Where is Here?
A What-if Kind of Thing.
So, third time's the charm, I have scrapped this chapter 2 times and hopefully this one is good enough to survive. This is also why the chapter has been taking so flipping long, aside from the terrible writer's block. Sigh.
CHAPTER 1
IN ORBIT OF DANTOOINE, 19BBY, ABOARD THE UNSC ANOMOLY CLASS 'BIG STICK'.
The 'Big Stick' had pulled a very short straw in all this. The planet Dantooine had fallen under siege by Seperatist forces, and now the Covenant were trying to kill the Seperatists off so they could glass the world, and so the UNSC sent a small battlegroup of the 'Big Stick', 2 Marathons and 3 Paris frigates to go distract the Covenant until Republic forces could arrive.
This of course, was basically just an excuse to test out the Anomoly class. A mix of UNSC and Republic technology, the ship class was armed with two MACs, four Shiva missile tubes, four quad heavy turbolasers, 8 turbolasers, 30 laser cannons, and 10 concussion missile pods. The vessel was armed to the teeth with new weaponry that had yet to be tested in any actual battlefield as of yet.
Commander Fink Vermont sat in the command chair of the shiny new bridge, observing the Covenant fleet from the viewscreens, the CIS fleet already having been destroyed. 1 CCS battlegroup, and one carrier battlegroup. Not an easy fight.
"Deploy the fleet in a defensive formation, put us at the front. Prep all MACs to fire when I give the order, firing solutions will be coming shortly." He said, frowning at the large enemy force preparing to bear down on the planet below.
"Aye sir." The various officers replied, and set to work. Ships began to move in behind the 'Big Stick'. MACs began to charge, and Fink issued the firing solutions. The carrier group was the primary target.
Once the ships were in place, the Covenant fleet had begun to move towards them, and their chance to fire on the carrier was fading. But not all of the battlegroup had charged their cannons. Fink sighed, they would have to make do with what they had.
"Fire." He ordered, and the ship rumbled as the MACs of the 'Big Stick' and most of the other vessels in the group fired.
Yellow streaks of light flew across the viewscreens, the Tungsten-alloy slugs launched forward by the magnetic accelerators that powered the MACs. They slammed into the carrier, the energy shields flaring up, a silver-y, fluid barrier appearing along the hull of the ship. But after the first couple of slugs were shattered against the shields, the rest made it through, tearing into the hull of the Covenant vessel.
Deck after deck was punctured, debris and oxygen streaming out of the ship, and some of the rounds came out on the other side of the carrier. It's lights flickered, and faded, it was crippled. It's escort was reasonably angry at the absolute devestation caused by the suprise attack.
Red lines appeared along the lateral lines of the sleek, alien vessels. The purple, reflective plating of the Covenant hulls having a blood red glow about them. Their plasma torpedoes were preparing to fire.
"Cycle deflectors, put them at full front. Ready the turbolasers at full power, and load another slug for the MACs." Fink ordered his crew, and they set to work. Lights on the ship dimmed momentarily, even with Republic ion reactors the MACs still had a bad habit of draining power while charging. Fink then opened a channel to all the ships under his command.
"Fire at will, don't wait for a solution. Let the 'Big Stick' take some of the hits, that's what we have shields for." He said to them, and once he had a confirmation from his captains he ended the transmission.
"Shields charged and ready." The Lieutenant overseeing engineering reported.
"Turbolasers firing, MACs at thirty-nine and thirty-eight percent respectively." At this, the thud and crash of turbolaser-fire filled the bridge as bright blue bolts of superheated gas arced towards the Covenant fleet, striking shields and draining them so the next volley of MAC slugs and missiles could find their mark.
The Covenant torpedoes fired, red teardrops of plasma drifted away from the lateral lines of the Covenant vessels. 10 torpedoes slowly crawled across the viewscreens towards the UNSC forces. Pulse lasers fired at them, and a blue barrier appeared, protecting them from the pin-point laser artillery that would have otherwise melted right through the hull.
Other ships reported hull breaches, and began to move behind the 'Big Stick'. The plasma torpedoes inched ever closer. Three more MACs were fired, the Paris classes that had not yet fully charged.
Their smaller slugs still managed to punch through the damaged shields of one of the enemy cruisers, and one got a lucky hit on the reactors. The large enemy warship exploded in a ball of plasma, debris flew through the Covenant formation, bouncing off shields, denting unprotected hulls.
They were winning a fight, for once. It was like witnessing a damn miracle. Then the torpedoes struck, the shielding on the 'Big Stick' absorbing the first two torpedoes aimed at it, the last one splashed against the reinforced hull, melting away at it. The ship shuddered.
"Hull breach and fires on deck 8B." Someone said from a console on the bridge.
"Clear out all personnel, seal the bulkheads and vent the damaged sections of the ship." Fink ordered. He checked with his captains again, one of the Paris classes had dropped off the radar, and there was some flaming debris here and there. One ship down, versus the two the Covenant had lost. Not a bad trade off, all things considered.
MACs fired again, as did some missiles from the Marathons. They struck more of the shieldless ships, crippling yet more of the enemy's firepower. But the impetuous Covenant fought on. More pulse lasers fired, and since the Big Stick's shields were still recycling, they felt the blows this time.
"Three more hull breaches!"
"Seal them just like the first one." Fink said calmly, and looked at his lateral viewscreens. Flames poured out of all the UNSC ships, but only one more was permanently crippled. "Fire all concussion missile tubes, target... CCS-2, the shielded one."
The rythmic thumping of turbolasers firing was accompanied for a moment by a screech as the launchers fired. The missiles streaked forward, their smoke trails joining the other hundred or so left by the UNSC missiles.
They found their mark, and bypassed the shields, causing massive hull damage to the CCS battlecruiser. The Covenant began to retreat, beaten, for the first time since Epsilon Eridanis IV.
"All ships," Fink began. "Keep firing on them, chase them till they enter slipspace and do as much damage as possible."
The ship shook into motion, the hum of the engines gently vibrating the deck underneath their feet as the hunters became the hunted.
Three hours later:
Of the 5 CCS classes that were deployed with the ruined carrier, 3 drifted in orbit of the planet, dead in the water. One had been destroyed completely, when a MAC slug struck it's reactors. The final CCS had escaped, but just barely.
The UNSC battlegroup had taken only 2 losses, both Paris classes. And one of those ships had managed to evacuate, mostly, which further decreased the losses they had taken.
The 'Big Stick had assumed a high orbit over the planet with it's battlegroup, awaiting reinforcements.
A Venator and two Acclamators exited hyperspace over the farming world, and the Commander of the Republic invasion force hailed Fink.
"Commander Vermont, I see you handled things quite well without us." The hologram of the man appeared on the bridge.
"Commander Hervin. Yes, it seems the Covenant aren't so tough after all." Fink said with a smile.
"Well, that means we're ahead of schedule, so we have time to plan this invasion. Get your infantry commanders in on this call, and let's get started." The Republic man said, and turned to do the same with his own commanders.
"On it." Fink said, and looked to his comms officer. "Contact the Pilgrimage, tell them to get Commander Keeley on the line please, we have a liberation to get running."
Hey guys, so I'm back again. I know, I know, this chapter is WAAAAAAAY overdue. In truth, life got busy, I got writer's block, and those two things together are a bad combination for productivity. Anywho, I should be getting these chapters out a bit more regularly depending on how things go, definitely alot closer together than this though. Please, feel free to R and R, I hope you enjoyed!
-ALXNDR THE GR8