Now lets get to the 40k universe in a spectacular explosion ... is there any other way?
A mac round tore through the cruiser, this was a single, larger round which compressed the nose of the ship, till it reached aft section, the massive compression buckled the ship's engines, causing it to explode, and the guidance system for the plasma to malfunction, and the torpedoes themselves to dissipate.
"Need a hand?" came over the com channel.
"Anytime, thank you captain," Keyes replied.
"Commander actually, our captain is dead," the voice said.
"My condolences, now lets deal with these zealot nuts," Keyes said.
"Agreed," the channel was closed and their saviour came into view as it passed in front of the view port, a frigate, it had suffered severe damage and much of the outer layers had been exposed to the vacuum of space.
"Sir, a communiqué from the chief, they say they've encountered heavy resistance but that they should be out of there in minutes," Cortana said.
"Good news at last," Keyes said. Then he turned his view screen to the rest of the covenant fleet, he caught the latest salvo of the orbital mac guns crush several smaller ships and 2 carriers. There were very few remaining UNSC ships though, they would have to retreat soon or the covenant fleet would overrun both them and Reach.
"Captain, we're receiving orders from the Admiral," Cortana said.
"Lets here it," Keyes said.
Suddenly static filled the bridge speakers, then I voice began to filter through, "… repeat, Reach has fallen, the orbiting mac guns have been lost, all ship's still able to, get out of …" Static took the signal again.
"The chief?" Keyes said.
"He called in a few moments ago, he's commandeered a pelican and is on his way back, along with his team mates and several marines who were still in the station," Cortana replied.
"Good, ensign, prepare to jump as soon as the chief is on board," Keyes tapped several controls, "Captain Keyes to any nearby ships, any ships still capable of slip space travel, prepare to jump, coordinates enclosed within this transmission," he closed the com., "Cortana, send them the coordinates."
"Yes captain," Cortana replied, her holographic projection shrinking away as her processing speeds increased.
"The pelican has docked sir, preparing to jump," Ensign Lovell reported.
"Good, lets give the Covenant bastards a goodbye present, Lieutenant, status on our mac gun," Keyes said.
"Fully charged sir," Lieutenant Hikowa reported.
"Slip space capacitors?" Keyes inquired.
"At 89, charging at a speed of 2 per second, sir," Ensign Lovell reported.
"Get me a firing solution on that covenant carrier, arm archer missile pods D1 – G7, I want our missiles hitting with the 3rd mac round," Keyes ordered.
"Yes sir," Lieutenant Hikowa replied, tapping on her console.
"Fire when ready," Keyes said, standing up and approaching the huge glass bay looking out over the battle scene over Reach. Then he saw the vapour trails of the archer missiles streaking towards the carrier, soon followed by the dull thuds as the mac gun fired.
"Several covenant warships are closing fast from behind, they must have made a precision slipspace jump," Cortana said.
"Get us out of here," Captain Keyes ordered.
"Yes sir," Ensign Lovell said, tapping commands on his console. The Pillar of Autumn began turning away from the battle of reach, along with several other UNSC ships that were following behind, most having been badly damaged already.
Keyes watched on one of the view screens as the first two mac rounds punched into the covenant ship's shields, it had launched a pair of plasma torpedoes in protest, which were now crawling over towards the Pillar of Autumn. As Keyes noted this the 3rd mac round struck, the shields flickered and died, allowing the momentum of the impact to transfer to the hull itself, smashing the flank inwards, the archer missiles struck moment later, small explosions flowering along the entire length of the ship. Secondary explosion began as a chain reaction started, the engines were soon enveloped in the explosion too, but just before the ship exploded, the plasma torpedoes filled the screen, as they began to dissipate, the control mechanism that had been guiding the plasma now gone. Just then the ships transitioned to slip space. However the disbanding plasma was sucked into the slipstream too.
"Sir, the field is becoming unstable, imminent danger," Cortana said.
"Suggestions?" Keyes asked.
"None sir," Cortana replied, "The stream is unstable, it's even pulling in the covenant ships behind us."
"We have no other choice," Keyes said resolutely.
As the ships disappeared into the slipstream, the hulls buckled under the stress of the partially collapsed slip space tunnel.