A/U: I know that I've had a recent influx of all these characters, but don't fret, most of them are merely supporting characters, meant to move the story along. Many of them were not planned to move beyond a few chapters after their creation. So you will all not have to worry about remembering all of the characters in my fic. I think that you'll all find (I hope you do, anyway, that) this chapter moved into an area you wouldn't have expected me to go into, so I hope you enjoy reading it.
Chapter 14: Bloody Arrow
"Silence!," roared the head of the High Council, Tolna 'Draedomo. "As much as I may not like to admit it, the human construct was right. The Prophets have used us, brothers! They have made us toil around the galaxy for them, so they could activate the Halos, and escape death in the Ark! While we may not be on the best of terms with the humans, we shall certainly work to repay our debt to them."
"Very well, 'Draedomo," one of the other High Council members spoke. "Though I must warn you that whilst the older warriors will respect the humans, or at the very least, not try to kill them, what of the Watchmen, or of the new recruits? They have been fooled into thinking that we Sangheili have failed the Prophets! We have shut down four of the Acadamies already because the Watchmen have started to attack civilians and Elders because they think we have betrayed the Covenant."
Another spoke. "That is true, Councilor 'Brolnea. The Watchmen may not be as skilled as normal warriors, but they are still a threat. However, I have a plan that may very well convince those Watchmen that have not been fully corrupted by the Prophets' lies, though It will require assistance from the Humans."
"I am listening, present your proposal," the High Elder stated.
"I think that if we can get the Humans' cooperation for this effort, we can get all of the information that the human construct, Cortana, I believe it is called, to give us all of the data about the ring worlds, the Prophets' plans, everything."
"A sound proposal. I shall think this over for the time being. This meeting is adjourned."
The Sangheili left the Inner Sanctum after the stressful meeting. They would be called back in a few units to hear the High Elder's decision.
"Brothers," the Prophet of Sin started. "We have seen that the Humans and the Sangheili reclaim much of their lost territory, and also they have conquered the Jiralhanae homeworld. They've defeated two fleets, and most likely the battle group at the next Holy Ring. But fear not, for they shall recall a significant portion of the armada back to their home planets, with this next attack."
Pestilence and Life looked at each other, wondering what Sin had planned. They both watched as Sin pulled up a hologram star map. First shown was Retenkos, the Sangheili homeworld. Then, was the image of Earth, the Human homeworld, and home of the Ark.
"Now you are both wondering, 'what has dear brother Sin thought up?' Well I shall tell you. We are to send out two fleets, one to each world. The Humans shall most likely recall more vessels to their home than the Sangheili would for theirs, so this will make them open to attack. After these two fleets are sent out, and they begin their attacks, we shall launch two more fleets to Lobonikos. This will rout their forces, and cause them to retreat back to their home worlds, or at least their next stronghold."
Pestilence nodded in agreement. "Yes brother. This shall make the traitors pay, and hopefully, with the humans at a disadvantage, we can finally eliminate their kind from the face of existence."
"Now, now, brother Pestilence, we have much time for this to take place. And many things can go wrong. With the Gods on our side this should not happen, but we must prepare for the worst if it comes."
"Life is right, Pestilence. However, I do not plan on anything going off course. But alas," Sin sighed, "we must rely on the Jiralhanae for this. We alone can only plan. We are not warriors, we have lost that ability long, long ago. Let us pray, brothers. Pray that the Humans and traitors get what they deserve."
Admiral Reiner wasn't the least bit worried. The 40 Allied ships plus the reinforcements from Dosu 'Furnumee would be able to hold their ground against an enemy battle group of 50 vessels.
"Weapons, charge the MAC and the MAPC guns. Ready the Archers and charge the shields as well."
"Aye sir, guns and shields charging. Archer missiles are hot and primed. Awaiting fire orders."
"Get the Longsword squadrons ready, I want them in the black for single ship defense, boarding craft defense, and attacking runs against enemy ships."
"Aye sir. Transmitting orders." The ships' AI, Gregory, spoke.
The loudspeakers announced the usual when battles took place, and Marines, ODSTs, and fighter crews plus random tech officers rushed through the madness of combat prep.
"Uhh, Admiral? I think you should look at this," his Navigations Officer said.
Reiner walked over to the 2nd Lieutenant and bent over to look at the panel.
"It appears that the RG reinforcements appear to be making a slipspace jump out-system. I have not received any notification as to why."
"The bastards. Hail them! Before they leave."
"Aye, sir. Hailing RG Command Ship."
The Admiral was a little more nervous now. With only 40 ships against fifty, they would still win the battle, but with many more casualties. Especially considering that many of the UNSC Captains and Commanders in his battle group were inexperienced in ship to ship combat.
He walked to the main view screen, and on it the image of an Elite in gold armor appeared, giving out orders to his command crew.
"Fleet Master 'Furnumee, might you let me in on why you're leaving?" The Admiral questioned.
"My apologies, Admiral. But Retenkos is under attack by an entire fleet of Jiralhanae ships! My battle group and my brothers' have been called back to our homeworld, including many other Ship Masters. I am sorry for your plight, Admiral, but I currently have bigger problems at the moment. Good luck with your battle, we must stop their treachery from spreading any farther."
And before Reiner could speak again, the connection was cut, and the screen faded back to a dull gray. "Dammit," the Admiral said to himself.
"Helm, align us with the rest of the battle group." Gregory, I want all ships in position and for attacks to be maximized. Have Archers fired first, the fire all cannons at the Covenant. Make sure the MAC rounds hit after the shields are down, MAPCs can fire right away. Get targeting vectors for all ships in our group."
"Aye sir. Calculating target vectors, acquiring time solutions..." The AI droned on. When he finished, the Admiral sent out a FLEETCOM message, letting the Captains know what to do. Reiner hoped the Arbiter was not going to leave the battle as well, but a quick communique confirmed he was not going to and that calmed Reiner down a bit.
After the longest 20 seconds in his life ticked away, his view screen showed that the RG ships had launched their plasma torpedoes, which were devastating to any space-faring vessel in existence. They boiled through meters and meters of armor within seconds, and worse, they actually tracked their targets.
Having waited until the Covenant ships were in the Archer range, the AI ordered all missile batteries on all ships to be fired. Thousands of missiles fired into space, leaving exhaust trails that made it basically impossible to see for a few seconds before they dissolved into the blackness of space. Many of the missiles were destroyed by pinpoint laser fire from the enemy ships, but more than half survived to deliver their deadly payload.
Just before they Archers hit, the MACs went off, making a thud and causing the deck to rumble and the lights to dim for a second. The MAPCs went off right after the MACs went off, as well. After the Human and RG battle groups had dealt their blow to the enemy battle group, they found that the Covenant ships had released their payload as well. 50 blue balls of blinding blue plasma smashed into the Allied ships. Shields failed on a few ships, and they plasma boiled into the decks, starting fires, decompressing atmosphere, and generally causing mayhem among the ships hit by plasma.
A few ships were unlucky enough to have plasma melt into their hulls and superstructures so far that the plasma reached the reactors, and the ships imploded, sending debris into space. One ship, the UNSC Nevada, was hit by three plasma balls at once, causing it to transform into a molten slag in an instant. Luckily enough, the plasma was not strong enough to penetrate the reactors, but the command deck was completely obliterated. The superstructure was also completely bent and twisted, but most of the crew and Marine complement was still alive.
Now the Covenant and Allied ships were close enough that there would be little to no maneuvering. The FoF tags on each ship allowed for the Humans to not mistakenly fire on the RG ships. Which was a great feature, not only because they wouldn't damage their own vessels, but also because the targeting computer simply would not allow to fire on them, unless overridden by an AI construct.
But when it was close quarters combat in space, well that is where the Humans really shined in space combat. The Human ships were small enough to move in-between the enemy, and were fast enough that the plasma would not be able to track them efficiently. The 50mm MLAs would be able to riddle at the enemy's shielding, though it would surely not be as effective as Archers or a Longswords 110 and 120mm cannons, they were still effective, nonetheless.
Pinpoint lasers were still able to slice their way into the hulls of the Allied ships, and if you got rammed by one of those cruisers, you're ship was basically made of paper. A specific fight in this battle was taking place amidst the chaos. An RG Frigate fighting with a support Human Destroyer were against an enemy cruiser.
The destroyer's MAC gun was reloading as fast as it could, to pump round after round of hardened tungsten and various alloys into the shields of the cruiser. The frigate launched waves of plasma and pinpoint laser fire into it as well. However, the cruiser, being such a heavy tonnage, was outfitted with a plasma projector. This weapon, while not as powerful as the plasma beam cannon, was still able to slice ships in half effortlessly. Luckily enough, it required a massive power charge, and was not able to cycle quickly. But, it completely chopped the frigate in half, slicing the engine and reactor cores, making a bigger explosion.
The captain of the destroyer was nervous now. The cruiser had just destroyed the frigate next to his ship, in one shot. But he knew he had a job to do, and he intended to fight for Earth. The explosion, however, rocked the ship, and the MAC cannon was no longer on target of the cruiser.
The rotational thrusters on the destroyer moved the ship back into position. It fired another shot. The shields on the cruiser, however, weren't able to hold the stress of the shot and overloaded.
"Archers! Fire Archer pods 4F through 6G! Now!" The Captain yelled to his weapons officer.
360 Archer missiles rocketed through space, impacting upon the cruiser. The missiles were not hit by any anti-missile laser fire. The missiles created a hull-breach in the cruiser, and many of the Archers went trough it, into the various decks the hole spanned. But now, the cruiser was charging for one last plasma volley. The shields on the destroyer had collapsed not long ago, and if the volley was to hit them, then they would be turned into a molten slag.
A MAC round came out of nowhere and hit the front the front of the cruiser, sending it spinning to port. Another round did the same, and the ship was unable to control it's spin, and the original destroyer put another round into it, hitting the reactor, and turning the ship into a molten fireball, with Covenant alloys that were white hot, heated up to thousands of degrees, exploding outwards.
A small victory for the crew of the destroyer. But they were now engaging another threat, a Covenant destroyer. The shields were down, MAC cannon was charging, and the MAPC's magnetic coils had burnt out. The lateral lines of the Covenant ship heated up to a dull red glow, and they fired. The plasma traveled through space, and hit the ship front side, melting through meters of Titanium-A and bulkheads, the bridge along with it. The ship was now effectively dead in space, and the Covenant destroyer simply moved on, and engaged another target.
After 30 minutes of space combat, the Allied forces worn thin. The Covenant ships had received a reinforcement of more than 30 new ships, and the UNSC and RG vessels could just not hold back. They sent whatever supplies they could down to the bases on Halo, and jumped back to Lobonikos.
The scene after the Allied forces jumped was disastrous. Allied and Covenant ships littered the battlefield, engine cores still aglow, but the Covenant this time, had held their lines, and pushed back the Allies.
300 ships exited slip space. They were now in the Calliope system, which was the Sangheili's home system. A comm light blinked on the display. A voice feed played through, with a bit of static. "This is Outpost Dendral. Identify your fleet."
The Jiralhanae snorted with laughter. He nodded to his comm officer. "This is the Fleet of Everlasting Faith! Your pitiful race will fall before the might of the Covenant for your heresy!"
"Jiralhanae cur! You shall all perish!" Then the commander of the defense platform raised fleet wide alarms, and the dozens of stations similar to this turned to face the threat. Signal from the actual defense fleet said they would be arriving to help in about 20 units. Plasma turrets, torpedoes, and all manner of weaponry heated up, glowing various shades of red or blue, and launched salvos to the enemy fleet. But the enemy fleet had been able to get off the first shot, and obliterated many defense platforms and damaging many others.
However, even with all the damage done to the defending forces, the Sangheili had better plasma weaponry after the exchange with the Humans. Lances of plasma raced through the black and struck enemy vessels, burning through shields and hulls. Slower moving plasma torpedoes moved in for the kill, melting through deck after deck, and finishing off some off the ships that weren't destroyed. But after that salvo, only 40 enemy ships were destroyed. The Fleet of Everlasting Faith glided through space towards the defenses put up by the Sangheili. Each force launched salvos toward each other, inflicting more casualties to each other. Soon the defense platforms were all but gone, metal dust in space remained in place of where the defense platforms were. The defense fleet had finally arrived at the battle scene, only to witness the carnage that befell their line of resistance.
Right as the defense fleet had exited slipspace, what remained of the Jiralhanae fleet had opened fire upon them. Several ships were consumed in the salvo, but the Sangheili were quickly able to shrug off the blow to their fleet and return fire. It was over quickly. After the Fleet of Everlasting Faith had broken through the defenses, only a a few dozen remained. The commander of the defense fleet, had just received an urgent message from the Humans at their home planet.
The Fleet Master, De'al 'Litumee, was a fierce commander, and a brilliant strategist. His fleet was placed in charge of defending Retenkos from any attacks because his had the best record in deployments. With a little over 250 ships under his command, most of them over the destroyer class, De'al felt that he could take any challenge that faced him, and he was still keeping that thought true.
The Fleet Master wore what all other Fleet Masters wore, standard gold armor, polished to a high sheen, so that it glinted brightly in the light. An odd thing about his physical appearence was that instead of brown or black eyes, his were green, something that was quite unusual to most Sangheili. He was not overly large, but he was not small either. Being normally sized for a Sangheili, he was not overly intimidating, but those who had seen him in battle knew his size was only misleading. He'd built up quite a reputation for his accomplishments to those who have not seen him fight.
He turned to his communications officer, "send fifty ships to aid the Humans. If they lose their homeworld, all is lost." The comm officer nodded, and gave the order. 50 ships, ranging from a heavy cruiser to frigates broke formation, pinpricks of light opening in space showing slipspace entrances.
A few moments later, a message came from the High Council. The video feed put onto the main screen, and Councilor 'Klazumee's face appeared, taking up most of the screen.
"I heard there was an attack on our homeworld, Fleet Master. What has happened so far?" The Councilor's face had a slightly worried look.
"We have sustained an attack from the Jiralhanae Fleet of Everlasting Faith. We have destroyed them completely, but at the cost of our entire defense platform line up. I am afraid we have also taken minimal casualties when we arrived to the battle. We have also received a distress call from the Human's homeworld."
At the mention of a distress call, the Councilor's face piqued with interest. "What has happened to our new allies?"
The Fleet Master's head dropped, "I do not know. They said they were also being a Jiralhanae fleet. The fleet sent there is unknown, in both size and name, but I have sent 50 of our vessels to aid the Humans in their defenses." His head rose again and he looked directly into the Councilor's eyes, "if we lose the Humans, and more importantly, if we lose their homeworld, we are all but doomed."
The Councilor thought for a moment. "I fear for ourselves, more than the Humans. It is true; what you have spoken, but I doubt that the Covenant has sent their new ruler in that fleet. If the Human defenses are destroyed, however, and the Jiralhanae land ground forces, it will be much more difficult to sustain our war efforts against the Prophets. Our forces will be much more divided and spread out then they already are, and we can not afford that. So I want you to send 25 more ships to aid the Humans."
The Fleet Master nodded his head, and gave the order to be carried out. "The order has been given. We can only wait now, Councilor."
"That much is true. Keep me informed of anything new." The screen then fizzed out to static and then black.
The battle raged on. The fleet that attacked Earth was the same size as the one which attacked Retenkos, but most of Earth's defenses were shattered after the previous attack. The captains and commanders who were lucky enough to have shielding equipped onto their ships were used carefully and cautiously by what remained of the Admiralty. Fore they were the only ships able to withstand more than two plasma hits.
What is now the remnants of a once mighty battle fleet, the UNSCs defenses were now in tatters. Before the first attack by The Prophet of Mercy, it stood at over 500 vessels strong. After that attack, it was whittled to less than 200. Now, after a day's worth of fighting, the fleet was reduced to less than 120 ships. Fleetwide radio chatter echoed through space, amidst the chaos and confusion of combat. What remained of the SMAC platforms helped out as they could, able to pound into the shields of the enemy, but ammo was beginning to be a concern for them, as only one orbital tether was left on Earth to deliver supplies to the stations. As soon as one platform reloaded on supplies, another needed munitions. The engagement was going badly. Out of an original fleet of 300, the Brutes were now torn down to under 230. They had sent an emergency distress to Retenkos, in hopes of gaining support, but it was still not here.
Longsword single ship fighter squadrons cut through space, engaging enemy Seraphs and making bombing runs on enemy ships. Luckily, the Seraphs were few and far between, and the ones that were shot down were done so with relative ease. It was quite clear to both the Elites and Humans that Brutes made poor pilots. Though a Longsword was typically the victor against a Seraph, even when the Elites piloted them, there was occasionally a loss from the Seraphs. A particular squadron, one that had survived many encounters with the Covenant, both Elite and Brute, had racked up well over their fair share of Seraph kills, and were even credited with two light capitol ship kills. The squadron was the 242nd Warhawks. The 4 Longswords cut through space, chasing down the remaining, but few straggling Seraphs. Soon they returned to their home ship for orders. They soon got a new mission.
On this particular mission, they were on a bombing run. A bombing run for a very specific target. The target being an enemy dreadnought that was using its particle beam cannon as a sniper, much like at Reach. It was wreaking havoc on the already crippled human defenses. The Warhawks were escorting two Broadsword bombers, both with a payload of Shiva Warheads. The plan was to have a SMAC platform or another ship in position to take out the shielding of the dreadnought, then the Longswords would make a breach in the hull of it with their missiles, and then the Broadswords would finally release their payloads into the hull breach. The warheads were on a remote detonate so the Covenant wouldn't be able to stop it with any AIs they might have on board. The theory was, after the warheads were safely delivered inside of the Dreadnought, they could escape and it's shields would regenerate. Once the shields were back online, they would detonate the two warheads, encased in a super-dense alloy that would increase the yield a hundredfold, and the blast would be even more powerful because it would be contained in it's shielding for the time they held up. The blast would engulf any nearby ships, and hopefully cause a spiral effect. They launched off the fighter deck, into the black of space.
"Are you sure? Who did you hear this from?" Drake's voice rang through their private comm channel in the current command post in the city, and for the entire world of Lobonikos. Inside the building was everything you'd expect from a top-notch UNSC command center, computers, relay equipment, officers, even a section for the secretive people in ONI. The Spartans were currently about to organize defenses, given permission over the surrounding area. A poor job had been done by the officers in the command center, who were probably skilled, if at all, in naval combat.
Machine guns had to be repositioned, artillery had to pre-sight much of the surrounding landscape, and outposts had to be located in more strategic areas. It would take a few hours, but it would be worth it in case any of the Brute forces tried to make any more assaults. Though conquered, many Brute forces still remained upon Lobonikos. Enough remained to be considered a major thread, and enough to warrant an entire air field of support. Skyhawks, Sparrowhawks, and Shortsword interceptors all crouched on the sides of the runways. Though only three squadrons of Shortswords, and a modest detachment of Skyhawks and Sparrowhawks, it was still enough to flatten most opposition. And while the Covenant's anti-air capabilities were lacking, and there was no Seraph support to chase them off, the pilots still had to be careful were they were flying. They still had a few anti-air guns left, though they weren't that numerous.
"Yes, I'm sure. I got word from someone aboard one of the ships, they even mentioned it specifically. I'm pretty sure that whatever happens from this point on, can't be good." Alexandria's voice repeated again, slightly agitated.
Carl whistled. "Well then we have to mop up the remnant forces even quicker, I don't want to be caught with my pants down from the Covie bastards. But I just can't believe it. We've been pushing them back, finally, after all this time, and now we get the Bloody Arrow, a total route. What was enough to cause enough chaos for that code word to be given?"
"Well from what the guy said, he was a bit panicked, so it took me some time to calm him down, but I think that our recon force to that new Halo we found was all but destroyed and they had to pull out. Ground troops are still there, fighting any Flood and any Covenant forces that have landed. He also said that they attacked Retenkos and Earth. I don't have any other details," Alexandria finished, and they stopped walking.
The three Spartans stood there, looking at each other. Drake then spoke, "you know what this means, then?" The other two nodded in agreement. They had work to do, and fast.
Author's Notes: I am truly sorry about the wait for this chapter, and writer's block is no excuse for such a long period of time. I just hope that you'll all forgive me, and that you will all be patient for my next chapter. Remember, please review!
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