Chapter 16
UNSC Kilkis, High Orbit, Actium
May 6, 2545
1023
Spaatz
The boxy form of the UNSC Kilkis soared through the void as her massive fusion engines propelled her in the direction of the Covenant. Surrounded by the rest of the ships of Task Force Whiskey, to an outsider, the Kilkis would appear only to be just another ship floating serenely in a sea of gray hulls but on the inside, she was abuzz with activity.
"Kanin: all battle groups, report in," Spaatz barked over the sound of the CIC crew going about their duties.
"Yes sir. Command to all call signs: all battle groups, report in."
"This is Gold Group, standing by."
"Blue Group, standing by."
"Red Group, standing by."
"Gray Group: we're green across the board!"
All across Spaatz's tactical display, green lights began to light up, indicating the forces of Task Force Whiskey were ready for battle. Spaatz could sense Kanin turning in his direction.
"Sir? All battle groups are primed and ready."
"Understood. Time to contact?"
"Five minutes sir."
"Any movement from the Covenant?"
"No sir. But I doubt they don't see us coming."
"Of course," Spaatz muttered under his breath. "Task force this size, the only way the Covenant would miss our approach was if they were blind, deaf, and dumb."
Kanin didn't respond even though Spaatz knew he would have heard him, and Spaatz resisted the urge to sigh, doing his best to maintain the image of a calm and collected commander who had total control of the entire situation. Unfortunately, that couldn't be further from the truth.
Since the beginning of the battle, Task Force Whiskey had been steadily growing in size with the influx of reinforcements to the system. At this point, Task Force Whiskey consisted of two Marathon-class cruisers, three Epoch-class heavy carriers, one Valiant-class super-heavy cruiser, seven Vindication-class battleships, dozens of support corvettes, frigates, and destroyers, three Air Force Trenchard-class aircraft carriers, hundreds of gunships and fighters, as well as several dozen orbital platforms and blue-water naval assets from the Actium Navy. It was one of the largest and most powerful fleets Spaatz had ever commanded in his entire military career. He had, at his fingertips, enough firepower to take a page out of the Covenant's book and systematically extinguish all life on Actium with a single volley if he had been so inclined.
However, as terrifying as that statement may have sounded, Spaatz had reason to believe that it wasn't going to be enough.
"Sir, the Covenant are beginning to react to our approach."
Spaatz nodded as, on his screen, a wave of red dots broke away from the main Covenant formation and began speeding towards them. Zooming in, Spaatz could see the wave was mostly comprised of the one-man fighters and gunboats, with the occasional light cruiser mixed in for support, all of which consisted of the Covenant's outer layer of defenses.
"All battle groups, maintain course," Spaatz ordered.
The problem was, and it was a problem that had continually plagued the UNSC since the start of this war, was that Covenant warships simply outclassed their UNSC counterparts in every single way. Covenant ships were stronger and more heavily armored than any UNSC ship in service. The only chance the UNSC ever had for winning was by achieving local superiority in numbers, as well as utilizing better tactics. With TF Whiskey, Spaatz had the numbers, but the tactics may be harder to come by.
Spaatz's strategic objective was fairly straightforward: in order to cripple the Covenant invasion fleet, he estimated he needed to disable, if not outright destroy, at least half the Covenant's capital ships. He had chosen this exact moment to launch his attack because with the Covenant's battlecruisers and ORS heavy cruiser holding station over their landing site, depositing ground troops onto the surface of Actium at a frantic pace, they were at their most vulnerable. Unfortunately, from the way the Covenant fleet had been deployed, it was clear the commander of the Covenant invasion fleet also realized that.
From the moment those capital ships had taken to the field, every other Covenant ship already in the system had immediately broken contact and fallen back to form a defensive "bubble" around the cruisers. There were three primary defensives layers, with the battlecruisers themselves occupying the innermost layer, all the Covenant destroyers occupying the middle layer, and finally all the corvettes occupying the outermost layer, with every single fighter, gunboat, and most of their light cruisers establishing a fighter screen.
In short, in order for Spaatz to even get within firing range of the Covenant capital ships, he would need to fight his way through every single Covenant ship already in the system.
It was a daunting task, one that seemed almost impossible. Still, Spaatz had to try. The fate of billions depended on it.
Fortunately, Spaatz had a plan
"Three minutes until the lead units reach maximum effective range of their weapons sir," Kanin reported.
Spaatz nodded. "Gold Group, standby to engage," he commanded and he could hear Kanin repeating the order over the radio.
On screen, Spaatz watched as the fighters of Gold Group began to pour out of their carriers like a swarm of angry bees whose hive had just been kicked. Gold Group, consisting of three Air Force Trenchard-class aircraft carriers (UNSCs Iqbal, Bong, and Löwenhardt(1),) and reinforced by two Navy cruiser strike groups (based around the UNSCs Leviathan and Hannibal,) constituted the lightest of Spaatz's battle groups in terms of raw firepower and as such, was currently serving as Spaatz's vanguard and main skirmishing line. Their mission objective was simple: disrupt the Covenant battle formation so heavier units could exploit the chaos.
"One minute until contact sir," Kanin announced.
Waving his hand in acknowledgement, Spaatz reached out and activated his radio.
"Admiral Spaatz to General Carter," he said.
"Go for Carter," came the immediate response.
"General Carter: commence Operation: MONSOON RAIN."
"Understood sir. General Carter to all Gold Group call signs: commence the attack!"
Through his display, Spaatz watched as the hundreds of fighters assigned to Gold Group break away from the rest of the task force, followed closely by their assigned naval support ships, which in turn were followed by the Air Force aircraft carriers. The massive group started to head straight towards the Covenant at flank speed, with their fighters quickly pulling ahead of their capital ships.
The two masses of fighters rushed at each other, quickly closing the distance and getting closer to firing range by the second. But whereas the Covenant were beginning to visibly slow down to attack speed, the UNSC fighters were, if anything, speeding up.
Spaatz leaned in closer to his screen. At the speeds those fighters were traveling, obtaining a firing solution on the Covenant even with missiles would prove to be extremely difficult, which made Spaatz wonder how Gold Group planned to work around that. The problem was, while it was Spaatz's job to set the strategic objectives for Gold Group, the "what" of the battle, it was up to the individual commanders to determine the tactics necessary to achieve those objectives, or in other words, the "how" of the battle. Because of that, Spaatz had no idea what the commander of Gold Group was planning.
"Thirty seconds to contact."
Abruptly the Covenant fighters all open fired! A virtual wave of plasma headed straight for the UNSC fighters!
As expected, the fighters waited until the last possible second to start deploying countermeasures but strangely enough, they failed to break formation to begin evasive maneuvers, and Spaatz couldn't help but wince as a number of dots suddenly blinked out of existence from his screen. What were they doing?
"Covenant is now in range!" Kanin announced and Spaatz braced himself, but instead of firing, the UNSC fighters instead just kept flying straight in.
"Are they... trying to close in to dogfighting range?" Spaatz asked out loud and out of the corner of his eye, he could see Kanin shaking his head.
"I have no idea sir. But the Covenant certainly seem to think so," Kanin pointed out and indeed, even as they continued to fire, the Covenant were hastily pairing off in a standard dogfighting formation.
The UNSC fighters got to within knife fighting range of the Covenant, but then, in a move that took everyone by surprise, sped right passed them.
"What the..."
Spaatz watched as every single one of the UNSC fighters slip right past the Covenant. Some of the Covenant started to turn around to pursue, but with most of Gold Group's navy support warships closing in, most of the Covenant opted to try and take advantage of a lack of fighter screen and attack those ships directly. Spaatz could see explosions lighting up the hulls of his warships as the Covenant began their attack.
"Why is Gold Group throwing away their fighter support and letting the enemy attack their capital ships directly? That goes against just about every military manual in existence," Spaatz started to note, but then paused as he noticed the warships weren't even fighting back. Instead, like the fighters before them, they were doing their best to punch right through the Covenant lines, even if it was costing them dozens of casualties by allowing the Covenant free hits.
Confused, Spaatz zoomed his screen out to see where his ships were going, only to see them heading straight for the Covenant's second line of defense, the SDV-class heavy corvettes and the location where most of the Covenant fighters had deployed from.
Covenant corvettes were some of the most versatile ships the Covenant had in their arsenal, being equipped for both anti-ship warfare and anti-fighter warfare. What they were not equipped to do was engage both at the same time, which is why they often deployed with fighter support of their own. With UNSC forces having completely blown past their fighter screen, and confronted with both fighters and warships advancing on their position, the corvettes hesitated, unable to decide who to engage first.
For that mistake, the Covenant paid dearly. Gold Group's warships promptly opened fire at maximum range, unloading several volleys of MAC rounds and Archer missiles at every single corvette present. At the same time, their fighters finally broke off into separate flights and began launching attack runs on the damaged corvettes. The area lit up with plasma fire as the corvettes returned fire but for some of them it was already too late: at least one corvette had already been destroyed while another two were clearly floundering.
In the meantime, realizing the danger, every Covenant fighter started turning around to return to their motherships. But before they could get far, explosions began lighting up the void as anti-aircraft fire began sweeping through their ranks. Advancing on their positions were Gold Group's three Air Force carriers and their gunship escorts. Without hesitating, they plunged among the ranks of the Covenant fighters, taking advantage of their confusion and causing the entire formation to immediately dissolve into chaos.
Watching the scene unfold in front of him, Spaatz couldn't help but be impressed by the boldness of Gold Group's commander. Placing aircraft carriers right in the thick of all the fighting was the opposite of what most commanders would have done. Despite their size, carriers simply lacked the armor or the firepower of most conventional flagships, such as battleships and cruisers. Because of that, most commanders, both Air Force and Navy ones, tried to keep their carriers far from the fighting, preferring to use them in their intended role as mere transports for other vessels. Hell, that's what Spaatz would have done.
But here, it was clear Gold Group's commander intended to use them more like large gunships, tying down the Covenant fighters while allowing the rest of his forces to attack the Covenant warships with impunity. It was a bold and risky strategy on the Gold Group commander's part as the Covenant fighters could easily overwhelm his carriers' defenses, but from the looks of it, it was working: the entire outer layer of the Covenant's defenses were being thrown into chaos as the Covenant scrambled to redeploy their forces in response to the situation at hand.
"Who's the commander in charge of Gold Group?" Spaatz asked Kanin without looking away from his screen. "This... General Carter?"
"Brigadier General Samantha Carter sir," Kanin informed him. "Commissioned twenty six years ago from the service academy, she was initially commissioned as a fighter pilot, though after obtaining a doctorate in astrophysics, she was transferred to CLASSIFIED program in 2532. The next ten years of her service record is classified sir. Her record picks up again in 2542, when she was promoted to the rank of Colonel and transferred to the UNSC Richard Bong to serve as her commanding officer. Six months ago she was promoted to Brigadier General and appointed commanding officer of the Air Force's 19th Air Division(2)."
Spaatz nodded his head. He briefly wondered what this "classified" program she had worked on for most of her military career was. In this day and age, it was probably something to do with the Covenant, though Spaatz had heard rumblings that the Air Force was taking the lead on research about another alien species, one that supposedly predated the Covenant. Spaatz never gave the rumors much heed though; he preferred to fight his alien invaders one at a time, thank you very much.
Whatever the case was, it was had clearly taught her how to think unconventionally, something Spaatz felt was desperately needed in this war.
"Send a copy of Carter's CSV to my records," Spaatz commanded. "The ones I have access too, of course. And make an annotation; I'm curious to see where General Carter's career takes her."
"Yes sir."
With that done, Spaatz turned his attention back to the battle at hand. Gold Group was starting to take a fair amount of casualties as the Covenant started getting their fleet reorganized, however the damage was already done: the Covenant's defensive line had been considerably weakened. It was time to drive the nail in.
"Kanin, signal Blue Group," Spaatz instructed. "Inform Admiral Ozzel he may begin Phase II with my compliments."
"Yes sir. Signaling now... Blue Group has received and is beginning their attack now sir."
Outside, about half of the ships that remained of TF Whiskey began to break away from the main force. Consisting of one Vindication-class battlecruiser (UNSC Phoenix,) one Valiant-class super-heavy cruiser (UNSC Prometheus,) and three Epoch-class navy heavy carriers (UNSCs Liaoning, Illustrious, and São Paulo,) as well as all their escorts, Blue Group was a blend of mobility and firepower, with the scales leaning more towards the firepower end. They were going to need that firepower as their goal was a bit more complicated: while Gold Group's job had simply been to disrupt the Covenant's formation, it was Blue Group's job to actually penetrate their defenses.
Spaatz watched as Blue Group's ships soared over Actium's crest and began speeding in the direction of the Covenant. Their formation was a bit more of a conventional layout, but still effective, with the Prometheus and the Phoenix in the van and the carriers following up the rear. Despite her heavier armor, Spaatz did notice Admiral Ozzel had the Phoenix hanging just a bit further back than the Prometheus, which he could understand why: the Phoenix was one of the Navy's newest battleships, having literally been diverted to the Ambracian System while she had been in the middle of her shakedown cruise. In contrast, the Prometheus was one of the oldest, having been the third Valiant-class super-heavy cruiser to have ever been built. As such, Spaatz could imagine Ozzel was somewhat reluctant to allow the Phoenix to get damaged.
Blue Group quickly approached the area where Gold Group and the Covenant's outer layer of defenses were entangled in a mortal struggle of life and death. Coming up from below to avoid collision with the ships from Gold Group, they headed straight for the Covenant's secondary line of defense. A single heavy corvette broke away from the fighting to try and intercept them, but before the ship could reach, both the Prometheus and Phoenix opened up.
The corvette's shields were instantly disabled as six MAC rounds slammed into it in rapid succession, the Prometheus and the Phoenix both being armed with three MACs apiece. The corvette retaliated by launching three plasma torpedoes straight at the Phoenix and started to fire her plasma cannons, but before they could get off more than a single burst, a volley of Ares missiles fired by the Prometheus slammed into the plasma cannons, destroying them instantly and drawing the attention of the corvette. Both ships began exchanging fire at a frantic pace, but the amount of weapons the Prometheus carried, coupled with fire support from her escort frigates, meant it was an exchange the corvette had no chance of winning.
In the meantime, the three plasma torpedoes headed straight for the Phoenix at high speeds. Firing a series of missile directly in their path, the Phoenix was able to destroy one of the torpedoes. The second was diverted by a number of decoys the Phoenix fired, however the third and last torpedo continued along its path, undeterred. The projectile slammed into the battleship's dorsal forward bow section, leaving scorch marks and melted armor in its wake, but failing to do much more than that. That was the major feature that separate a battleship like the Phoenix from a super-heavy cruiser like the Prometheus: while both ships were armed with similar types and tonnage of weaponry, the amount of armor battleships were equipped with far exceed that of a cruiser class vessel.
Spaatz glanced back at the Prometheus, but she and her escorts had already reduced the assaulting corvette to nothing more than a pile of molten slag. Still, the delay, however brief, had been worth the loss of one entire warship as it had given the Covenant enough time to shift a number of their destroyers to a position where they could confront the advancing ships of Blue Group. Even as Blue Group quickly reformed and resumed their advance, they began getting raked with plasma fire as an entire squadron of four CPV-class Covenant heavy destroyers and one RPV-class light destroyer started shooting at them.
Plasma bolts and energy beams flashed across the void as the Covenant engaged with everything they had. Blue Group wasn't taking it lying down though, returning fire with missiles and heavy MAC rounds, as well as deploying all sorts of countermeasures and igniting their emergency thrusters to throw off the Covenant gunners' aim.
Most of the Covenant fire was directed at the two capital ships, which bore the brunt of the attack without much issue. However, switching to a real-time view, Spaatz could see the plasma bolts steadily eating its way through their armor, stripping them of their defenses to the point where it wouldn't be that difficult for something heavier to punch right through. And sure enough, all sorts of warning signs began flashing across Spaatz's screen as the destroyers began launching a vast array of plasma torpedoes at Blue Group.
"How many plasma torpedoes did the Covenant just launch?" Spaatz demanded to know, his attention fixated on the action.
"I count fifteen sir. Now sixteen. Seventeen! Seventeen torpedoes, in the air sir!"
Spaatz sharply inhaled. Seventeen torpedoes, even split between two ships, was more than enough to reduce an entire battleship to slag. And with the way Blue Group had been launching countermeasures earlier like they'd been going out of style, Spaatz wasn't sure how much they had left.
He anxiously watched as the torpedoes speed towards both the Prometheus and the Phoenix. Both ships took action, beginning evasive maneuvers and firing missiles directly at the torpedoes to try and cause them to prematurely detonate. Explosions filled the vacuum as one by one, torpedoes began to detonate, but it wasn't enough; too many torpedoes were still getting through.
But as the remaining torpedoes closed the distance, both the Prometheus and the Phoenix abruptly ceased fire. Before Spaatz could inquire as to what the hell Ozzel was doing, all of Blue Group's escort frigates suddenly surged forward, and Spaatz numbly watched as they placed themselves between the torpedoes and both capital ships. On his display, the symbols representing those ships began dropping like flies as the torpedoes easily tore through the much lighter ships, destroying quite a few of them, but leaving the capital ships relatively unscathed.
At that sight, Spaatz couldn't help but shake his head in dismay. Rear Admiral Ozzel had a reputation for being a rather aggressive and stubborn commander, always looking for a fight and never refusing to back down, no matter the odds. His bullheaded nature had allowed him to blunder his way to victory through a number of rather difficult battles in the past, which helped him climb the ranks, but it had also given him a reputation of being a rather ruthless and uncaring commander who cared more about obtaining personal glory than the men and women under his command. Seeing the almost casual way Ozzel had just thrown away his escorts to ensure his capital ships remained fully operational, Spaatz could tell Ozzel's reputation wasn't completely undeserved.
Still, Spaatz found he couldn't entirely fault Ozzel. With a battle like this where so much was at stake and both sides being almost equal in strength, the need to hit the Covenant with enough speed and force to knock them off balance was paramount to victory. And that couldn't be accomplished if the UNSC's strongest ships were running at less than full strength, so some sacrifice was needed. Still, Spaatz couldn't help but wonder if there hadn't been some other way besides allowing so much loss of life.
At any case, at the very least, both the Prometheus and the Phoenix were trying to take advantage of the sacrifice of their escorts. They aggressively advanced towards the destroyers, and it was clear the crews of both ships were out looking for blood. Both ships simultaneously open fired on the same target, one of the heavy destroyers. Stripping away the destroyer's shields with missiles, they then started systematically pounding the ship with MAC shells.
The destroyer's armor managed to absorb at least three hits before their reactor was abruptly breached by a lucky shot from the Prometheus. The destroyer disintegrated as her reactor went critical, sending shockwaves rippling out in every direction, and causing massive damage to another destroyer that had been holding formation just a bit more closely than what would have been considered wise. Like a pair of sharks that suddenly smelled blood, both UNSC capital ships abruptly zeroed in on the damaged destroyer, and started hammering it with shells.
The other three Covenant destroyers weren't being idle while all this was going down though. While the Prometheus and the Phoenix were busy finishing off the wounded destroyer, the other members of the squadron were maneuvering around to approach them from the sides or the rear where, due to its design, the MACs wouldn't be able to target them, at least not without turning the entire ship around. Preoccupied with their target and having sacrificed most of their escorts, there was nothing the Prometheus or the Phoenix could do to stop them.
As Spaatz watched, the sole Covenant light destroyer started approaching the Phoenix from "above." Brush off the fire that a nearby UNSC Paris-class frigate was laying down as it desperately tried to prevent the destroyer from firing its weapons, Spaatz could see a massive amount of energy swirling at the destroyer's forward bow as she prepared to fire her energy projector at the space equivalent of point-blank range into the Phoenix. But before she could, the destroyer was abruptly struck by a trio of MAC rounds, knocking her off course.
Tracing the shells back to their source, Spaatz spotted Blue Group's assigned carriers taking to field. Unlike General Carter, Ozzel had opted to use his carriers in a more conventional way, keeping them behind his warships and only bring them forward to provide support, even though Navy carriers were far better equipped for ship-to-ship combat than Air Force ones as each ship was armed with a single MAC.
Fighters began pouring from the carriers, lending their support to the battle. Due to the amount of space the MACs and associated equipment took up, Navy carriers could only carry about half the amount of fighters their Air Force counterparts could despite being larger in size. Still, eighty some Longswords per carrier was nothing to scoff at, and Spaatz could see the Covenant destroyer squadron quickly buckling under the combined weight of all the UNSC ships. Though it was hard to tell in real time because of the distances involved, on his display, a noticeable hole was forming in the Covenant lines as a blue oasis in a sea of red dots began to bloom.
"Sir, it appears Blue Group has formally penetrated the Covenant defensive bubble. A direct attack route to the Covenant's capital ships is forming," Kanin reported. "Shall I have Red Group begin Phase III?"
Spaatz started to nod his head, but then hesitated. There was something about this battle that had been bothering him since before Gold Group began their attack, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. It was like... this entire battle was... almost... too easy.
Of course, that was a patently ridiculous thought. Covenant resistance was fierce, as it always was as evident by the ever mounting casualties both Gold and Blue Groups were taking. And it's not like the situation was stable. While his forces were holding on to their positions for now, there was no denying their hold was tenuous at best. If he didn't order Red Group to begin their attack soon, the scales could easily tip in the Covenant's favor, and they would miss their chance at achieving their objective. There was nothing easy about this battle.
And yet, Spaatz couldn't help but think back to the old Navy adage: "if everything is going to plan, then an ambush is about to occur." That, coupled with this feeling that he had missed something, something very crucial to the success or failure of this battle, was causing Spaatz's sense of danger, honed by decades of military service, to trigger.
"Kanin, how many carriers and capital ships do Gold and Blue Groups have left?" Spaatz asked.
He could sense the confused look that appeared over Kanin's face, but he answered nevertheless.
"All of them sir."
"Good. Create a new battle group, Green Group, and transfer control of the Prometheus, Illustrious, Löwenhardt, as well as all their fighter wings and escorts to that group. Have Admiral Pike, Christopher that is, not Thomas, take command and order him to establish a rear guard at the edge of the fighting."
He glanced in Kanin's direction, only to see him with a rather bewildered look on his face.
"Sir," he slowly began, "with all due respect, removing several ships to establish an unnecessary rear guard in the middle of a battle is extremely inadvisable as it will considerably weaken Gold and Blue Group's ability to maintain their positions in the event of a concerted Covenant counterattack. May I suggest we simply proceed with the attack?"
Normally, Spaatz tried to avoid being one of those commanders who demanded absolute obedience to the very letter of his every order. It had been his experience that sort of leadership almost always completely destroyed morale and highly discouraged individual initiative. In his opinion, if a commander wasn't capable of explaining the rationale behind an order, then it probably wasn't that good of an order to begin with.
However, under these circumstances, absolutely frustrated by his own inability to fully understand his own concerns, the last thing Spaatz wanted was someone questioning his orders.
"Kanin, just do it," he tersely snapped, doing his best to keep his aggravation from appearing in his voice. He didn't think he succeeded though because Kanin immediately went rigid.
"Sir. Yes sir," was all he said though, and immediately turned away to execute Spaatz's commands.
Spaatz turned back to his screen, feeling just the tiniest bit guilty, but for the most part his mind was too preoccupied with the battle to give it much thought. He was missing something, something obvious, but as his ships began redeploying and Green Group was formed, he still couldn't figure out what "it" was.
"Sir, Admiral Pike has taken command of Green Group and has established a rear guard. However, the Covenant are beginning to press their attack against both Gold and Blue Groups. General Carter and Admiral Ozzel report they will be able to hold out, but not indefinitely. If Red Group is to attack, respectfully sir, they need to do it now," Kanin reported out loud, before leaning in closer, close enough Spaatz could start to count the individual hairs that constituted the fur on Kanin's face. "But sir, if you think this is a mistake, we can still call off the attack."
Spaatz had considered that, but unfortunately that wasn't an option.
"No," he finally said with a sigh. "This is probably our last opportunity to tip the balance of power in our direction. We need to attack, while we still have that chance. Captain Yirenkyi: COMMENCE THE ATTACK!"
"Yes sir!" Yirenkyi immediately bellowed. "Officer of the Deck, commence the attack! Come about and making your heading one seven seven three, all engines ahead, full!"
"Aye sir! Helmsman, come about to heading one seven seven three, all engines ahead, full!"
"Comms, signal the rest of the battle group, we're going straight for the jugular: those cruisers! We're going straight in, so stay on your toes people!"
"Aye aye sir!"
Spaatz gripped his restraints as the Kilkis fired her fusion engines and began flying through the void at high speeds, followed by the remainder of the space assets of TF Whiskey. Out of all the battle groups, Red Group was by far the most powerful. As they had been intended to confront the Covenant's most powerful ships in the system, Red Group appropriately consisted of six Vindication-class battleships (UNSCs Kilkis, Salamis, Lemnos, Daedalus, Sun Tzu, and Korolev,) as well as all the assault carriers, light carriers, and Air Force attack transports in the system for support. It was Spaatz's hope that the sheer amount of firepower represented there would be enough to outright cripple, if not destroy, all four Covenant capital ships.
Spaatz watched through his screen as Red Group headed in the direction of the fighting. Through the combined efforts of both Gold and Blue Groups, a corridor through the Covenant lines had been established, though it wasn't exactly the safest. Stray plasma fire kept streaking through the dead space between ships, crisscrossing through the opening, plus a number of dogfights were taking place inside the corridor itself. As Red Group took to the field, the Kilkis was immediately set upon by an entire squadron of Seraphs.
"Incoming fighters bearing six one seven three!" the Kilkis weapons officer warned.
"Ignore them!" Yirenkyi immediately ordered. "All battleships, continue the advance on those cruisers! All escort carriers: deploy your fighters!"
Spaatz glanced through his exterior cameras as the hanger doors to Red Group's escort ships slid open and dozens of spacecraft began deploying. While some of them were dedicated space fighters, a majority of them weren't: instead they were Pelican and Darter gunships.
The problem was, due to the need to not only defend the rest of the planet from Covenant incursions, but also the high demand of ships needed for this attack, Spaatz had simply run out of fleet carriers, destroyers, and frigates. To provide escorts to his battleships as well as a fighter screen, Spaatz had been forced to turn to his remaining Orion and Poseidon-class carriers, as well as the Air Force's attack transports, none of which were "true" aircraft carriers but instead, more like amphibious assault ships. Because of that, the majority of their assigned aircraft were dropships, not fighters.
He watched as his ships take a moment to pair up before rocketing off in the direction of the incoming Seraphs. But before they could get far, the Seraphs started shooting.
Spaatz could see what few Longswords in the mix easily dodging the incoming fire but for the dropships, the task was more difficult. Despite being far smaller targets than the Longswords, the dropships weren't equipped with all the maneuvering thrusters dedicated space fighters had and could barely respond in time. And in fact, some couldn't: explosions filled Spaatz's screen as at least two Pelicans and a Darter were immediately hit and instantly destroyed, their lighter armor not designed for firepower of that magnitude.
His Longswords quickly returned fire, but for his dropships, they had to wait until they were able to get closer. While the dropships had been reequipped with AAMs, again, because they were never intended for air to air combat, they didn't even have the long range sensors the Longswords did and had to rely on the seekers of each individual warhead to obtain a lock.
The Longswords had already managed to fire a second salvo before the dropships were even able to fire back. At that point, another five dropships had already been destroyed whereas none of the Seraphs had taken any damage. Finally coming within weapons range, the dropships opened up with everything they had, sending all sorts of missiles in the Seraphs' direction, most of which proved to be fairly useless as Seraph countermeasures went to work.
"Those dropships don't stand a chance against those Seraphs," Spaatz mentioned out loud to Kanin.
"No sir. But we always knew this was going to happen sir. That's why we made sure some Longswords were part of the screen," Kanin reminded him. "If the dropships can lay down enough fire, the Seraphs would hopefully be too distracted to notice the Longswords coming in to finish them off. And at any case, the Seraphs willbe too busy dealing with the small craft to worry about our battleships, which is the entire point of a fighter screen."
"I know," Spaatz murmured. Still, the sight of so much ships blinking out of existence on his screen bothered him greatly. "The sooner we finish this, the better. How soon until we come within maximum effective weapons range?"
"Thirty seconds sir."
Spaatz glanced outside. Red Group had officially penetrated the Covenant's defenses; there were absolutely no more Covenant ships standing between them and the Covenant cruisers. It was time to finish this.
"Captain Yirenkyi, as soon as those cruisers come within range, you may fire at will!" Spaatz barked out.
"Yes sir! Weaps, bring up those cruisers and put them on the main screen!"
A 3D holographic image of all four Covenant cruisers suddenly appeared on the center console of the CIC. Red Group was approaching the ships from "above" and thus, Spaatz was able to plainly see all four cruisers floating over the skies of Actium.
The cruisers had adopted a sort of triangle formation: each one of the battlecruisers formed the corners and were holding position equal distance from each other, though the sensors did indicate each battlecruiser was actually floating at a different altitude. In the meantime, the heavy cruiser was positioned in the center of the triangle, directly over the Covenant landing site. Connect to the gravity lift, Spaatz could tell the Covenant were depositing all sorts of infantry and equipment onto the surface at a frantic pace. Spaatz knew his fleet had to take out those ships now, before UNSC defenses on the ground were overwhelmed by the Covenant Army.
"Computer, designated those battlecruisers as targets 1-Delta, 2-Delta, and 3-Delta, and then designated that heavy cruiser as target 1-Echo," Spaatz heard Yirenkyi command and on the center console, tags immediately began appearing on each of the ships. "Comms, signal the fleet, the following ships will engage the following cruiser: Kilkis and Salamis on 1-Delta, Lemnos and Daedalus on 2-Delta, and the Sun Tzu and Korolev on 3-Delta. All battleships are to engage and keep firing until their targets are either disabled or destroy, then all ships will shift fire to target 1-Echo."
"Copy that sir!"
"Weaps, giving me a firing solution on 1-Delta, lock on all missile batteries, and be prepared to fire on my mark!"
"Aye sir! Acquiring now! Target is… locked!"
"Standby!"
Spaatz leaned forward in his chair in anticipation of what was to come. The cruisers quickly began filling his screen as Red Group drew closer and closer to maximum effective firing range. Technically being in space, they could have engaged thirty minutes ago, but with the Covenant holding position over Actium, any MAC shot that failed to connect would have hit the surface and into UNSC held territory, causing massive damage. They had to get to a range where the Covenant wouldn't be able to dodge their shots so easily.
Although, at the moment, the Covenant didn't appear to be moving at all…
Spaatz frowned. Despite their very obvious approach, the Covenant hadn't broken formation at all. The battlecruisers' mission was no doubt to protect the heavy cruiser as she unloaded, but Spaatz would have thought it would have been in the Covenant's best interest to engage Red Group from as far away from the heavy cruiser as possible, so as to prevent the UNSC from coming within range. What were the Covenant doing?
Puzzled and more than a bit alarmed, Spaatz zoomed in on the battlecruiser the Kilkis was gunning for, target 1-Delta. As he did, he noticed something was a little off about the cruiser. For one thing, it was pointed in the wrong direction, with its ventral hull facing down towards Actium, meaning the ship wouldn't be able to use their heavy energy projectors against the approaching battleships. And second, there appeared to have a number of structures installed on the dorsal side of the battlecruiser's hull, structures that looked familiar, but Spaatz just couldn't identify at the moment…
"Target in range!" the weapons officer suddenly yelled out.
"All batteries, FIRE! All ships, FIRE!" Yirenkyi roared.
The Kilkis immediately fired all three of her MACs, as well as sending hundreds of Archer missiles in the direction of the Covenant. At the same time, so did every other battleship assigned to Red Group. It was singlehandedly one of the largest salvos Spaatz had ever see in his life: eighteen Mark IV heavy MAC rounds, nearly twelve hundred Archer missiles, and over seven thousand 50mm shells were thrown in the direction of the Covenant. Spaatz watched with bated breath as the ordnance quickly crossed streaked across the void towards the Covenant –
- and caused the shields on all ships to light up as the shells struck home, but doing nothing else.
Spaatz frowned. He would have thought all of that ordnance would have at least disabled the shields. Battlecruisers were strong, but surely they weren't that strong.
"Second salvo!" Yirenkyi bellowed. "Fire when ready!"
Flames spat out from the front of the Kilkis as she fired all three of her MACs again. A split second later, the other half of the battleship's arsenal of Archer missiles was sent following in its wake. Again, the ordnance streaked across the void and slammed into the Covenant, and again their shields flashed into existence, but nothing else happened.
"What the hell..." Spaatz muttered, that feeling of alarm growing by the second. He glance at Yirenkyi, who appeared to be just as confused as he felt.
"Weaps!" Yirenkyi started, then hesitated. "Fire... fire a third salvo! Maybe the third time's a charm!"
"Yes sir!" the weapons officer replied, a hint of nervousness creeping into the man's voice. "Firing main battery!"
The Kilkis fired again. The MAC rounds smashed into the Covenant cruiser and again, nothing happened. A number of nervous murmurings began to break out among the crew of the combat information center as they watched their rounds smash ineffectively against the Covenant's shields.
For his part, Spaatz was going his best to keep his panic under his control.
"Kanin," he barked. "Are our sensors calibrated correctly? We do see these cruisers in front of us, and we are hitting them, are we not?"
"We are sir," Kanin replied, sounding as much of a loss as anyone. "And the sensors are reading properly."
"Then how have those shields not been disabled yet!? We've already hit them with more energy output than a single ODP super MAC would have!?"
"I have no idea sir, all I know is I'm not even reading a fluctuation in their shield strength."
"Admiral Spaatz!"
Spaatz jerked and glanced over in Yirenkyi's direction. "Yes?"
"Sir, permission to hit the Covenant with a Shiva?" he asked, and Spaatz could hear the slight desperation creeping into the man's voice.
"Granted!"
"Weaps, load up Shivas in tubes one and three! Comms, signal the Salamis to do the same and standby to fire on my mark!"
"Sir, nukes are primed and ready!"
"Standby... FIRE!"
The weapons officer jammed down on a couple of buttons and outside, Spaatz could see two missiles departing from their vertical launch systems mounted on the Kilkis' dorsal hull and rapidly speed in the direction of the Covenant, being joined by two other missiles launched by the Salamis. He leaned forward as he waited for the Covenant to evade, or launch decoys, or return fire, or do something but they just sat there, waiting for... what exactly? Spaatz had no idea but suddenly, he realized he had no interest in waiting around to find out.
"Fall back."
"Excuse me sir?"
Spaatz snapped his head in Kanin's direction. "Fall back! Kanin, signal a general withdraw, I want all battle groups to fall back to our launch position! Initiate a withdraw, NOW!"
"Sir, I -"
Whatever Kanin was about to say was cut off when there was a brilliant flash of white light as the Shivas struck home. Spaatz glanced back at his screen, only to see target 1-Delta emerging completely unscathed and he couldn't help but gap. How...?
"Sir, we're detecting some sort of movement around target 1-Echo!" Kilkis' officer of the deck suddenly bellowed.
"What type of movement!?" Spaatz demanded before Yirenkyi could say anything as he hastily shifted his screen to the heavy cruiser in time to see some sort of... shimmering field dissipating revealing...
"It appears to be... ships?"
At that very moment, two realizations suddenly struck Spaatz, and he abruptly realized what he'd been forgetting. One: if UNSC High Command had been able to send Spaatz reinforcements in the form of multiple battleship strike groups, then why hadn't the Covenant done the same? Two: ORS-class heavy cruisers were known for, among other things, their stealth capabilities.(3)
The stealth field around the heavy cruiser abruptly dissipated, whether because it had been disrupted by the radiation from the Shivas or because the Covenant decided the jig was up he didn't know, but it revealed an entirely new Covenant battle group that had previously gone undetected.
In that instant -
"Admiral, we're detecting enemy ships in sector forty-seven!" the OOD screamed. "They're launching fighters!"
At the same time, a small robotic voice chimed, "Slipspace rupture detected."
"Sir, I'm detecting an entire Covenant task force emerging from slipspace on our six!" Kanin warned. "We're under attack!"
"Admiral! Emergency message from Admiral Ozzel: the Covenant are launching a massive counterattack against his battle group! He's requesting reinforcements otherwise he won't be able to hold!"
"Alert! Covenant battlecruisers are rotating on their longitudinal axis. I'm detecting a massive surge of energy: they're charging weapons!"
Spaatz sucked in a huge breath of air as his worst nightmare was suddenly coming to life. The Covenant commander had set the stage masterfully, and despite his misgivings, Spaatz had fallen for it hook, line, and sinker. There was no other way to put it: he had fucked up. The only thing left to do was to minimize the bleeding.
"Kanin, alert Admiral Pike: Green Group is to counterattack immediately! I don't care if he has to sacrifice everyone single one of his ships to do it, but he is to hold our rear door open so the rest of the Task Force can get out!" Spaatz roared. "Comms, signal General Carter, she is to take her ship, all her naval support and immediately reinforce Green Group's position! The rest of her force, send to Blue Group and HOLD THAT CORRIDOR! UNSCs Sun Tzu and Korolev, envelope right and provide covering fire while the rest of the battleships retreat! Gray Group, target those cruisers and FIRE EVERYTHING! Captain Yirenkyi, get us the fuck out of here, NOW! Weaps, target those new warships! Target those fighters! Target everything! SOMEBODY FIRE!"
Alarms began shrieking out as the crew of the CIC frantically moved to execute Spaatz's orders. There was no hiding it now: the scent of panic was flooding the air.
Spaatz grabbed his restraints as he felt the Kilkis rapidly turn to starboard, trying her best to turn around so she could flee while on screen, the Sun Tzu and the Korolev surged forward, firing every single weapon they had at the Covenant cruisers, doing their best to lay down covering fire. At the same time, missiles were rising from the surface of Actium and heading for the same target: covering fire from the missile submarines of the Actium Navy that made up the bulk of Gray Group's firepower.
All sorts of projectiles smashed against the battlecruisers' shields, but it wasn't enough to deter them from finishing their half turn on their longitudinal axis.
"INCOMING!"
The cruisers fired and a bright blue beam lit up the void.
"Fuck! The Korolev's been hit! Korolev is down, I say again, THE KOROLEV IS DOWN!"
Spaatz glanced at the screen to see the Korolev slowly beginning to fall apart. The energy projector had slammed right into the Korolev's nose and burned its way lengthwise through the entire ship. Spaatz started to give the order to scramble the search and rescue Pelicans when the Korolev abruptly exploded, possibly because her armory went up, possibly because her reactor had gone critical. But whatever the case was, it was clear no one had survived.
"Enemy warships advancing on the Sun Tzu!"
The hidden Covenant task force had finally pulled away from the heavy cruiser's orbit, allowing Spaatz to see just how many warships had been hidden there. It wasn't much, only two CPV-class heavy destroyers and five CRS-class light cruisers, but these were fresh, fully equipped and fully armed ships, unlike Spaatz's battleships. Plus, they were being supported by fire from those battlecruisers.
"Kanin, order the Lemnos to move up, take the Korolev's place, and provide support to the Sun Tzu!" Spaatz snapped, even as the Sun Tzu was struck several times by plasma torpedoes, causing fire and explosions to break out across her hull. "Captain Yirenkyi! Get us to Blue Group's position so we can provide covering fire for the Lemnos and Sun Tzu's retreat!"
"Sir, Admiral Ozzel is reporting his position is rapidly becoming untenable and is requesting permission to withdraw," Kanin warned.
"What, NO! Tell that son of a bitch he is to hold his position until the battleships are able to fully withdraw!"
"Ah, sir, I think that might be too late: sensors indicate Blue Group is already initiating a withdraw!"
"WHAT!?" Spaatz demanded and rotated his screen around. Sure enough, what remained of Blue Group was slowly pulling back, and Covenant ships were rapidly pushing ahead to fill the gap. "Kanin, relieve Admiral Ozzel of his command and have his executive officer take charge! Inform him he is to hold his position no matter the circumstances, and that I'm redeploying all of Red Group's escort carriers to assist!"
"Aye sir!"
"Captain Yirenkyi! Our window is closing! Do whatever you have to, just get this ship out of this hole!"
"Sir!"
"Comms, signal the Sun Tzu and the Lemnos and order both ships to break contact and fall back, now! Weaps, give them covering fire!"
"Admiral, sir!" the communications officer screamed, catching Spaatz's attention. "The Sun Tzu is reporting massive damage across her entire hull! All of her MACs have been destroyed, two of her engines are out, and structural integrity is failing! Acting captain Commander Hunter is reporting he doesn't believe his ship will be able to hold out much longer!"
Spaatz quickly pulled up a status report of the Sun Tzu. It was actually worse than the communications officer was saying. Just a single glance told Spaatz the ship was already dead, with her main fusion reactor disabled and her primary bridge destroyed, and all secondary systems failing. With her ammunition reserves down to sixteen percent, it was clear there were nothing left the ship could do.
"Comms! Signal the Sun Tzu: order Commander Hunter to initiate Cole Protocol and then..." Spaatz swallowed. "Abandon ship."
"Sir, yes sir!"
"Kanin, have the Lemnos come about and see if they can pick up the survivors and scramble the search and rescue Pelicans. Kilkis, Salamis, and Daedalus, covering fire for the Lemnos, now!"
"Sir, the Lemnos is getting swarmed by fighters and Captain Usman is reporting he's not going to able to make it to the Sun Tzu!" Kanin warned.
"Sir, message from General Carter! The Prometheus has been destroyed and Admiral Pike has fallen! General Carter is taking over Green Group, however she is also reporting roughly half her assigned fighters have been destroyed and warns she's not sure how much longer she'll be able to hold out!"
"Admiral, the commander of Blue Group is reporting his flagship, the Phoenix, is receiving massive amounts of damage and will not be able to maintain his position for much longer!"
Spaatz pinched his nose as, on screen, a red wave was threatening to overwhelm the rest of his Task Force. It was clear he couldn't dally any longer; if he delayed anymore, none of his ships were going to make it. It was time to cut his losses. It was time to make some hard decisions.
"Kanin, have..." Spaatz hesitated. "Kanin, I am hereby ordering the UNSC Lemnos to hold their position and delay the Covenant advance. The Kilkis, Salamis, and Daedalus are to use this time to retreat passed Blue Group. As soon as we're clear, Blue Group will then fall back."
He glanced at Kanin, only to see a rather shocked look on his face.
"Sir, that's -" he began.
"Kanin, was any part of that order unclear!?" Spaatz snarled.
"No sir!"
"Then see that they get executed now, Sailor!"
"Aye sir. All battleships, fall back!"
"Weaps, break contact and cease fire! Save our rounds for self-defense purposes only! Helm, check thirty degrees port, all engines ahead, flank! Get us out of here!"
The Kilkis rapidly spun to the right as her guns fell silent. Spaatz could feel the ship speeding in the direction of Blue Group, and he switched to his rear cameras to see Lemnos making a reckless charge at one of the incoming destroyers. She rammed into a light cruiser that wasn't quite able to clear out of the way in time, instantly destroying the ship, but the blow did knock the Lemnos off course and the battleship only managed to scrap against the destroyer instead of hitting it head on. Seconds later, the Lemnos was speared amidship by two energy projectors, cutting the ship in half. Despite this, crew refused to go down without a fight as both halves continued to fire nonstop, but with Covenant fighters and warships closing in from all directions, the fighting was pretty much over.
The Lemnos did manage to buy the rest of the battle group the chance to retreat and as the Kilkis sped past Blue Group's position, the battle group's ships enveloped the Kilkis in preparation for their own retreat, blocking what remained of the Lemnos from view.
"Sir! General Carter's defense are failing! Enemy ships have broken through in sector three five niner!"
Spaatz shook his head to refocus himself. "Captain Yirenkyi, hit those ships head on! Our job now is to hold open our corridor to allow Blue Group the chance to withdraw!"
"Yes sir!" Yirenkyi replied. "Alright guys, we're not out of the woods just yet! Helm, check port fifteen degrees and drop down to attack speed! Weaps, find me a target!"
The Kilkis started slowing down, allowing Spaatz a chance to see the Covenant task force that had been attempting to close in from the rear. No new battlecruisers or heavy cruisers had arrived, thank goodness, but the new task force did include two DDS-class carriers, as well as fresh new corvettes and destroyers.
"Captain, carrier 1-Foxtrot is beginning to deploy fighters!" the OOD warned.
"We can't let them finish! All batteries, target that carrier! FIRE!"
The Kilkis fired all three of her MACs in rapid succession, and Spaatz waited with bated breath as the rounds sped down range. The first two rounds smashed into the carrier's shields, causing them to light up, but then the third rammed home and they instantly shattered.
Spaatz let out a sigh of relief. Whatever had managed to supercharge the battlecruisers' shields, it clearly didn't extend to the rest of the Covenant fleet. That was good as it meant there was a chance Task Force Whiskey actually might make it out alive.
"Lock on to those hanger bays with Archer pods Echo through Hotel and fire when ready!"
"Missiles away sir!"
The missiles streaked towards the Covenant carrier, only for them to start prematurely exploding as the Covenant fighters deliberately started flying in their path, trying to intercept the missiles before they could hit their mothership. Before anyone could find out who would prevail, the missiles or the fighters, a MAC round suddenly plowed through the mass and slammed into the carrier. All sorts of secondary explosions began going off as the MAC shell smashed into the hanger bay and out the other side, cutting through whatever stood in its path.
Tracing the MAC back to its source, Spaatz spotted the Phoenix, heavily damaged but clearly still functioning, coming up the Kilkis' flank in support. Behind her, Spaatz could see the Salamis and the Daedalus engaging the rest of the Covenant warships, doing their best to keep them at bay.
"Captain, continue engaging!" Spaatz ordered. "Blue Group, push past Red Group, rendezvous with Green Group, and hold the line! Kanin, give me a sitrep on those battlecruisers! What are they doing!?"
"The battlecruisers appeared to be hold formation over Actium sir," Kanin immediately reported. "They have not moved at all since we engaged them, though I cannot even begin to speculate as to why."
"That's fine, let them stay there for now! Keep an eye on them and let me know if they change their mind!"
"Yes sir!"
Outside, the remaining ships of Blue Group were streaming passed the battleships and heading to support Green Group in holding the Covenant back. In the meantime, both the Kilkis and the Phoenix continued to pound target 1-Foxtrot with MAC rounds, which was steadily falling apart under the barrage, leaving behind only about a hundred or so fighters that had managed to escape the ship before its destruction. Spaatz could see them ignite their afterburners and go straight for the Phoenix, most likely in an attempt to finish the ship off.
"Fighters, incoming!"
"Helm, check five degrees up and put us on an intercept course between those fighters and the Phoenix!" Yirenkyi barked. "Admiral, any chance we could get some fighter support?"
Spaatz quickly studied his screen, trying to figure which one of his fleet carriers still had fighters left.
"Kanin, reroute the São Paulo to our location and have their fighter wings assist!" he commanded.
"Copy that sir, rerouting now!"
"Have the Phoenix push past Green and Blue's position and fall back to our assembly location! And have Heliopolis Station standing by to provide covering fire if need be!"
"Sir!"
Spaatz glanced around. The Longswords from the São Paulo, supported by anti-aircraft fire from the Kilkis, were rushing towards the Covenant fighters. In the meantime, the Phoenix had broken contact and was very hurriedly pushing through Blue Group's position, and back towards the area where TF Whiskey had initially rallied before the battle had even begun.
"Red Group, break contact and fall back!" Spaatz ordered. "Kanin, signal Blue and Green Groups to cover us!"
"Helm, check nineteen degrees down and get us out of this shit!"
"Nineteen degrees down, aye sir!"
The Kilkis started moving away, followed closely by the São Paulo and her fighters. The Covenant weren't interested in letting them get away that easily, however the remaining carriers of Blue Group, along with the cruisers of Green Group, sent a few dozen MAC rounds in the Covenant's direction, preventing them from forming up. They continued to fire at the Covenant as the remainder of Red Group streamed passed.
"Red Group, establish a firing position at this location," Spaatz jabbed a finger at his screen, marking a random spot in orbit. "Lay down some covering fire so that Blue and Green Groups can fall back to our original assembly location. Blue and Green Groups, fall back, now!"
The ships of Blue and Green Groups quickly broke contact. As their fire slackened, the Covenant warships started to try and pursue, but fire from Red Group cut through their ranks once again, prevented them from forming up.
"Red Group, fall back now!" Spaatz ordered as the last of the ships from Green Group reported they had returned to the assembly area.
Spaatz's remaining battleships quickly turned tail and started to fall back. Glancing through his rear scopes, Spaatz noticed most of the Covenant warships had given up the pursuit, although one Covenant heavy destroyer refused to give up the chase, doggedly following in the Kilkis' wake. Plasma bolts streaked in the Kilkis' direction and while most of them missed due to the extreme ranges the destroyer was firing at, Spaatz was more concerned about the possibility of the destroyer obtaining a lock on the Kilkis with a plasma torpedo.
"Admiral Spaatz to Heliopolis Station," Spaatz said into his radio.
"Go for Heliopolis!"
"Take out that destroyer that's on our tail!"
"Copy that sir! Firing in three, two, one –"
Several thousand kilometers in front of the Kilkis, emerging from around the crest of the planet, was a single orbital defense platform, super MAC primed and ready.
"MARK!"
Heliopolis Station fired, and Spaatz glanced at his rear scopes in time to see the MAC round cut the destroyer in half. Both halves of the ship continued forward for a couple hundred meters before the ship exploded, almost acting as an official signal to the end of the battle.
But as the Kilkis rejoined what was left of Task Force Whiskey, Spaatz's mind wasn't occupied with the battle that had just ended, but that of the battles yet to come. His attack had failed.
Badly.
What were the consequences going to be for the rest of the campaign?
1. The UNSC Löwenhardt is named for Oberleutnant(Senior Lieutenant) Erich Löwenhardt, a fighter pilot for the Deutsche Luftstreikträfte (Imperial German Army Air Service) during World War I. As a military cadet enrolled at the military school in Lichtfelder when WWI broke out in 1914, Löwenhardt initially saw service with the German Army's Infantry Regiment Nr. 141 as an enlisted infantryman, seeing service on the Eastern Front fighting against Russia where he most notably fought in the Battle of Tannenberg. As a reward for his bravery during that battle, he was commissioned as an officer. In early 1915, then-LeutnantLöwenhardt was awarded the Iron Cross, 1st Class for saving the lives of five wounded men.
In 1916, Löwenhardt volunteered for service with the Imperial German Army Air Service, becoming a full-fledged fighter pilot in March of 1917. Between March of 1917 and August of 1918, Löwenhardt would score a total of fifty-four victories, making him German's third highest flying ace of WWI. Unfortunately, on August 10, 1918, moments after scoring his fifty-fourth victory, Löwenhardt suffered a mid-air collision with another German aircraft. Both pilots bailed out, however Löwenhardt's parachute failed to open, and he fell to his death. He was only 21 years old.
2. Going along with the idea that the Air Force would do their best to avoid using nautical terminology with their ships as I mentioned in my notes for chapter 12, I feel like the Air Force unit structure would also be vastly different from the Navy. So, for example, while Navy carriers are organized into Carrier Strike Groups, Air Force carriers would be organized into "Air Divisions," which would consist of at least one fleet carrier, the carrier's escorts, assigned fighter and support aircraft groups, and whatever support squadrons needed to man and maintain all the ships (i.e., all the maintainers, ordnanceman, security forces, etc.)
3. According to Halopedia, ORS-class cruisers "boast a variety of stealth-related advancements." To be honest, I interpret this more like the stealth coating one would find on a B-2 bomber or F-22 Raptor, but it worked out better for this chapter if it meant more like the cruiser was capable of generating a stealth field around it (similar to the way the Protoss Motherships work in Starcraft 2.)
Sci-Fi References
I hope you guys don't mind all the references to some other popular sci-fi series. I was running low on names and I decided just to have some fun.
For those of you who didn't pick up on them:
- Samantha Carter is one of the main characters from the TV series Stargate SG-1
- Admiral Ozzel is from the Star Wars series, specifically Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (he's the Imperial officer Darth Vader chokes to death just prior to the assault on the Rebel base on Hoth)
- His unnamed executive officer was intended to be Admiral Piett, also of the Star Wars series, though I felt naming him as such would be too blatant (though I suppose it's too late for that.) Like Ozzel, he first appears in Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back as the man who replaces Ozzel, and later appears again in Episode VI: The Return of the Jedi where he acts as essentially the number three guy for the Empire.
- Admiral Christopher Pike is from Star Trek, and the captain of the USS Enterprise preceding Captain Kirk.
Ship Names
A general explanation of the ship names:
- UNSCs Leviathan and Hannibal are both canon ships that have appeared in the Halo official novels: the UNSC Leviathan first appeared in Halo: The Fall of Reach, most notably during the Battle of Sigma Octanus IV, whereas the UNSC Hannibal appeared in Halo: First Strike, though it's only briefly mentioned and very little details are given about it.
- UNSCs Phoenix, Prometheus, Daedalus, Sun Tzu and Korolev are all named after ships from the Stargate universe (no particular reason, just thought I'd stay consistent with the theme I already had going so far. Although in doing so, it creates an issue with the UNSC Phoenix as there already is a class of ships in the Halo universe called the Phoenix, the Phoenix-class colony ship, of which the UNSC Spirit of Fire (from Halo Wars) is one.)
- UNSCs Kilkis, Salamis, and Lemnos, as explained in chapter 8 (but just in case you guys forgot) are all named after former Greek battleships (as the real-life Battle of Actium took place just off the coast of Greece)
- UNSCs Liaoning, Illustrious, and São Paulo (again, explained in chapter 8 but re-explaining it now) are all named after real-world aircraft carriers (Chinese, British, and Brazilian, respectively)
- UNSCs Bong and Löwenhardt are named after real-world fighter aces whereas UNSC Iqbal is an original creation (see chapter 4 for more details.)
General Notes
One last thing I want to address before we finish this chapter off: the classified program that Carter was supposedly working on. That's actually intended to be more than just a thinly veiled reference to the Stargate universe.
One thing that has always bugged me about the Halo Universe is the fact the creators made ONI some sort of omnidisciplinary military service agency (yes, I've taken that word from TV Tropes.) Realistically (and I do realize the foolishness of talking about realism in a story containing super-human soldiers fighting against interplanetary aliens,) a lot of what ONI does should be done by multiple departments and agencies across multiple service branches. The creators have sort of handwaved that away by saying ONI officially and using less than savory means managed to absorb all the functions of all those other departments and agencies, but I don't really like that explanation. So, I decided to depart somewhat from canon and reorganize things.
Without going into too much detail (mainly because I haven't really thought about it that much because it's probably not going to play much, if any, part in this story,) each of the four military service branches (Navy, Marine Corps, Army, and Air Force) is responsible for their own avenue of exploration, research, and theater of war. As the largest branch, both in size and funding, I see the Navy as being responsible for the largest threat humanity is currently facing: the Covenant. By that, I mean the Navy is responsible for gathering all the intelligence they can on the Covenant, researching Covenant technology, developing ways to defeat the Covenant, and basically controlling all the information in regards to the war itself. Essentially what they're currently doing in canon.
The Marine Corps on the other hand, is responsible for the development and research of homegrown technology, i.e., stuff developed by humans. In my headcanon, I see the Marine Corps as having been the ones to really push for the development of the Spartan program, though that required far more money than they actually had which is why ultimately the Navy took over (I feel this is partially supported in canon by the fact that of the five known candidates from the Spartan I program, four of them are specially mentioned as being Marines, whereas the Spartan IIs were all eventually enlisted into the Navy.) Because of their infantry and ground warfare focus, I also see the Marine Corps as having been responsible for some of the more exotic weapons that we see in the games like the Spartan Laser, the Railgun, and vehicles like the Mantis, the Gauss Warthog, and the Rhino (from Halo Wars.)
The Army, given their (if we use the US Army as a model) vast size, massive logistics capability, and slightly more defensive nature, is responsible for the fight against the Insurgency, having assume those duties from the Marine Corps once the war against the Covenant began. I might be reading too much into this, but I think this has actually been hinted in the Halo Universe already: in the novel, Halo: Contact Harvest, Avery Johnson (a Marine) is shown training the Harvest militia to fight against the local Insurgency, but the Insurgency itself never really gets mentioned in the games (which take place thirty years later, plus the games all take place from the perspective of either Navy personnel or Marines.) The one mention of the Insurgency in the games, at least in the later years of the Covenant-Human War (and the only one that I can remember,) is from Halo: Reach, which primarily takes place from the perspective of an Army run Spartan team.
Also, speaking of Noble Team, as mentioned in promotional materials provided for Halo: Reach, Noble Team had spent most of their career running operations against Innie targets as opposed to Covenant targets.
Finally, there's the Air Force. As the smallest and least funded branch, I see them as having been responsible for an avenue of research that many people (in universe at least) would have thought would not yield much results mostly because there wasn't much information about them to begin with: the Forerunners. Admittedly, I'm drawing most of my conclusion from memory and it's a bit rusty, but prior to the discovery of the Halo rings, the UNSC didn't have much information about the Forerunners, basically only knowing the Forerunners existed at some point and that was about it. Because of the limited avenue of research, no other military branch would have been all that interested in exploring it further (because it would be harder to justify their funding) and thus, by default, the Air Force would have gotten it. It would only be after the discovery of stuff like the Halo rings, the Ark, and the planet of Onyx that people realized there was actually something worth studying, resulting in the Navy and ONI (forcibly) taking over that field of research.
(Side note: as a result of this explanation, I see the ODST mission as depicted in the Halo anime short The Babysitter from Halo Legends as having been conducted on behalf of the Air Force.)
So, in conclusion (because this wasn't confusing enough /s,) the "secret" program that Carter had been working on was doing research on Forerunner stuff, perhaps on the planet of Onyx or maybe even at the Forerunner facility located under CASTLE Base on Reach (I haven't made up my mind about that.)
Anyways, that's about it for this chapter. Sorry about the confused rambles at the end there. Thanks for stopping by and I hope to see you guys next time.
(Last note, I want to extend my congratulations to my editor, Dark7881 for recently finishing his own fanfiction. His Command and Conquer fanfiction, Project Genesis: Operation Final Justice is up and available on this very website for your enjoyment.)