Chapter 12
High Orbit, Actium
May 6, 2545
1000
Zelda
"ATTENTION ALL CALL SIGNS, BYZAS STATION HAS FALLEN! I SAY AGAIN, BYZAS STATION IS GONE! ALL UNITS, HOLD THE LINE!"
The general wide transmission washed over Zelda, but he could barely give it enough attention to truly comprehend what was being said as he was currently having problems of his own.
"WARNING, INCOMING PROJECTILE. WARNING, INCOMING PROJECTILE," his computer chimed.
"Flares," he spat, then threw himself into a spin as white hot magnesium flares began ejecting from the rear of his aircraft. Unfortunately the needlers chasing after him weren't so easily fooled, bypassing the flares entirely and following in Zelda's wake.
"Okay, you think you can take me on motherfucker!" Zelda angrily yelled. "You think you can shoot me, 1st Lieutenant Zelda Kuang down!? You want to see what I'm made of? I'll fucking show you what I'm made of!"
The aircraft he was fighting against, a Type-29 "Vampire," obviously didn't respond but instead opened up with its side mount plasma cannons. Zelda deftly dodged around a hunk of space debris and sped towards cover.
"Cover" in this case was the burnt out hulk of what used to be an Air Force attack transport(1). The ship had been hit several times by plasma torpedoes, boring holes through the armor and forcing the crew to abandon it. Unfortunate for the crew, however it was something Zelda could use to his advantage right now.
Flying through one of the breaches, Zelda thankfully found himself inside the ship's empty hanger. Being just a bit smaller than the size of his Broadsword, the Vampire could have easily followed him in, however the Split-lip pilots decided to remain outside and unload on the hole, as if they expected Zelda to turn around and fly out the same way. Which, to be fair, was what any sane pilot would have done. Fortunately for Zelda, he was anything but sane.
Punching his forward facing thrusters, Zelda came to a halt before he crashed into the far wall, then did a full ninety degree turn to the left. Prior to entering the wreck, Zelda had already mapped out where all the hull breaches were, and he immediately sped to the nearest one that was large enough for his fighter to fit. As he flew through the burnt out corridors, he was confront with clear evidence that not all of the transport's crew had been able to escape, but he ignored the frozen bodies that smack against his canopy and focused on flying straight.
Emerging from a breach in the front of the transport, Zelda immediately executed a full one hundred eight degree flip and found himself confronted with the Vampire's underside, which was still busy unloading his weapons on the hole Zelda had entered through.
"What up dickwad?" Zelda sneered, then promptly opened up with his weapons.
He fired a spread of missiles to burn through the Vampire's shields, then unloaded with his autocannon, blowing up the fighter before the pilots even had a chance to react.
"Dumbasses," Zelda muttered to himself as he banked away and started looking for Bellum and Odessa.
"Zelda, INCOMING TWELVE!"
Zelda jammed on his forward thrusters and stopped his fighter just in time as a plasma cannon bolt rocketed past in front of him and slammed into the side of the attack transport, blowing another hole into the wreck. Zelda gritted his teeth as the shockwave hit, tossing his small fighter around like it was a toy, and he frantically punched in his thrusters to try and get on the other side of the wreck. Stray plasma cannon shots aside, this side was getting crowded with all these warships and sitting in a crossfire was no place for Zelda to be.
Doing a half barrel roll to the right, Zelda flipped over the wreck and into its shadow. His proximity alarm pinged, causing him to tense up, but it was only Bellum and Odessa.
"6, you good?" Bellum asked.
"Just got my feathers singed, but I'm good."
"Good, because we just got cleared hot to engage that corvette. Stack up on me! Longswords will punch a hole for us, all we got to do is hit it! Understood?"
"Yeah, all we got to do is stick it in the right hole, right?" Zelda glibly noted.
"Something I hear you have problems with sometimes," he heard Odessa mock.
"Shut the fuck up Odessa."
"Alright, standby to execute on my mark," Bellum ordered, clearly ignoring the exchange.
"Omega Leader, this is Guillotine 4 and 9, we are beginning our attack run, over."
"Copy that Guillotine, we're right behind you. Omega 5 and 6, EXECUTE!"
Zelda immediately banked to the right and dove, following Bellum and Odessa as they launched themselves towards their target, a Covenant corvette some three hundred kilometers below them. Ahead of them, Zelda could just barely make out the two Air Force Longswords from Guillotine Squadron just beginning to pull out of their own dives.
A series of missiles slammed into the corvette as the Longswords started their attack. The corvette's shields shimmered, before fading away entirely. At once the Longswords began firing at the same spot on the hull, trying to blast a hole into the corvette's armor for Zelda and the others to exploit. Armored plating and other metals shards were thrown into space as both Longswords fired over twenty shells apiece from their 110mm rotary cannons in the span of less than a minute.
But while the corvette's shields had been disabled, its weapons hadn't and as the Longswords started to pull out of their run, a pulse laser turret suddenly emerged from the corvette's hull and open fired on the Longswords. Guillotine-4 was immediately hit, with the pulse lasers shearing off an entire wing and causing the Longsword to go crashing right into the ship where upon it promptly exploded. The surviving Longsword quickly broke away, shooting off towards the relative safety of the rest of the task force. Annoyingly, the Covenant manning the turret let him go, choosing instead to focus on the approaching Broadswords instead.
"Look out, those lasers are still active!" Odessa warn as the turret began firing.
Really?" Zelda sarcastically muttered as the area around them began lighting up from near misses. "Thanks Odessa, I hadn't noticed."
"Leader, we're not going to be able to pull off our attack if we have to evade," Odessa continued.
"I know! 5 break off and take out that turret! 6, with me, we'll continue our run!"
"Copy, 6 on you Leader."
"Copy Leader! 5, breaking off!
Ahead of him, Zelda watched as Odessa pull out of formation and speed straight towards the pulse laser turrets. At less than a hundred meters away, he fired a series of missiles and then quickly peeled away before the turret could zero in on him.
The turret spotted the incoming missiles and turned to deal with them, quickly trying to shoot them down before they could hit. Explosions lit up the sky as the turret managed to destroy the initial salvo, but unfortunately for the Covenant, they weren't able to intercept them all. Two missiles slammed home, hitting the turret right at the base, ripping the mount right off and launching the turret into space.
"Leader, Omega-5, you're free and clear!"
"Copy! 6, standby to release your payload on the target on my mark!"
Zelda clicked his microphone in acknowledgement as he angled the nose of his fighter directly at the hole the Longswords had created, trusting his targeting computer to determine the most optimal angle of approach. At the same time, he reached up to pull a lever and waited until his HUD indicated his bomb bay doors were open.
"MARK!"
Zelda jabbed a button on his control stick, and a hissing sound filled his headset as a short spurt of pressurized gas ejected the bombs from their hardpoints and out of the weapons bay. Because of his forward momentum, the bombs continued to fall towards the corvette, even as Zelda hastily peeled away.
"Bombs away, bombs away, bombs away," Zelda announced over the radio, shutting his bay doors. He quickly punched in his afterburners to clear the area. Behind him, he could see his four Mark 211 general purpose bombs heading straight for the flaming hole in the corvette's hull, joining the four Bellum had launched only seconds before. Then -
BABOOMBABOOMBABOOMBABOOM!
A series of explosions ripped through the corvette's hull as all eight, one thousand kilogram bombs detonated. The corvette's hull visibly bulged outwards before seconds later, the ship began to decompress, violently venting atmosphere and all manner of debris from the breach. Zelda was too far away to conduct a proper BDA, but he figured the blow must have been critical as almost immediately, all weapons on the corvette ceased fire and all around him, escape pods began to eject from the corvette.
Targeting one of the pods, Zelda promptly blew it away with his main cannon. "God damn motherfuckers," he snarled under his breath.
"Command, Omega Flight Leader. I got eyes on eight hits, I say again, eight hits on target 4-Bravo. BDA to follow, break. 5, you got eyes on?"
"Copy. Standby...oh shit! Head's up! Bellum, Zelda, you got Banshees closing in on your six!"
Zelda glanced over his shoulder. Emerging from the corvette's hanger were half a dozen Banshees, which immediately zeroed in on Bellum and Zelda.
"Where the fuck do all these fighters keep coming from?" Zelda muttered under his breath. "I thought all their fighters had already fucked off to the surface."
BOOM!
Zelda threw himself into a spin as the Banshees open fired and plasma began exploding all around him.
"6, we got to peel away from this corvette and get some room to maneuver. As soon as we do, we'll split, you go left and I'll go right, and see if we can't break these fighters up. You think you can handle whatever comes your way by yourself once we separate?"
"Bellum, do you really need to ask?" Zelda replied as he casually popped his neck and got ready.
"Right... 5, standby to cover me! 6, pull up and break off...now!"
Zelda yanked back on his stick and immediately did a half roll to the left, gritting his teeth as he felt himself get shoved hard against his seat. He quickly glanced at his rear scopes, noticing Bellum speed off with three Banshees in pursuit, following closely in turn by Odessa. Then he was free of the corvette with nothing but open space in front of him and the remaining three Banshees behind him.
"WARNING, INCOMING MISSILE. WARNING, INCOMING MISSILE."
"Chaff!"
Zelda threw himself into a barrel roll and then straight into a dive. Behind him, he could feel the fuel rod cannons exploding as they fell for his countermeasures, but his victory was short lived as, glancing through his rear scopes, he saw the Banshees flying right through the green explosive residue left in its wake. They continued to pursue him, plasma cannons blazing the entire time.
"Aww, you guys think you're clever, huh?" Zelda taunted. "Well, why don't you try this on for size!?"
Without warning, Zelda activated his forward and ventral thrusters at the same time, stopping all of his forward movement and at the same time, throwing his fighter into a somersault. His three pursuers were completely caught off guard and barely had enough time to react. They reflexively and immediately took evasive actions to avoid a potential collision, splitting off in three separate directions, with one banking right, one banking left, and one going straight up and over Zelda's fighter.
As Zelda's fighter continue to flip, one of the Banshees happened to pass right through his crosshairs and without thinking, Zelda immediately fired three missiles and opened up with his cannon. His cannon rounds went flying in all directions as by the time he pulled the trigger, the Banshee was no longer in his sights, but on his HUD, he could see three missiles successfully detaching from their racks and rocketing straight towards the Banshee, who threw himself into a spin to try and evade. Zelda wasn't able to see if the missiles hit, but a light turned off on his HUD indicating his missiles had exploded while at the same time, a small red dot on his radar abruptly disappeared. Then Zelda's fighter finished its three hundred and sixty degree spin and Zelda found himself in the exact same position he had started off, only this time instead of the Banshees being behind him, he was behind the Banshees.
Shunting all power back to his main thrusters, Zelda took off in pursuit of the Banshee that had gone to the left. He found the Banshee several hundred kilometers away, trying to take cover behind a hunk of space debris trying to do what, Zelda had no idea but had no intention of finding out.
"What are we doing asshole, playing hide and seek? If I do this, does this mean you're 'it?'" he sarcastically asked out loud before arming a missile and fired it directly at the debris.
The missile slammed into the debris and exploded, completely destroying it and leaving the Banshee exposed once more. Zelda fired a burst from his cannon as the Banshee took off once more, and he watched as the tracers glance off the Banshee's hull as he just barely missed. Snarling in annoyance, Zelda launched himself after the Banshee.
"Oh no, you don't get to leave," he hissed as the Banshee took off in the direction of where the heaviest fighting was taking place.
Bring his crosshairs around, Zelda patiently waited for his computer to obtain a missile lock. The Banshee bobbed and weaved on his screen, but surprisingly did little else to try and evade. It was a little strange. It was as if the Banshee pilot was doing the bare minimum to stay to alive, as if he was trying to keep Zelda's attention on him and rather than anywhere else….
CLANG!
Zelda jerked as a plasma bolt splashed against the left side of his cockpit, fortunately hitting the armor and burning a small hole but doing little else. He reflexively banked to the right as another two plasma bolts streaked by, with a third one skimming along his canopy window and leaving a nasty scorch mark. Glancing at his rear scopes, Zelda spotted another Banshee, the last of the three that had been pursuing him, pulling up behind him, firing his plasma cannons.
"Ah, so that's what you were waiting for," Zelda announced in recognition. "Your fucking wing mate to bail you out, huh? Sorry mate, but that's not going to work on me. Your ass in mine!"
Trusting his armor to hold out, Zelda ignored the plasma that streaked by over his fighter and instead increased his speed as he tried to maintain his view of the Banshee in front of him. The Banshee pilot suddenly started taking all sorts of evasive maneuvers as he realized Zelda wasn't peeling off but in fact, was starting to gain on him, but with an eerie sense of calmness, Zelda was able to match every single one of his moves, all the while avoiding the worse of the plasma coming at him from behind.
In desperation, the Banshee pilot abruptly attempted to do the same Kulbit maneuver Zelda had pulled off only a few minutes ago, but unlike the Covenant pilots, Zelda had been expecting him to do something like that, and was ready for it. As the Banshee began his somersault, Zelda punched in his afterburners and accelerated straight towards the enemy fighter.
"Guns, HE!" Zelda barked as he planted his crosshairs over the almost stalled out Banshee and pulled the trigger.
Zelda could see the Banshee hull get lit up as the rounds punched through the armor before the Banshee abruptly suffered from a critical existence failure and exploded, with Zelda flying right through the remains without a second thought.
Once free of the blast, Zelda immediately checked behind him to see if the other Banshee had followed him through, only to find that the other Banshee was gone. Zelda quickly did a full sweep, checking both his scopes and his radar, but he couldn't find the Banshee anywhere. Nor did his computer detect any locks or incoming. Zelda shrugged. Either the Banshee had been shot down by someone else or the Banshee pilot, upon seeing how easily Zelda had taken out his two comrades, had fled while he still had the chance.
"Omega Leader, Omega-5, this is 6, I'm in the clear. What's your status, over?"
"6? Leader. We're secure. Rendezvous with us back in sector three three niner."
"Copy, I'm on my way. 6 out."
Sharply banking to the left, Zelda rocketed over to sector three three nine and upon spotting Bellum and Odessa flying with the rest of the planes from Omega Flight Squadron in the distance, quickly slipped into formation behind Odessa.
"There you are Zelda," Odessa greeted. "What took you so long? You done messing around?"
Zelda pushed his talk button, then deliberately waited a few seconds to give the impression that he was thinking. "Yeah, sure, why not?" he finally said.
"Good because I need everyone to bring their 'A' game," Bellum informed them. "We're getting thrown in to go assist the Navy cruiser UNSC Canberra, which is going to put us right in the middle of all the fighting. It's not going to be like our current task of intercepting ships that make it through the line; we're going to be right in the thick of things. There's not going to be any room to maneuver, and there's going to be crossfire all over the place. Tread lightly gentlemen: this is going to get messy. Are you ready?"
Zelda could feel a feral grin slide onto his face as Bellum spoke but he couldn't help it: he loved a good challenge. "Captain Pax, I don't know about everyone else, but I was fucking born ready."
"And there he goes with the fucking clichés," he heard Odessa mutter, and someone else giggled. "Yeah Leader, 5 is ready."
"Copy. Alright ladies and gents, follow me in!"
Zelda yanked back on his stick and followed the rest of the squadron as they flew up towards higher orbit where the invading Covenant fleet and what remained of JTF Byzas were locked in one massive melee. It was a giant mess. Warships the size of skyscrapers were exchanging cannon fire at a rapid pace. Multi-colored tracers and plasma bolts crisscrossed through the space in a deadly hurricane of color. Explosions were filling the void, with each blast temporarily adding one more dot to the backdrop of stars. Shifting unseen, but no less dangerous in the dead space between the vessels was the debris cloud, ever growing as more and more ships and stations went dark. The sight was simultaneously terrifying, heartbreaking, and yet, morbidly beautiful in many ways.
Based on what he was seeing through his HUD, the situation was bad: the entire area was just a sea of red. As he drew closer and closer, the red mass started became individual red dots. Among those red dots, he could make out a number of blue dots indicating friendly warships and stations, however they were far few and between. And even those were fading fast.
"Jesus," someone said. "The Navy is getting their asses handed to them."
"Yeah, cause we weren't there to help," Zelda bitterly snarled. It still rankled him, the fact they had been pulled away from Byzas Sector in the first place and redeployed to Cyprium Sector to help out there when they clearly didn't need the assistance. He knew for a fact that was the reason for this entire mess, the temporary reduction in firepower in the Byzas Sector. He also knew, though he didn't have any evidence, the blame could be laid on one man: General fucking Iqbal, that arrogant son of a bitch.
"Stay sharp everyone," Bellum commanded. "Canberra, this is Omega Flight, we are inbound, thirty seconds, over."
"Omega Flight, Canberra, divert to heading one zero seven five three! We're detecting inbound boarding craft approaching our port and dorsal stem sides! Most of our AA has gone dark in that area, need you to move in and intercept, over!"
"Copy that Canberra, we're inbound, hot. Omega Flight out. Hey, port stem side is the front left, right?" Bellum asked.
"Fuck if I know man. Fucking Navy and their god damn weird terms," Zelda immediately replied.
"Yeah, port side is the left side of the ship," Odessa confirmed.
"Copy that. Alright everybody, divert to heading one zero seven five three and move to attack speed! Maintain your spacing and follow me in!"
They cruised towards one of the blue dots. In the distance, Zelda could slowly see the massive bulk of a Marathon-class heavy cruiser coming into view. With the Byzas ODP having been destroyed, the UNSC Canberra had become the cornerstone of the defensive line as UNSC forces desperately attempted to keep the Covenant back. Just about every single weapon system aboard the Canberra was alive with fire, even as five separate Covenant warships closed in on the cruiser from all directions, each warship eager to be the one to cast the killing blow on the Canberra.
"Omega Leader, this is 12! Be advised, I've got visual on over three dozen Covenant boarding craft guarded by about a squadron's worth of fighters en route to the Canberra in sector seven five niner!"
"Copy! I got eyes on!"
Zelda quickly zoomed in on the sector, spotting the mass of Covenant ships in question. It was a large mixture of different ships. The boarding party was mostly made of Type-28 "Tick" boarding craft, with a couple of Type-25 "Spirits" and Type-44 "Phantoms" mixed in for good measure. The entire group was guarded by an entire squadron of Banshees, supported by four Seraphs.
"Hey Odessa, how many infantry you figure are over there?" Zelda asked out loud.
"Dunno. Ticks hold about, what, eight to ten personnel and then each Spirit and Phantom can hold up to thirty foot soldiers? Figure, got to be about half a battalion over there."
"Think the Canberra can hold them all off if they get onboard?"
Odessa snorted. "No."
"Then I guess we better fucking take them all out before they can get close, eh?"
"Guess so. 5 to Leader, how do you want to play this?"
"We got to separate those fighters away from the main group," Bellum immediately said, "otherwise, we'll never be able to get in close to those boarding craft! 2nd Flight, consisting of Omegas 3, 7, 8, and 9: move in and see if you can't draw the fighters' attention! 5, 6, and 12, with me. We'll stay in the Canberra's shadow and wait until the fighters get drawn out, then hit them from the rear! Once the fighters are down, we'll zero in on the boarding craft by individual elements from multiple trajectories, and keep shooting until all the craft are down, clear?"
"Understood Leader," Zelda immediately said.
"Good. Remember to stay out of the red zones gentlemen, and watch for crossfire! All fighters, move into position and standby to execute!"
Zelda angled his fighter and followed Bellum as she separated from the rest of the squadron and moved towards the rear of the Canberra, whose bulk would be able to hide the four fighters from the Covenant sensors. As he settled into a holding pattern, he could hear over the radio as the rest of Omega squadron began making their final preparations for their attack.
"Omega-7, stay close to me, we'll dive down on them from above," Omega-3 was saying. "Target the Seraphs; take out as many of them as you can on the first pass. Cut through the main group, and we'll see if we can't get most of those fighters to follow. Any questions? Good. Leader, this is 3, we're set."
"Copy that. Execute in three, two, one, MARK!"
Zelda watched as half of the squadron immediately peel away. Firing their afterburners, they speed straight towards the Covenant swarm. The Covenant obviously saw them coming, and through his radar, Zelda could see about a quarter of the Banshees breaking away from the formation to confront them. But before they could get far -
"FOX ONE!"
- 2nd Flight promptly open fired!
From this distance, all Zelda could see were a number of red dots and vapor trails as each Broadsword fired a dozen missiles apiece. The Covenant deployed countermeasures, but because their formation was so tight due to the need to better protect the boarding craft, the countermeasures weren't as effective as they could have been, and a little more than half the missiles made it through. The shields on all four Seraphs lit up as the missiles hit home. But 2nd Flight wasn't done just yet.
"GUNS GUNS GUNS!" Omega-3 ordered and all four Broadswords opened up.
Tracers rounds smacked against the Seraph's armor, ricocheting all over the place, but 2nd Flight wasn't necessarily targeting the Seraphs so much as they were spraying the entire mass down. Some of their shells missed the fighters entirely, landing amongst the boarding craft. Zelda was too far away to see any hits, even on max zoom, but he did noticed at least three red dots representing the Ticks disappearing from his radar. Then the Covenant were sent scrambling as 2nd Flight flew right through their formation as each individual boat hastily moved out of the way to avoid a potential collision.
And just like that, 2nd Flight was suddenly in the clear. Instead of immediately speeding away though, they slowed down ever so slightly.
"Leader, 3 here. Mission accomplished, we definitely got their attention, over."
"Hang on 3, let's see if any of those fighters actually go for you. Standby..."
In the distance, Zelda could see the Covenant struggling to return to formation. He specifically focused on the fighter escort, watching as some of the Banshees seemed to waver, as if they were trying to decided what to do. Then abruptly, about half of them fired their boosters and leave the formation.
"There they go," Zelda noted as the Banshees took off after 2nd Flight. "Suckers."
"Leader, this is 12. I got eyes on several fighters leaving the formation, but it doesn't look like all the fighters took the bait, over."
"Say what?" Zelda commented to himself as he zoomed out to bring the entire formation into view. Sure enough, it looked as if only about half the fighters had actually left, leaving about eight Banshees and two of the Seraphs to guard the entire formation. "Hey Bellum, there's not that many of them. We could take them. Hell, I could probably take half of them myself."
"That's not the objective Zelda. We need to go after those boarding craft. If we get bogged down in a dogfight, then there'll be nothing stopping the Ticks from boarding the Canberra and destroying it from the inside. 5, 6, how much ordnance do you guys have?"
"5 here. Got about a little more than six thousand kilos left."
"That's about the same for me boss," Zelda reported.
"Okay, here's the plan. 12 and I will move in, engage the rest of the fighters and see if we can't get them to break off. 5 and 6, wait until we're clear, and then engage. Copy?"
"Copy."
"Good. Skeeter? Arm all weapons and follow me in!"
Outside, Zelda watched as Bellum and Omega-12 peel away from the formation. Firing their afterburners, they took off towards the Covenant, this time approaching the mass from 'below.' At a little over two hundred klicks away, they both opened up with everything they had.
This time, the Covenant didn't even bother with countermeasures and straight up began evading as the missiles rocketed towards them. Like 2nd Flight before them, Bellum and Skeeter started to spray the formation down with cannon fire, but before they could even fire more than a hundred rounds, the Covenant broke loose of their formation and started heading straight towards the pair at max burn. Bellum and Skeeter were forced to abort their run as plasma streaked towards them, and Zelda involuntarily winced as a fuel rod cannon exploded near Bellum, but she emerged no worse for wear. And then suddenly, they were off, with almost all of the Covenant fighters in pursuit, leaving only two Banshees behind to guard the boarding craft.
"Well, that worked a lot better than I could have ever predicted," Odessa admitted.
"No kidding. Almost makes you wish we had put some money it, don't you?"
"Yeah, except I know you don't have any money Zelda. Anyways, you wanna take the Banshees?"
Zelda thought about it for a moment. "Nah, you go ahead. I think I've farmed enough kills for today."
"Ooo, so generous," Odessa sarcastically said. "Alright then. Let's do this!"
As they launched themselves towards the Covenant at top speed, Zelda started searching for targets. They were approaching the formation from above, diving 'down' on the Covenant thus giving Zelda a good view of just about every single boat they had in the formation. Zelda's biggest concern were the ships that could fire back so, with the Ticks being unarmed transport vehicles, he zeroed in on the Phantoms and Spirits.
"We might only get one or two chances at this," Odessa warned as Zelda's distance counter quickly counted down. "So make sure your shots count."
"Oh, you don't need to worry about me," Zelda cockily replied. "I'm fucking surgical with my missiles."
"…Sure. We'll go with that."
KABOOM!
The area around Zelda lit up as the Covenant Spirits and Phantoms started firing on them, trying to deter them from attack, but Zelda was easily able to avoid the slow firing and slow turning turrets. Ignoring the incoming fire, Zelda focused on obtaining as many locks on as many targets as he possibly could. While he was doing that, at the same time, he reached up and popped open his bomb bay doors so he fully deploy his internal weapon racks. Between them and the weapons mounted on the hardpoints on the top and bottom of his wings, Zelda could potentially fire up to twenty-four missiles simultaneously.
"Target locked! Zelda, you're cleared to engage!"
Zelda squeezed the trigger.
PSHHHHOOOOSHHH!
Two dozen Medusa missiles rapidly departed from Zelda's Broadsword. He hadn't been able to obtain locks for all of them, but the ones that did immediately began zeroing in on their targets. Countermeasures began popping as the Spirits and Phantoms moved to evade but for the Ticks, that simply wasn't an option.
BOOMBOOM! BOOMBOOMBOOM!
The sight of so many aircraft exploding at the same time reminded Zelda of the fireworks displays his parents used to bring him to when he was little. Multi-colored explosions lit up the void and burning hot shrapnel was thrown in all directions, leaving bright yellow streaks in Zelda's vision. Even more color was added when Zelda opened up with his main cannon.
"GUNS GUNS GUNS!"
BRRRRTTTTTTTTTT!
Zelda didn't even bother aiming, he just pointed the nose of his fighter at the largest cluster of Ticks and let it rip. Ticks began dropping out of the sky, their light armor doing little to stop the 30mm armor piercing shells from ripping them to shreds. Zelda saw at least three Ticks go up in flames before a Spirit transport pass through his stream of fire. Without letting up on the trigger, Zelda switched over to the new vehicle, unloading nearly five hundred shells into the Spirit's cockpit. The cockpit exploded, causing the giant, tuning fork-looking vehicle to split in half. Then Zelda peeled away, leaving the entire Covenant formation in disarray.
Preemptively dumping flares and chaff to prevent any potential locks, Zelda sped away, glancing at his rear scopes as he did. The Covenant numbers had been severely depleted yet despite the casualties they had taken, they still continued their journey towards the Canberra with a sense of dogged determination.
"Leader, this is 5. We splashed approximately twenty plus enemy aircraft however they are still inbound. Request permission to conduct another pass, over."
"5, it's your call! But be advised, we couldn't retain the attention of all the fighters. You got two Seraphs and possibly four Banshees returning to the formation. ETA, TWO MIKES!"
"Copy that Leader. 5, out. What do you think Zelda? Think we can take out the rest of these guys in two minutes or less?"
"Like my mother always told me: 'you won't know unless you try,'" Zelda replied with a grin. "Let's do this!"
"Well, I think my mother would be very upset if she saw me doing this but fuck it, she ain't here. Lez go!"
They banked around and headed straight back for the Covenant, coming at them from below this time. This time the Covenant were a bit more prepared for them and almost immediately they began taking fire. Zelda could see his fighter taking minor hits all across his hull, but as Spirits and Phantoms weren't equipped with plasma cannons that were as strong as say, those on a Seraph, the damage wasn't enough to cause Zelda to abort.
"Fox one!" Odessa declared.
"Missiles away," Zelda confirmed.
Again, two dozen missiles were launched straight at the Covenant. This time, Zelda hadn't bothered with any of the Spirits or Phantoms and instead just focused on the Ticks themselves. Dozens of explosions filled the vacuum as Zelda and Odessa's missiles rammed home.
"We got maybe one minute before those fighters return!" Odessa warned. "Make it count!"
Grunting in acknowledgement, Zelda went tearing after one of the surviving Spirits. The Spirit pilot saw him coming and tried to fire on him, but Zelda was approaching from above where the Spirit's dorsal mounted turret couldn't reach. The pilot began spinning on his longitudinal axis to bring his turret to bear but by then it was too late: Zelda had already acquired a firing solution and fired a missile.
"Guns, AP!"
BRRRTTTT!
The missile hit first, punching a huge hole in the engine compartment. Then the autocannon shells hit, entering through the hole and creating all sorts of havoc inside the engine, including breaching the containment field for the Spirit's plasma conduits. The unstable substance ignited and then -
KABOOM!
- exploded and Zelda immediately switched targets. He spotted a lone Tick flying away from him and nothing else. With time running out, he just decided to go for it.
"HE!"
The Tick abruptly jerked to the side just as Zelda pulled the trigger, causing almost all of his initial fifty round burst to miss, except for one round. For whatever reason, bad fuse perhaps, the round failed to explode upon impact, but it ended up not mattering. Due to the odd angle of impact, the shell ended up skimming along the full length of the Tick's hull, leaving a deep grove.
Chunks of armored plating began flying off as the Tick began to fall apart when abruptly, the entire craft simply disintegrated, throwing its entire crew into the void at high speeds. Zelda could see almost an entire squad's worth of Covenant infantry, all gasping for air and waving their limbs around helplessly as they flew through the cold vacuum of space. He couldn't help but sympathetically wince at the sight: while Zelda was all for the total extermination of all the Covenant races, suffocating to death was, in his opinion, one of the worst ways to go. That, and being burned alive.
"WARNING, INCOMING MISSILE. WARNING, INCOMING MISSILE."
"Flares!"
BABOOM!
Zelda's Broadsword rocked as the fuel rod cannons exploded right above him.
"Head's up! Time's up, we got incoming!" Odessa warned.
Zelda glanced at his radar. "Incoming! Banshees! Three of them, twenty degrees!"
"Cut to the left, I'll take the leader!"
Zelda jerked his stick to the left as Odessa fired a quick burst, blowing off the right gravity pod on the Banshee and causing it to spin out of control and go crashing into the wreck of a nearby Phantom.
"Good shot!" Zelda exclaimed, not being able to prevent himself from being impressed.
"Yeah, you're not the only surgeon in town!" Odessa crowed.
"Bellum said there were two Seraphs inbound. You got eyes on?" Zelda distractedly warned, frantically looking around as he dodged some fire from the Banshees.
"WARNING, COLLISION ALERT. WARNING, COLLISION ALERT."
"Zelda, incoming below! PULL UP!"
Zelda yanked back hard on his stick, wincing as two Seraphs passed by so closely, he could feel his fighter get nudged off course by one of the Seraph's shields.
"Ah, there they are," Zelda gasped out as he struggled to recover.
The two Seraphs cut out in front of him and Zelda reflexively fired a snap shot at one of them, only for his missile to get blown up in his face as the Seraph's hard kill APS instantly blasted it out of the sky, forcing Zelda to divert least he get hit by his own shrapnel.
"Zelda, head's up, the Seraphs have forced us to split up, I NO LONGER HAVE YOUR BACK! You got both Seraphs about ready to push your shit in! Zelda, you copy!?"
"Solid copy," Zelda grunted out as he did his best to dodge the fire coming his way. "Sorry. A little. Busy. Where are the Banshees, you got eyes on?"
"They're on my six and doing their best to keep me away! Hang on, I just might be able to get past and give you some support!"
"Negative, you deal with those fuckers and keep them off my back. I'll handle the Seraphs!"
"Copy! Be advised, according to Bellum, we might have one potential Banshee still lurking about! Keep your head on a swivel!"
"That's. Easier. Said. Than. Done!" Zelda said through gritted teeth.
KABOOM!
"Shit!" he snapped as a plasma bolt slammed against his fighter's rear. An alarm started sounded but Zelda quickly silenced it. "Okay you pukes, time to fucking dance."
He threw himself into a canopy roll to a right and then immediately climbed before abruptly jumping into a lag roll and then diving into an outside loop, trying to shake the Seraphs off his tail. Unfortunately, it didn't take; glancing at his rear scopes, Zelda could see both Seraphs barreling after him, undeterred.
The problem was the distance; at a little under fifteen hundred meters away, the Seraphs were a bit too far away to really be fooled by any of Zelda's combat maneuvers. Yet conversely, the Seraphs were too close for Zelda to simply punch in his afterburners and try to outrun them as they would simply lock onto the heat from his engine exhaust and send a dozen fuel rod cannons his way. In fact, probably the only reason why they hadn't done that already was because at this range, the radiation from the fuel rod cannon explosions would play hell with their shields, leaving them vulnerable to attack from other UNSC forces.
Zelda tried to throw himself into an inverted cobra roll, but for his troubles, he almost flew straight into a bolt of plasma one of the Seraphs threw his way. He let out a growl of annoyance. He was beginning to wish he was back fighting in Tenedos' rings. At least over there, there had been plenty of cover he could have used to break line of sight and gotten behind his pursuers. He was half tempted to try and executing the same Kulbit maneuver he had pulled on the Banshees from earlier, but the problem was, unlike the Banshees, all the Seraphs had to do was ram him. With their armor and shields, they would survive; he wouldn't.
"Come on, let's go, let's go!" Zelda urged as he tried to think of a way to lose these Seraphs.
Time was running out for him. With the amount of plasma the Seraphs were throwing at him, which they could do because unlike his rotary cannon, plasma cannons didn't run out of ammo, they would eventually hit him through sheer saturation. But every move he did, every maneuver he pulled, somehow the Seraphs were right there, matching it. Zelda didn't want to admit it, but he was beginning to think he might need some help.
Of course, a quick glance at his radar showed there weren't any friendlies available. Odessa was busy with the Banshees, Bellum and Skeeter were engaging the other two Seraphs and he couldn't even find 2nd Flight. The only friendly contact within range was the Canberra, and she was still fighting off the Covenant warships...
A thought suddenly occurred to Zelda and he glanced in the Canberra's direction, or more specifically, the crossfire that was taking place between her and a nearby Covenant destroyer, and Zelda suddenly realized how he could lose the Seraphs.
"Oh, this is a bad idea, even for me," Zelda groaned but unfortunately, it was the only option he had. "Shit! Alright, fine! You cunts want to play follow the leader? Let's see how far you're willing to take it!"
Throwing himself into an inside loop followed by a very tight rudder roll, Zelda took off in the direction of the Canberra, with the two Seraphs following close behind.
"Okay okay, I can do this," Zelda tried to encourage himself as he barreled towards the fighting and an alert flashed across his screen, warning him he was about to enter a red zone where the chances of a friendly fire incident were greatly magnified. He glanced behind him. The Seraphs were still following him, undeterred.
"Oh, this is soooooo not going to end well," Zelda groaned. "Oh shiiitttttt!"
He entered the red zone.
At once all sorts of alarms began going off!
"WARNING, INCOMING MISSILES."
"...INCOMING PROJECTILE."
"WARNING, COLLISION..."
"...INCOMING..."
"...SAMS DETECTED."
"PULL UP... PULL UP..."
"Shut up shut up shutup!" Zelda snapped as he concentrated on trying to not get hit.
Anti-ship missiles the size of school buses rushed passed him on their way towards their target. Violent blue plasma bolts capable of engulfing his entire fighter in one go whipped by, headed in the opposite direction. 50mm shell fire exploded near him, pelting his fighter with shrapnel, and a pencil-thin beam of pure energy lanced by so close to him, Zelda swore he could feel the heat even buried under several layers of Titanium and plastic, as well as wrapped in his pressurized vacuum suit. Zelda ducked, bobbed, and weaved as the barrage continued, unabated, as both ships did their best to kill each other, their gunners completely unconcerned or unaware of the three small fighters foolish enough to wander into their crossfire. And it was still three fighters: glancing at his rear scopes, Zelda could see both Seraphs were still after him, struggling slightly to avoid getting hit in their less maneuverable fighters, but still persistent in pursuing him.
Zelda wasn't entirely sure why. From the way they stuck to him, it was almost as if he had somehow done something that had personally offended them, but he couldn't think of what that something might have been. Well, aside from killing all the boarding craft they were supposed to have been protecting. And possibly killing all their brothers. And continually resisting their attempts to shoot him down in revenge.
Hm...
At any case, it was clear this wasn't working. Zelda needed to mix things up.
"Time to up the ante I guess," Zelda muttered. With a reluctant sigh, he banked hard to the left and headed straight for the front of the Canberra. As was tradition for most naval ships, most of the Canberra's heaviest weapons were mounted towards the front of the ship, including her two MACs. Here, the firing was even more intense as the Canberra was splitting her fire between two ships, a Covenant light cruiser and another corvette.
"Here goes nothing..."
BOOM!
Immediately Zelda was forced to jerk to the side as an Archer missile abruptly exploded nearby, having been destroyed by Covenant pulse lasers before it could even get halfway to its destination. Rolling to the right, Zelda was nearby struck by a plasma torpedo which, while it wasn't capable of locking on to his fighter because of his relatively low magnetic signature, was more than enough to completely incinerate him.
The plasma torpedo streaked passed him and then abruptly executing a full ninety degree towards him. Before he could even begin to question how, he noticed a magnetic decoy the size of a small box truck that had been launched by the Canberra floating past him from behind and he slammed on his forward thrusters, bring himself to a stop as the plasma torpedo past right in front of him and zeroed in on the decoy.
A pair of needlers from who-the-fuck-knew-where, as most Covenant warships didn't carry needlers, shot over his shoulder and Zelda reflexively threw himself into a dive only to fly right through the vapor trail left behind by a volley of Archer missiles, temporarily blinding him. He yanked back on his stick and climbed out of the exhaust, only to blink as there was a sudden flash of light in front of him. It took him a few moments to realize that had been the light reflecting off a MAC round and it suddenly occurred to him he had almost stumbled into the path of a pair of MAC rounds the Canberra had just fired.
Glancing downrange, Zelda noticed the light cruiser the Canberra had been fighting against was now a flaming wreck and was slowly falling apart even as she was struck amidship by another volley of missiles. Still, even in her death throes, the cruiser fired off a quad of plasma torpedoes, one of which was able to score a direct hit on the Canberra's hull.
The torpedo exploded and even flying several dozen kilometers away, Zelda could still feel the shockwave from the explosion. He glanced at the Canberra to see a piece of shrapnel about the size of a bumper car get hurtled in his direction traveling at, from what it appeared to Zelda, damn near the speed of light. He quickly spun his fighter but fortunately his judgement had been a bit off and the shrapnel didn't even come near him.
FWOOZ FWOOZ!
"OH COME ON!" Zelda yelled, trying to do best to avoid the plasma the Seraphs sent after him. "Are you fucking kidding me!? Why the fuck are you two morons still after me!? You guys are crazier than I am!"
He glanced through his rear scopes, trying to figure out if there was another way to lose his pursuers when -
BOOMBOOM!
One of the Seraph's shields lit up as he was struck by AA fire from the Canberra! The Seraph quickly banked to the side but abruptly there was a flash of light as a Covenant excavator beam speared the Seraph right in the cockpit. The Seraph survived, intact, but it was clear no one was steering the fighter anymore as it continued flying straight, until it blundered right into a plasma torpedo and exploded.
"HAHA! YES! TAKE THAT YOU STUPID SPLIT-LIP BASTARD!" Zelda cheered. He noticed the other Seraph visibly wavering, before he hastily turned tail and started heading for the edge of the crossfire zone.
"OH NO YOU DON'T!" Zelda roared. "YOU DON'T DRAGGED MY ASS OUT HERE AND THEN GET TO LEAVE!"
The Seraph ignored him as he headed for the safety of open space at max speed. In a blind fury, Zelda took off after him. Without bothering to try and obtain a lock, Zelda just began unloading all his weapons on the Seraph. All sorts of Medusa missiles and 30mm shell fire, which looked absolutely pathetic when compared to the arsenal the Canberra was firing, were launched in the direction of the Seraph. More than half of them missed, while at least another quarter was destroyed by the crossfire. The remainder of his rounds though struck home and Zelda could see the Seraph's shields light up.
"How do you like that!?" Zelda snarled, nailing the Seraph once more and watching as his shields disappeared. He pulled the trigger once more, only for his screen to flash red. He wasn't given any time to diagnose the problem as before him, the Seraph was unexpectedly struck by a series of pulse laser and the fighter dissolved into a ball of fire.
"Hey, that was my kill!" Zelda weakly protested, mostly out of habit, as he was distracted by looking for a way out. With both Seraphs gone, he no longer had a reason to hang around in the red zone, but getting out wasn't as easy as getting in. With the destruction of the Covenant light cruiser, Zelda would have thought the fire would have slackened but if anything, it actually intensified as the Canberra was free to focus fire on the remaining warships.
"Oh boy, you really fucked up this time Zelda," Zelda told himself as he launched his fighter towards what appeared to be open space, only to have to divert when a MAC round passed right through. "I fucking told you this was a bad idea!"
Doing a tight loop, Zelda started rocketing upwards, dodging lasers and shells. The fire seemed to intensify as he sped away and it started to feel like every single gunner on both ships was aiming directly at him, trying to prevent him from leave.
"Come on! You can do it!" Zelda urged his fighter. "Almost... there...!"
Something exploded directly in front of him, so closely, Zelda had no time to react. All he could do was close his eyes as he barreled straight for the blast.
His fighter let out a rumble as the shockwave hit, shaking his fighter so badly he was sure the Broadsword was about to shake itself apart. A loud tock noise filled the air as he was pelted with debris and shrapnel and alarms began screaming in his ears. All Zelda could do was continue to accelerate and pray he would make it...
And then, suddenly, it was all over.
Zelda cautiously opened an eye. When he noticed he was still sitting in his cockpit, and not floating alone in space, he slowly opened both eyes. His fighter was still intact, accelerating through open space, with the red zone and all the crossfire fading away behind him. Somehow, and against all odds, Zelda had not only survived, but survived without suffering from any critical damage.
"I made it," Zelda said slowly in wonder. Then it hit him. "I MADE IT! JUST LIKE I THOUGHT I WOULD! HA! YOU STUPID MOTHERFUCKERS! TAKE THAT YOU SOBS! HOW DO YOU LIKE ME NOW!?"
PING.
Zelda nearly shit his pants when his proximity alarm went off. He grabbed his stick and started searching for the enemy contact, only to let out an immense sigh of relief as he realized it was only Odessa.
"Dude, did you just fucking come out of a red zone!?" Odessa demanded to know without preamble.
Under normal circumstances, Zelda would have tried to play it off like it had been nothing, but honestly his hands were still shaking from the sheer amount of flying he had to do to avoid getting killed, so all he said was, "Yes. Zero out of ten, would not recommend."
"I feel that should go without saying. But then again, I remember I'm talking to you," Odessa casually commented. "Come on, we got to hook back up with Bellum."
Zelda nodded and followed Odessa to where the rest of the squadron had assembled. Omega-12 and most of 2nd Flight were already there, though Zelda noticed Omega-7 was nowhere in sight.
"Zelda, you okay?" Bellum immediately demanded to know as soon as she laid eyes on him.
"I'm good Leader," Zelda simply said, still shaking slightly from his ordeal.
"Yeah? Your bird looks like shit. What's your ammo and fuel status?"
Zelda glanced at his HUD and began cycling through his weapons. "I'm black on 30mil, black on Medusa's, black on bombs, and I've only got four ASGMs left," he read out loud, blinking in surprise. He hadn't been paying attention, but that did explain why he hadn't been able to deliver the finishing blow on the last Seraph; he hadn't had anything left to hit him with. "Fuel, I'm down to fifteen percent reserves."
"How are you almost Winchester on everything?"
Zelda thought back to all the Ticks he had taken out, and then all the intensive maneuvering he had to do to avoid getting hit in the red zone. "You probably don't want to know."
"...knowing you, that's more than likely true. Omega-6, do you think you could make it back to the Trenchard by yourself?"
"Affirmative Commander."
"Okay then. Omega-6, RTB to refuel and rearm. Everyone else, on me!"
"Copy. Omega-6, returning to base."
Zelda gratefully turned his fighter around and headed away from the fighting and back towards Actium where the Trenchard was in a hold pattern, positioned in a place where they could easily intercept any ships that slipped through the defensive line. Quickly getting cleared by the control tower, Zelda coasted into the nearest available hanger and cautiously set his fighter down. Immediately his fighter was set upon by a veritable army of maintainers.
"Sir, what do you need?" the head chief asked as Zelda locked his landing gear in place and opened up his bomb bay doors.
"I need everything!" Zelda warned. "Fuel and ammo! Lots of ammo!"
"We're on it sir! Alright guys, shake a leg! Let's get this fighter loaded up and back into the fight!"
Zelda turned away as the airmen began hooking up fuel lines to his fighter and started hauling in all sorts of ordnance into the hanger. His adrenaline rush was beginning to wear off and exhaustion was taking its place; he could feel himself getting a bit light headed. Slapping himself awake as best he could through his helmet, Zelda reached into a pocket mounted on the side of his seat and pulled out an energy drink. Hooking it up to a straw mounted on the side of helmet designed specifically for this sort of thing, Zelda sucked down the contents. Almost immediately, Zelda could feel it working.
"Whoa," he said, feeling pleasantly surprised. "What the hell is in this thing?"
He glanced at the can to see the ingredients, only to find the drink was almost entirely made up of sugar, caffeine, and ephedra(2). Ah, the breakfast of champions.
"That's some good shit," he muttered to himself.
Feeling rejuvenized, Zelda could feel some of his swagger from before returning to him, as well as a sense of urgency. There was a fight going on; Zelda needed to be out there, helping out, and not in here, waiting. He turned to the maintenance crew to see if there was something he could do to hurry them up, but it was clear even to him they were just beginning.
Drumming his hands against his dash, he switched his radio over to his squadron's channel so he could at least keep up with what was going on outside.
"Red and Gold Wings should be beginning their run any second now," Bellum was saying. "Anyone got eyes on?"
"Leader, this is 12, negative on my end."
"9 here, my scopes are clear."
"5 here, got them! Sector five niner four! Red Wing is engaging!"
"Okay, I see them! In that case, Flanker Squadron should be vectoring in any second now!"
"Yeah, yeah! They're engaging too! Missiles away, standby for BDA!"
Zelda impatiently drummed his hands against his dash. He wondered what his squadron was fighting against. It sounded pretty big to need two wings of Wombats, as well as at least two squadrons of Broadswords.
"Leader, I'm getting a signal... that's it, shields are down, I say again, the shield is down!"
"Understood! Omega Leader to Bayonet Leader, the target's shields are down, I say again, shields are down! Request permission to begin our run, over?"
"Omega Flight, you are cleared hot! I say again, you are cleared hot!"
"Copy! Alright, all Omega Flight pilots, roll in on target 3-Alpha!"
Ah. Zelda nodded his head in understanding as he boosted the volume on his radio. His squadron was attacking a Covenant destroyer. Geared more for anti-ship warfare, destroyers weren't necessarily the best equipped to fight off small fighters, so as far as warships went, destroyers were one of the easier targets for Broadswords. That being said, it wasn't as if they were defenseless...
"Target 3-Alpha should be deploying pulse laser turrets any second now," Bellum was saying. "Lock on to any incoming radar emissions. That should be those turrets!"
"I see the turrets! They're in the open!"
"Hit those towers before they can fire! All pilots, engage! Fox three, fox three!"
"Missiles are away!"
"Omega to Bayonet, missiles are away, thirty seconds to impact! Standby!"
Zelda waited with bated breath to hear if the missiles hit. He didn't have to wait long.
"Good hits! Bayonet, I've got eyes on five plus hits on the enemy pulse laser turrets. Turrets are down, I say again, target 3-Alpha's point defenses are down!"
"Solid copy Omega. Bayonet Leader to Delta Leader, divert to heading one one three, you're cleared hot to engage target 3-Alpha."
"Roger that. This is Delta Squadron, we're in the pipe! Delta to Omega, how are things looking down there, you see any Bandits?"
"Negative, your route is… clear… wait a minute, what the hell is– OH SHIT, DELTA, ABORT, ABORT!"
Zelda sat up alarm as everyone started panicking all at the same time, filling the radio with chatter.
"CONTACT, CONTACT!"
"PULL UP, PULL UP! ALL PILOTS, PULL UP!"
"Delta Squadron, abort your run, BREAK CONTACT! Omega Flight, divert to heading... shit, move to cover Delta, COVER THEM!"
"No good! Those ships emerged right between us and them, we are cut off, I say again, WE'RE CUT OFF!"
"Bellum, watch out, fighters, coming in!"
"Tornado Leader, can you get to Delta!?"
"Negative Bayonet, there's too many of them!"
"Delta Leader to any UNSC call sign, I need help! Delta 3, 7, 9, and 11 are all down! They're all over me! AHHHH!"
"Delta Leader, do you copy? DELTA LEADER, DO YOU COPY!?"
"Negative contact with Delta, Delta is down, I say again, Delta Squadron IS. DOWN!"
"What the hell is going on...!?"
That's what Zelda wanted to know. But stuck inside a hanger with only a radio for visual, he was having a hard time understanding what just happened. He grabbed his radio.
"Omega-6 to Omega-5. Odessa? Do you copy?" he anxiously asked.
"Now's not the time Zelda!" came Odessa's immediate and stress filled reply. "Omega-9, watch it, you got five...nine... shit, multiple Bandits on your six!"
"You see that!? They're headed straight for the Canberra! Omegas 3 and 12, move to intercept! Draw their fire away from the Navy!"
"Jesus Christ, the Canberra's getting pounded! Omega Flight, can you move to cover?"
"Against a ship that size? Are you crazy?"
"If we lose the Canberra, the entire line crumbles! Someone, move to cover her, now!"
"Too late! Rear Admiral Harper(3) is reporting massive damage all across the Canberra's hull. She's falling back! All available units, move to envelope and provide cover!"
"All fighters, break contact and fall back!"
Zelda suddenly felt the Trenchard shake as her thrusters were ignited. Over the internal PA system, he heard, "Attention all personnel, we moving to provide cover! All SF Squads(4), move to alert status red con zero! Crew and ops, secure all floors and standby to be engaged!"
"God dammit!" Zelda snapped, frustrated at the lack of information. "Control Tower, Omega-6, what the hell is going on out there!?"
"Three CCS-class battlecruisers just jumped into this sector!" the ATC frantically reported and Zelda felt his heart freeze with fear. "They just punched a hole right through our defensive line! We're moving to try and provide cover! Omega-6, you got to get out of here!"
Zelda glanced at his HUD. He was about seventy percent loaded, but the ground crew had yet to even begin refueling him. "I still need fuel! Ground crew, give me fuel god dammit, NOW!"
He wasn't sure if anyone heard him at first, but then he notice one of the maintainers launch herself towards a lever on the wall and pull it. Immediately his fuel reserves began to climb.
"Comeoncomeoncomeon," Zelda urged, mentally willing his tanks to fill faster, but the numbers seemed to be moving so slowly. "HURRY UP!"
Then he heard the one announcement he'd been dreading go over the PA: "All personnel, we have Bandits! Inbound boarding craft detected, ETA, THIRTY SECONDS!"
"SHIT!"
Zelda's bird was only twenty percent fueled up, but it was going to have to do. He was in an extremely vulnerable state just sitting there and he refused to be killed while he was still on the ground, sitting there like a crippled bird just waiting to be put out of his misery. "Unhook me! Ground crew, unhook me!" he demanded, gesturing at the fuel line still sticking out of his Broadsword but no one was paying any attention. "Someone unhook me!"
BOOM.
The Trenchard shook as something struck it, and all sorts of alarms began blaring.
"Contact! Covenant incursions detected on floors one, four, and ten! All Security Forces, respond!"
"SHIT!" Zelda yelled. There was no way the Trenchard would be able to hold for long. Part of the problem with the shift to a self-automated ship was the general lack of security personnel able to respond to a boarding incident such as this one. "I NEED SOMEBODY UNHOOK ME RIGHT NOW!"
He reached for his crash harness, fully prepared to leave his fighter and unhook it himself, when the interior door to the hanger abruptly blew open!
"BOARDING PARTIES DETECTED IN HANGERS ONE, TWO, AND SIX!"
An entire platoon of Covenant soldiers came charging into the hanger. Wearing jetpacks, they were all completely undeterred by the lack of air and gravity, and instead instantly began moving to cover. There had been two Security Forces officers stations by the door and they immediately opened up, blowing away the first couple of Grunts that had entered the room, but then a couple of Elites entered and quickly returned fire. The SF officers were unable to disable the Elite's personal shields in time before they were gunned down, their bodies left floating where they had died.
With the most immediate threat dealt with, the Covenant quickly turned their guns on all the other personnel nearby. Air Force aircraft maintainers were never expected to see direct combat against Covenant infantry and as such, they had neither the training nor the weapons to deal with this threat. Airmen were quickly blown away as they scrambled to find cover, only in an open hanger like this, there was little to none to be found.
"Ah, fuck!" Zelda yelled, horrified, as he watched the slaughter.
Movement caught his attention and he turned to see one fuel specialist launch herself towards the bodies of the SF officers, trying to reach their assault rifles floating harmlessly by them, only to get snagged out of the air by the Elite and thrown hard against the deck. Pining her to the ground with his foot, he leveled his plasma rifle. "NOOO!"
Releasing his magnetic clamps, Zelda fired his maneuvering thrusters, turning his Broadsword around. The noise immediately attracted the attention of all the Covenant present, and they all looked up in time to see Zelda's gun port to his main cannon open up. "Die you ugly mother - !"
The Elite essentially exploded as Zelda's initial round hit him square in the chest. Holes big enough for Zelda to have climbed through were punched into the back wall as Zelda sprayed down the rest of the Covenant boarding party. If the situation wasn't so dire, he might have even laughed at the sight of their bodies bursting open like a ripe watermelon sitting out in the open in the middle of a hot summer day. As it was though, he was more concerned about the possibility he may have accidentally hit the very airman he was trying to save, so he looked around, trying to see past all the floating globules of blood and body parts, trying to find her.
He let out a sigh of relief as the airman abruptly sat up, seemingly unharmed though it was hard to tell since she was completely covered from head to toe in purple gore. She grabbed one of the assault rifles, which had somehow survived intact, before glancing in his direction and began gesturing widely for him to leave.
"I can't! Unhook me!" Zelda yelled back, jabbing at the fuel lines that were keeping him tethered.
The airman nodded in understanding but before she could do anything, there was another explosion, and the door on the other end of the hanger was blown in.
"Son of a bitch!" Zelda snapped as more Covenant soldiers came pouring in, guns blazing.
He turned his fighter in their direction and fired a burst. The first Covenant soldier to come through the door, a Skirmisher Major, had his head and upper torso blown completely off, but unfortunately, unlike the other door, there was a Wombat vehicle down for maintenance parked there, giving the Covenant immediate cover. Zelda could have easily shot through the Wombat, but one of the things the ground crew had not gotten around to doing was completely refilling the ammo drum for his main cannon and as such, Zelda was already down to fifty rounds. Rather than waste his remaining ammo on blind shots, Zelda instead loaded up a Medusa missile and fired.
The missile streaked across the room and slammed into the Wombat. The Medusa failed to explode as Zelda had deliberately failed to arm it, because an explosion in the hanger would probably be lethal to himself, but the impact alone was enough to move the Wombat. Zelda could actually see a couple Covenant get crushed as the Wombat was shoved hard against the wall and out of the way, exposing the rest of them. Zelda immediately fired.
"Am I disconnected yet?" Zelda demanded to know as the last soldier disintegrated, and he glanced over his shoulder only to see the airman he'd been talking to had taken a plasma bolt to the face, killing her instantly. "Fuck! Fuck this!"
Zelda experimentally lifted off and started heading for the door with his maneuvering thrusters, only to abruptly get stopped short by the fuel lines(5). He craned his neck, wondering if there was some way he could just break it free, but it was pretty solidly built, and probably only his main thrusters had that kind of torque. But if he fired off his main thrusters in here, the exhaust from his engine would possibly incinerate everyone not inside a shield or behind some blast doors alive. And there were still a lot of ground crew floating around.
"SOMEBODY, either unhook me or get the fuck out of the hanger!" Zelda roared in frustration.
whomp whomp whomp
A series of plasma bolts smacked against his canopy and Zelda turned to see more Covenant soldiers emerging from the first entrance firing their plasma pistols at his Broadsword. Their weapons were too weak to do much damage against him, but there was always a chance they would hit something critical. Plus, if they had some explosives like grenades, that could prove to be problematic.
Almost as soon as he thought that, Zelda noticed one of the Elites stand up and jet packed straight towards his fighter's engines. As he flew through the air, the Elite pulled out a plasma grenade.
"OH NO YOU DON'T!" Zelda yelled, grabbing his control yoke and yanking it to the side.
He had managed to time it perfectly. His Broadsword spun on its latitudinal axis and the edge of his wing hit the Elite right in the chest. In the zero gravity room, the Elite was sent flying back into his comrades, knocking them over like bowling pins. A couple of Grunts tried to help him up, but the Elite angrily shoved them away and pushed himself off the ground. Even from his cockpit, Zelda could see the Elite angrily glare at him, and he lifted his hand in a threatening gesture -
- only to realize at some point during his landing, he had accidentally activated his plasma grenade.
Zelda could only imagine the look of horror that passed over the Elite's face as the Elite lifted his hand to chuck the grenade away, but it abruptly exploded before he could, sending body parts and armor fragments scattering in all directions. Zelda couldn't help but laugh.
"Security! Covenant forces inside the control tower!"
Zelda's head snapped up and he looked over his shoulder in the direction of the control tower. Overlooking the hanger were a series of blast windows that the ATCs could look through and visually monitor all aircraft traffic, if need be. Normally Zelda could look up and see the ATCs sitting at their stations but at the moment, all he saw were Covenant soldiers rushing into the room and gunning down the airmen before they could even get out of their seats.
The Covenant squads must have been talking to each other because a couple Covenant Jackals ran up to one of the windows and began setting up what looked like an explosive breaching charge. At the same time, Zelda could see a trio of Grunts bringing a plasma cannon and tripod into room, which they hurriedly began setting up behind the window. At the same time, an Elite emerged from the far door carrying a fuel rod cannon.
"Oh, that's not good!" Zelda yelped. Both the plasma cannon and the fuel rod cannon would be able to do some serious damage to his fighter, and he needed to take out both targets before they could fire. But while his main cannon was already pointed at the Elite, Zelda knew there was no way he would be able to turn his fighter around and engage the plasma cannon before it was ready to fire.
In desperation, Zelda did the first thing that came to mind: he jammed down on his forward facing maneuvering thrusters.
WHOOOOOOOSHHH!
A concentrated jet of hot air shot out from the front of his fighter, causing it to fly backwards and go crashing into the wall. However, the exhaust also hit the Elite like a baseball bat to the face, knocking him over just as he fired his fuel rod cannon.
PSHHHHHHH!
The fuel rod cannon rocket shot right over Zelda's Broadsword and slammed into the control tower windows! The entire control tower exploded as the rocket prematurely detonated the breaching charge, as well as set off a sympathetic explosion among all the other explosives the Covenant were carrying, wiping out the entire boarding party.
"Holy shit, I can't believe that actually worked," Zelda gasped in astonishment.
"All personnel, be advised, Covenant Phantoms detected in emergency landing strips two and three! All crew and ops personnel, evacuate!"
"What the fuck? The Covenant really want this ship dead if they're sending Phantoms into the ship itself to land infantry!" Zelda gapped.
Of course, all this information did was raise the pressure on Zelda. With Covenant infantry pouring out of every nock and cranny, it was clear this ship didn't have much more time left. He needed to leave, right fucking now.
He reached for the power lever to his main thrusters, but then hesitated. At the same time, he couldn't just leave all these people to die here. At the moment, he was the only thing preventing the Covenant from coming in and slaughtering them all. There had to be some way for them to get off the ship. But all the escape pods were outside of the hanger and with Covenant infantry trying to break their way through both doors, there was no way for them to escape. He debated whether or not he could try to load them into his Broadsword, but there was barely enough room inside his cockpit for one person and his bomb bay was not pressurized meaning once they were outside of the ship, they would all eventually suffocate, even with their spacesuits on. He tried to think of another way, but there just wasn't. Everyone in the hanger was already dead, they just didn't know it yet. The only question now was, would he be joining them in death?
"Fuck, fuck!"
He could see Covenant soldiers amassing just outside the hanger doors, as well as a ton of fuel rod cannons and plasma launchers, and Zelda realized he was simply, out of time. He had to make a decision: did he stay and die with everyone else? Or did he leave, and live to fight another day?
In the end, it wasn't really a choice.
"Sorry guys," Zelda whispered, powering up his main thrusters as the Covenant soldiers came pouring into the room from both entrances. "I can't help any longer."
He ignited his thrusters.
There was an audible snap as the fuel lines finally broke, and Zelda's Broadsword rocketed out of the hanger. A couple of fuel rod shots followed him as some of the Covenant soldiers tried one last time to stop him, but they all missed. As he rapidly departed from the ship, he could see the Covenant gunning down the last of the airmen left inside the hanger and he closed his eyes until he was too far away to see the hanger anymore, and all he could see was the Trenchard, with her hull almost completely covered in purple-colored boarding craft and drop pods.
"Attention all UNSC call signs," someone abruptly said over Zelda's radio, even as he continued to speed away. "This is Colonel Boyer, commander of the UNSC Trenchard. Be advised, the Trenchard has been completely overrun. I've got… Covenant infantry knocking on the door to my cockpit right now. They'll be through in a matter of minutes now, and… my crew won't be able to hold them off. I can't let them capture this ship, so in exactly fifteen seconds… we will be self-detonating a Havoc nuke inside our engine room. Hopefully the blast will… take out quite a few Covenant aircraft. To any UNSC forces still out there, all craft, stand clear of Trenchard airspace. I say again: all craft, stand clear of – "
There was a brilliant white flash behind him and Zelda looked over his shoulder in time to see a massive fireball consuming the Trenchard, throwing chunks of the ship in all directions. A strange noise began sounding over the radio, and it took him a few moments to realize what it was: the garbled sound of people screaming.
"Fuck…" Zelda whispered, completely horrified by the sound, yet, he couldn't bear to turn the radio off. It didn't matter though: the screaming only lasted for a few more seconds before the radio waves completely cut off. "Fuck! FUCK! FUCK FUCK FUCK!"
Zelda slammed his fist against his control panel as anger and grief overwhelmed him. He could feel blood beginning to drip down his hand on as the metal housing busted his knuckles open, but Zelda ignored the pain.
His radar let out a ping as it detected movement, and Zelda shot a glance at his rear scopes. Behind him, he could see all three Covenant battlecruisers moving towards the planet, with no one left to stop them. They callously drove passed the burning remains of the Trenchard like it wasn't even there, coming to halt in orbit nearly ten thousand kilometers above sea level. Even as Zelda watched, the ships began deploying in some sort of triangle formation with the dorsal side of their hulls pointed straight down at Actium, leaving a massive gap in the center of their formation, big enough for a fleet to pass through. What it was for was revealed moments later.
"Slipspace rupture, detected."
A slipspace portal opened up and emerging out from it came a massive Covenant capital ship. Zelda recognized the ship as the same one that had destroyed the UNSC Pégoud, back inside Tenedos' rings.
The ORS-class heavy cruiser continued forward, coming to a halt in the dead space between the three battlecruisers. As it did, Zelda noticed all sorts of hanger bay doors opening as hundreds, if not thousands, of drop pods, troop carriers, and dropships pouring out from the bowels of the ship. They all headed for the surface of Actium and Zelda didn't need a map to know where they were going: Byzas, and the Thracia Province.
"God, I hope the ground forces are ready," Zelda whispered as he headed to where the remains of the UNSC forces were assembling.
"Because there is nothing stopping the Covenant now."
1. I mentioned attack transports in my other story (though I called it a troop transport.) For those who don't remember or didn't read my other story, an attack transport is similar to a troopship or a troop transport (which, as the name implies, is a ship that carries troops,) only instead of JUST carrying troops, it also carries its own fleet of landing craft (in this case, a flight of Pelicans.) In the US military, troopships and attack transports were all under the control of the US Navy (with attack transports no longer being used, having fallen out of favor soon after the Korean War) but in my slice of the Halo Universe, I've assigned them to the Air Force as one of the duties of the Air Force (in my mind) is heavy transport.
The ship that brought Moss and his squad from Newsaka to Actium was one such attack transport.
2. For some reason, I vaguely remembering having a discussion with one of my reviewers (finally figured out who this was: it was Broman777 and topic appeared in my "reviewer response" at the end of MIA chapter 7) about the possibility of performance enhancement drugs being issued out by the UNSC to their soldiers. I say "vaguely remembering" because I can't find said conversation so either I simply can't find it (probably the most likely explanation,) the conversation only took place inside my head (also a strong possibility,) or the conversation was deleted for whatever reason. At any case, it was something I thought would be interesting to bring up, but given the topic of this chapter, it's not something I wanted to delve too deeply into right now. That's also the reason why what Zelda is drinking is not as "heavy" as some other substances.
3. Rear Admiral Harper is intended to be Fleet Admiral Joseph Harper, a canon character who is first introduced in Halo 2, though you only hear his voice and don't actually see him. He's the guy, when the Covenant first arrive at Earth, who wants to attack the Covenant right away but Admiral Hood holds him back. The UNSC Canberra was his flagship during that battle and since I already have the Canberra in my story, I figured, might as well bring her captain along as well.
4. UNSCAF Security Forces (aka, military police,) not Special Forces. I think most of my readers will be able to pick up on that, but just to prevent any confusion…
5. As far as I know, fuel lines (at least for civilian gas stations) are actually pretty easy to break away. But in this case, I decided against it for the sake of a more dramatic story.
6. Obviously there is no way for me to know for certain, but I personally feel the Air Force would take great pains to avoid using nautical terminology on their ships so people wouldn't confuse them as being part of the Navy. So instead of "levels" and "decks," they use the term "floors." Instead of "port" and "starboard," it's "left" and "right." Instead of "bridge," it's "cockpit" and instead of "CIC" its "AIC" or "action information center." It's also why I've done my best to have my Air Force personnel not referred to their ships as "she" as that seems to me more of a naval traditional, though I do believe I've been very inconsistent about that…
General Notes
7. For Zelda's escape from the hanger, I may have been… slightly influenced by Poe and Finn's escape from the First Order tie fighter hanger in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Just slightly…
8. The part where the Trenchard gets destroyed is partially inspired by the destruction of the Battlestar Columbia from the movie, Battlestar Galatica: Razor, specifically the screaming over the airwaves moments after the ship gets destroyed. If you haven't seen that scene, I highly recommend it. It's actually a bit disturbing.
If you're in the United States at least, you should be able to search on youtube either by the title "BSG Battlestar Columbia and Young Admiral Adama" or search for channel name Sam Guerra for the clip (should be the channel with only two videos.) Go to the 1:37 minute mark for the scene in question.
9. Like the current US military does, I feel there would be different designations for the bombs they use depending on their size. In this chapter, we see the Mark 211 General Purpose Bomb, which would be the largest of all the bombs in the UNSC arsenal, weighing in at 1000 kilograms worth of explosives. Other bombs would include:
Mark 208: 120 kilograms
Mark 209: 250 kilograms
Mark 210: 500 kilograms
The Mark 208 bomb is actually a canon bomb, first showing up in Halo Wars, though its nominal weight and size is never given. This bomb shows up at least once in my other story, Missing in Action, during chapter 2, where it was the weapon used to destroy the AA Wrath that had been assaulting Hoplite-3's position at the hotel.