz had seen a few minutes ago, only this time from another angle. As before, he watched as the destroyer deploy several decoy beacons, before igniting her port side thrusters, managing to avoid the first two Svarog missiles while the next four began chasing after the decoys. The seventh missile however, the destroyer was unable to dodge or fool, and Spaatz watch with a bit of satisfaction as the missile warhead was ejected from its booster pack and launched straight into the stern of the Covenant destroyer. The missile penetrated the hull, the hardened nose of the armor piercing warhead easily punching a hole the nanolaminated armor, then detonated in a brilliant white flash. The explosion wasn't nearly as big as it could have been as anti-ship missiles didn't carry as much explosive content due to the need for thicker housing for their armored piercing abilities, but a nuke was still a nuke.
As the explosion was quickly extinguished by the vacuum of space, Spaatz was finally able to survey the damage done to the Covenant.
The missile had struck in the spot right where the port side nacelle of the destroyer connected with the main body. The ensuing explosion had destroyed that connection, causing the entire nacelle to shear off, sending it flying away merrily in the opposite direction of the ship. Atmosphere was venting from the breach, bring along with it a mass amount of small objects, though the satellite was too far away to tell if the objects were debris or bodies. The purple hull of the ship was now black with soot, and about three quarters of the run lights on the destroyer had gone dark. The destroyer's engines had shut down, and now the ship was flying aimlessly through space.
While all the signs seemed to point at the ship being dead, Spaatz wasn't quite ready to celebrate just yet. While the damage looked devastating, in reality, depending on how good the damage control crews were, the damage was survivable. Hell, a UNSC ship could have survived that, and they didn't nearly have the same amount of redundancies and armor as Covenant ships did.
Still, the fact it had yet to move after a few minutes was promising.
"Kanin," Spaatz finally said. "Is there any way you can determine whether or not target 1-Alpha has been splashed?"
"I'm quite capable of determinin' the percent probability that we were able to deliver a fatal blow, wot, however given our general lack of knowledge in regards to Covenant ship design and naval procedures, I cannot determine for certain whether that ship has been rendered unusable. Not without being integrated with their systems, sir."
Spaatz was just about to ask him to run the numbers when movement on his display caught his attention.
On screen, the Covenant destroyer's maneuvering thrusters had suddenly come to life, stabilizing the ship and stopping her aimless drifting. At first, he wasn't sure if that meant someone was still alive aboard the ship or if it was just some automated system, but then, two more ships appeared on his display: targets 1-Charlie and 2-Charlie, the two CRS-class cruisers the Covenant had sent to reinforce the destroyer. As Spaatz watched, the cruisers flew in close to the damaged destroyer, to the point where they were less than a hundred meters apart, before deploying something that connected the cruisers to the destroyer. Then they ignited their sublight engines.
"What are they doing?" Spaatz asked out loud. "Kanin, track their trajectory. Where are they going with that ship?"
"Looks like they're headed towards the thickest part of Tenedos' rings sir," Kanin replied with a frown. "I'm hesitant to say without definitive evidence, but I do believe they are attemptin' to take shelter there. Furthermore sir, I'm picking massive amounts of encrypted radio transmissions between the cruisers and that destroyer. I believe it is safe to say, target 1-Alpha is still operational, wot."
"Son of a bitch," Spaatz spat out. That destroyer had taken out thirteen UNSC warships, three squadrons of Longswords, seven anti-ship IPBMs, and it still wasn't dead? The amount of firepower Spaatz had already thrown at that ship would have been enough to destroy half of the Actium defense fleet. This wasn't fair!
"Well, at least three Covenant ships have been taken out of action?" Kanin suggested, in an attempt to cheer Spaatz up, but he wasn't interested.
"If the Covenant can get that ship back to operational status, then that's one more ship they'll be able to utilize to overwhelm our defenses," Spaatz said. "We need to take that ship out now, while it's still vulnerable." He sighed and rubbed his face. "What is that battlecruiser doing? Put her on screen."
To Spaatz's annoyance, the main body of the Covenant had already reorganized their formation to cover the hole left there by the three ships and had resumed their march towards Actium.
"What's the status of our fleet?" Spaatz demanded to know.
"Approximately seventy percent mobilized, sir."
"Tell those last few ships to hurry up," Spaatz snapped, watching as target 1-Alpha slip into cover within Tenedos' rings. As they did, the beginnings of a plan began to form. "And get a hold of Air Force command."
"I'm going to need their aircraft carriers."
1. The UNSC Katara Pass is named after the Battle of Katara Pass, which is not a real battle nor is it one from canon. It's actually a battle from my universe, first mentioned in my other story, Missing in Action, chapter 3. I thought it would be fun to name a ship after my own stuff (call me conceited.)
2. UNSC Breanne's Creek: as above, this ship is named after another battle from my universe, first mentioned in Missing in Action, chapter 8.
3. UNSC 18 Scorpii: this ship is named after the Battle of 18 Scorpii which, unlike the other two examples, is actually a canon battle. The Battle of 18 Scorpii took place in March of 2543 and was one of the few UNSC victories over the Covenant during the Human-Covenant War.
4. UNSC Gladius and Sagan Blue: these two ships are actually canon ships, and the only two known Gladius-class corvettes in Halo Canon. I was too lazy to think up of my own names, so I decided to borrow from canon.
5. Martel and Oberon aren't named after anything in particular, but because I've already explained the origins of all the other ships' names, I thought I'd just leave this note here.
The reasoning for these ships names are because, like I said at the start, I was having a lot of problems writing this chapter, and as a result, I kept allowing myself to get distracted. In the future, not every ship name is going to have some history behind it, and a lot of them are just going to be names just for the sake of names.