Return of the Covenant
Continuum
January 3rd, 2600
Cruiser Class Vessel; Equilibrium
In orbit around Earth
"Full power to port thrusters!" Captain Rhodes ordered as he tried in vain to re-establish a connection with the Titan, the command ship of the 3rd Orbital Defense Fleet.
"Full power to port, aye sir." the ship's chief navigations officer, 1st lieutenant Cavalier replied, her fingers a blur of motion on her keyboard. Rhodes grabbed the railing as the Equilibrium jerked to the right, the red stream of plasma that had been streaking towards the Equilibrium narrowly missing the vessel by a mere thousand kilometers. Rhodes wished that they had an AI, that last plasma laser had been too close for comfort and an AI would have acted faster, if only by milliseconds. However, in ship-to-ship combat, milliseconds could mean the difference between life and death.
"Sir, we're receiving a system wide transmission from Admiral Banfield." Lieutenant Draab, Rhodes' communications officer reported. "Shall I put it on you view screen captain?" he asked, his attention never leaving his computer.
"Banfield?" Rhodes asked, slightly confused. "Alright, play the message." Admiral Banfield was the commander of the 11th Defense Fleet. If he was sending a system wide transmission then Rhodes could only assume that the Titan and a lot of other command ships had already been taken out.
Draab typed a command into his computer and an audio file began playing through the bridge's speakers. "Attention all UNSC personnel in the Sol system, this is Admiral Banfield. As of 0700, I am in command of the 1st, 3rd, and 11th Orbital Defense Fleets. I am ordering every ship that can still fly to regroup at the coordinates attached to this message. Those Elite bastards are trying to take out our communication arrays on the moon base. If we lose those arrays, we will be out of contact with any possible reinforcements. Don't worry about Earth, the 52nd Fleet and the orbital guns have her covered for now. Protect those arrays at all costs, Banfield out." As the transmission ended, a red "x" appeared on the bridge's TAC map.
"Cavalier, make best speed for the rally point, Draab, try and find out what kind of plan Banfield has in store, and Gary, what's the status on the H-MAC?" Rhodes ordered. While all important, the H-MAC, or heavy magnetic accelerator cannon, was Rhode's biggest concern. The H-MAC, or Heavy Magnetic Accelerator Cannon, was ONI's newest invention, and the Equilibrium was one of the lucky ships that got to field test it. Supposedly, it could destroy any shielded vessel in one hit, and its power could allegedly rival that of an orbital MAC gun. The downside to this power was that the H-MAC took five times as long as a normal MAC gun to recharge. To compensate for this, the Equilibrium was also outfitted with two regular MACs.
"Sir, H-MAC at seventy-five percent and both MACs are fully charged." Gary, the weapons officer reported in. "H-MAC should be fully charged in three minutes."
"Good, update me again when it's fully charged" Rhodes said, still trying to comprehend what Banfield was planning. "Cavalier, ETA to the rally point?"
Cavalier looked up from her console and turned to face Rhodes. "That last miss came too close and overheated our engine; I can give her forty percent, but nothing more. ETA to rally point is thirteen minutes." She told him, a grim look on her face as she turned to look at the dozens of Elite ships en route to the moon. The battle would be over before they even got there.
Rhodes sighed, "Continue on our current course, we can only hope to get there in time." Rhodes looked at the starboard view screen. A hundred Elite ships descended towards Earth, which was defended only by the 52nd and the 10 remaining orbital guns. Rhodes watched as a UNSC frigate took a direct hit to her underside. The burning frigate spun wildly until it crashed into a second frigate. Both ships became entangled and began a decent towards the Earth's atmosphere, eventually burning up, and sending house sized debris towards the surface of Earth.
"Sir!" Cavalier cried out. "Two Elite destroyers on en route to our position, ETA is two minutes." The view screen snapped away from Earth and reappeared showing the two purple monsters heading straight for them.
"Come about and face them head on." Rhodes ordered.
"Sir, that would put us directly in their line of fire." Cavalier warned with great concern in her voice.
"We can't our run them." Rhodes explained, "Our only chance is two face them head on and hope we can take them out first."
"Aye sir." Cavalier said, realizing that it was pointless to argue with the captain. The Equilibrium turned and faced the destroyers, and they became larger on the view screen every second. Rhodes saw the ships' lateral lines heat up red. They were getting ready to fire.
"Gary, status on the H-MAC?" Rhodes asked, hoping for some good news. The two ships now took up over half the view screen.
"H-MAC is fully charged and ready to fire sir!" Gary called out. Rhodes sensed anticipation in Gary's voice. He could fell it in himself too. They were all eager to try out the new weapon.
"Gary, set up a firing solution. We're firing everything at once. I want the two MAC rounds hitting the starboard destroy and the H-MAC round hitting the other. Also, fire archer missile pods A through H. I want the missiles to hit ten seconds after the initial impact." Rhodes ordered.
Gary paused for a second, typing furiously on his keyboard. "Solution ready sir, awaiting your order." Gary reported, his hand hovering close to the button that would fire the weapons.
"Fire Lieutenant Gary." Rhodes ordered. Gary tapped the enter key, and the lights on the bridge dimmed. Seconds later, a thunderous boom echoed throughout the room and the entire ship rocked. When the light returned to normal, Rhodes noticed that several of his staff had fallen out of their chairs.
"Track the MAC rounds!" Rhodes ordered, regaining his balance.
"Aye sir!" Cavalier called out, getting off the floor and back in her chair. Seconds later, the view screen changed to show three white hot lightning bolts streaming towards the destroyers. One of the bolts, in particular, almost dwarfed the other two. "Impact in five seconds." Cavalier said, breaking the silence on the bridge.
Two of the rounds hit one destroyer before it could even begin to maneuver out of the way. Its shields died instantly, and the impact of the two heavy rounds rocked the ship. A large hole appeared, bisecting the destroyer end to end. Several explosions appeared on the hull of the ship. The destroyer floating away from the battle, dead in the water. The H-MAC round, however, was a little slower. The second destroyer had just enough time to fire a lance of plasma at the Equilibrium. The H-MAC round struck the destroyer and the ship's shields didn't even appear. An enormous explosion rocked the ship and when the smoke cleared, half of the destroyer was completely destroyed, twisted metal floated in the space around it. The front half of the destroyer, where the round hit, had completely disintegrated, trillions of small pieces of metal orbited around the wrecked vessel.
"Wow." That was all anyone had to say as they all watched the carnage on screen.
"Make best speed to the rally point." Rhodes told Cavalier.
She shook her head, regaining control of herself and turned back to her computer. "Aye sir, ETA is ten minutes."
"Sir we're getting another transmission from Banfield." Draab said, and a second later Banfield's rough voice, filled the speakers again.
"Attention all UNSC personnel in the immediate area. The moon defense has been overrun, and we are abandoning the moon base and taking up a new defensive line at Earth. "We've sent a division of marines to assist the personnel at the base, but the likelihood of the base not being destroyed is low. Banfield out." After the message ended, Rhodes looked at a video feed of the moon, only to find that Banfield's message had been true. Rhodes saw several ships try to escape the Elites onslaught, only to be pursued and cut down by a dozen destroyers. Rhodes also saw hundreds of dropships descending towards the surface of the moon, moving to destroy the underground base.
"Orders sir?" Cavalier asked averting her eyes from the view screen.
Rhodes answered, "There's nothing else we can do, besides head for the coordinates." On the outside, Rhodes seemed unaffected by the defeat at the moon, but inside he hoped that the marines could hold off the Elites long enough to save the base.
- - - - - - - - -
Staff Sergeant Grassio stood at the end of a twenty feet wide, one hundred foot long hallway. He aimed down the sight of his Ma7b assault rifle and looked at the elevator at the end of the hall. This new model had a detachable auto-zoom scope and packed a 8mm bullet. Grassio and his eight-man fire team would need the rifle, and a hell of a lot of luck to survive this encounter. The Major in charge of all operations at the base has ordered his team to be the first line of defense. At the end of the hallway was the service elevator normally used to transport machines from the surface. The elevator could fit fifty men inside, so Grassio figured about twenty Elites could come in each wave. He had also requested a few more men, but Major Forman had insisted that the majority of marines should stay in the interior of the base, although he had given him enough ammo to support a small army.
Grassio assessed the fire team that he had been given command of, and the positions they had set up. Using pieces of scrap metal, they had set up makeshift bunkers. The four bunkers were in a diagonal row five feet apart form each other so every marine could fire without worrying about hitting his buddy. In the first bunker, Corporal Slansky, and Private Peters kept their guns trained on the elevator. Grassio had worked with the two men before; taking down an Underground base of operations. Both marines were key parts in the successful destruction of the base, and Grassio knew he could count on both of them.
The second bunker housed Corporal Higgins and Private Elmore. He had never worked with the two men before, but they seemed competent enough. The third bunker's occupants, however, had him worried. Private Blaine and Curue leaned motionless against the metal of their bunker. Both privates had only graduated from boot a few weeks ago, and had probably never fired a gun outside of a training range. The privates had assured Grassio that they would do their part, but he still has his doubts.
In the last bunker, to Grassio's left, sat long time friend Sergeant Burdick. Burdick and Grassio had been together since basic, and had been on many missions against the Underground together. "Hey Grass." Burdick said to the Staff Sergeant, breaking his train of thought.
Grassio grunted in reply; he had always hated that nickname.
"You think they're ever gonna get down here?" he asked, glancing over his shoulder at the elevator. Grassio thought he sensed a hint of hesitation in his friend's voice.
"Why you scared?" Grassio smirked.
"Hell no sir! Just can't wait to kick some ass." Burdick yelled back in a macho tone. Grassio chuckled and looked back at the hallway. He noticed that Blaine and Curue were looking back at the two Sergeants; confused at how men could joke around at a time like this.
"Alert elevator has begun descent." The base's AI announced. Grassio and Burdick's smiles disappeared as they turned to face the elevator. Grassio checked the magazine in his rifle to assure that it was fully loaded.
"How long till it reaches the bottom?" Grassio asked the AI.
"Two minutes." The AI responded. Grassio noticed that Curue had sat down after hearing the news and had put his head in his hands.
"Private Blain! Get that man up!" Grassio barked. Blaine hesitated for a split second, before he picked Curue up and whispered something to him. Curue stood back up with a new energy and aimed down the corridor.
After that small incident, silence reigned over the men. Two minutes felt like two weeks, and Hallway seemed to get hotter and hotter. After an eternity of waiting the Elevator door beeped once, twice, then slid open.
All eight men fired into the elevator, the wall becoming pocketed with bullet holes. "Cease fire, cease fire!" Grassio ordered. At once, the bullets stopped. Grassio expected a tidal wave of plasma when the doors opened, but the elevator was empty.
"Peters check it out." Grassio whispered, sweat beading on his forehead. Peters swallowed a lump in his throat and walked cautiously towards the elevator. He scanned the room carefully, looking left, right, up, and even down.
He turned back to the team and shouted, "It's clear!" Grassio began to wave him back to the bunkers, but seconds after he spoke, an awesome explosion filled the hall with smoke and fire.
"Cover!" Grassio yelled out as he ducked behind the metal. When he felt the wave of heat pass, he risked a look at the destruction. The elevator was destroyed, and small fires covered the hall in front of it. Peters was nowhere to be found.
"Sir look!" Slansky called out. Grassio stopped his search for Peters, looked at the charred remains of the elevator, and saw a bright beam of purple descend to the ground.
"Gravity beam, get ready!" Grassio yelled, aiming again down the hall. The now seven-man team waited for the inevitable.
He saw the alien's feet before anything else. "Fire!" Grassio ordered and squeezed the MA7B's trigger. When the first elite landed, it was immediately hit with dozens of bullets, its shields fading almost instantly. Several more elites floated down, and began firing at the humans. Slansky tossed a grenade into the mass of alien flesh, and was rewarded with at least five kills, as alien limbs scattered around the hall. After a few minutes of firing, the incoming plasma slowed, and finally stopped. When the smoke cleared, Grassio saw dozens of elite carcasses littering the elevator and the first few meters in front of it.
The men took this time to reload and catch a breath. The grav beam returned, and scooped up the dead elites to make room for the next wave. When the bodies were retrieved, Grassio prepared himself for the next assault. Surprisingly though, the next thing down the beam were not more troops, but large crates and pieces of metal instead. It seemed that the Elites saw how fast the first wave was slaughtered, and were not going to waste soldiers.
The new waves of aliens became harder and harder to dispatch. Slansky's bunker was overwhelmed with plasma until the metal finally gave way and melted. Slansky threw his remaining grenade at the elites before being cut down by plasma. Elmore was also hit by a stray shot and was killed almost instantly. Higgins was next to fall. A plasma grenade striking him dead center in the forehead. Over the next hour or so, the four remaining marines held off hundreds of Elites, until Blaine stopped firing the 50 cal.
"Sir, I'm out!" he screamed, and began firing his MA7B. With the 50 no longer providing a steady stream of fire, the elites advanced further and further down the hallway, until they were ten meters from the third bunker.
"Fall back you two!" Grassio yelled out, but his words were not heard over the chaos of battle. A few minutes later, Blaine and Curue were also overwhelmed by the new overpowering wave of plasma.
Burdick and Grassio fired blindly into the mass of elites, but the advanced closer and closer. When all seemed lost, and Grassio had used his last magazine, twin rockets flew past their heads. Grassio whipped his head around to see two marines with jackhammer launchers. They fired a second volley at the elites. The four rockets decimated most of the elites in the hall and one of the newcomers called out the Grassio, "Sir, Major Foreman is ordering you tow to fall back, he has a new plan!"
"Oh yay, another brilliant plan." Burdick mocked as he threw his last grenade at the aliens and ran out of the hall. Grassio followed close behind, and looked back to see the two marine's plant explosives at the end of the hall. A few seconds later, twin explosions knocked Grassio off his feet. He looked back to see that the hall's exit had been destroyed. Burdick helped Grassio to his feet, and the four men ran down the hall that led to the base's command center.