Yay! Someone made this a favourite story! Too celebrate I have for an epic space battle! This one was slightly delayed by me having to write an essay on the play "Antigone" by Sophocles.
Thermopylae speared through the slipspace portal and into real space. The greater accuracy afforded by the improved slipspace drive meant that the great ship had appeared within the UNSC fleet. On her starboard side, the majestic form of the Marathon class carrier Keep what you Steal and to port sat the second Marathon carrier, the New Mombasa. The three destroyers and the five frigates were dispersed around the two carriers. The three Sanghelli ships were clustered together on the far side of Keep what you Steal, with the Angel of Redemption at their heart. With the arrival of Thermopylae, the fleet started to move in system. Towards Reach, and the waiting Brutes.
The Bridge of Thermopylae was alive with activity. Messages were sent back and forth between Thermopylae and the other ships of the fleet. Most were simple greetings. But one from the flagship, Keep what you Steal gave Leyton the information they needed for the coming fight. The covenant fleet consisted of three CCS class battle cruisers, five corvettes and an old a dilapidated assault carrier. Normally, this would have been enough to obliterate a colony; a fleet wouldn't stand a chance. But much had changed in eleven years. With most of the San 'Shyuum dead, the remaining Covenant lost most of their technological mastery. The majority of the grunts and all of the Huragok sided with the Elites, while the brutes, Jackals and Drones went into hiding with the last few San 'Shyuum. As a result their ships were in disrepair. Many sported failing shields, badly repaired hull breaches and hastily added weapon systems. But the Brute ships were still formidable. Their crews were stubborn and they had a habit of detonating the plasma reactors as a last resort. Since the end of the war, the UNSC had only managed to capture five covenant vessels in total. These were always given to the Elites to refit and repair. But the Elites always gave them to the UNSC. A way of helping to repay the enormous debt they felt they owed to Humanity. The Brute ships were clustered in high orbit over one of the few unglassed areas of Reach. As the Allied fleet drifted closer, the Covenant ships readied for battle. Seraphs and Banshee interceptors were launched along with Phantom gunboats and the older Gigas bombers. The allies made their own preparations. MACs and MAPPs were charged and ordnance was loaded. Sabres and Longswords were fuelled and launched. The fighters formed a skirmishing line in front of the frigates which in turn screened the destroyers and Elite ships which surrounded the two Marathon class carriers and Thermopylae.
The first blows in what would become known as the scouring of Reach came from a Banshee interceptor. At extreme range it unleashed a burst from its plasma cannons. The Sabre it was aiming for neatly dodged the bolts before retaliating. This particular Sabre had had its standard cannons removed and replaced with a single Gauss cannon. The Sabre fired and one less Banshee existed in the Covenant fleet. A few seconds later the two lines clashed in a shower of explosions and wreckage. The Brutes were not good pilots. But the sheer amount of weapons they could unleash brought down more than enough pilots. A hundred snapshots from these few bloody minutes would soon reach Humanity's news channels. Such as the noble sacrifice of a lone Longsword pilot who flew his stricken craft into a Gigas that threatened his wing mates. After a few bloody minutes, both sides withdrew. The Brutes limped back to their hangars while the UNSC pilots proclaimed their victory over all channels. Some even taunted the brutes in their own language. The UNSC craft retreated to the shadows of their larger cousins as the frigates and destroyers along with the Sanghelli craft moved in for the kill.
Thermopylae and the Marathons stood back from the fighting. It had been decided to use them only for fire support while the other ships engaged. The only exception to this was the Angle of Redemption which spearheaded the assault. Two of the frigates, the Antigone the Creon and the destroyer Lord Nelson ganged up on one Corvette. The Antigone used her powerful MAPP array to drop the Corvette's shields while the Creon and Lord Nelson gutted her with their MAC guns. That engagement was over in five minutes. The only damaged sustained was a minor hull breach on the Creon and a failed shield emitter on the Lord Nelson. Elsewhere, the two Sanghelli CCS class cruisers, the Illustrious Crusader and the Divine Prophet started circling their Covenant counter parts. Each ship was able to disable a cruiser each and the Crusader destroyed another. The two disabled ships were ignored as the ships moved on. Hopefully two more ships to add to the UNSC spoils of war. As long as the crew didn't over heat the cores and destroy them. To hopefully prevent that. Pelicans and Phantoms filled with ODSTs and Sanghellii SpecOps troopers rushed to the stricken vessels.
The carnage was immense. The Brute fleet was decimated. All but three ships had been destroyed or immobilised. The two corvettes that had survived clustered around the Covenant assault carrier. The much larger for of Angel of Redemption, a super carrier now started to bear down on them.
"Helm. Set a course that will send us over the Carrier." Said Shipmaster Gorovek Idima. The Shipmaster gripped the arms of his command throne and leaned forward. On the holographic display in front of him he saw the Carrier. It was easily repelling the human ships with plasma torpedoes. Those same torpedoes were now aimed at the Angel. They pattered harmlessly of its shields. Gorovek they addressed his weapons officer.
"Begin charging the excavation beam." He said. The crew looked at him with slack jaws. The weapons officer spoke up.
"Is that not a bit extreme Lord?" He asked.
"No it is not. Do you have a problem whelp?" Asked Gorovek threateningly.
"Not at all sir. But, as a human would say, I like your style sir." Said the officer with the Sanghellii equivalent of a grin. Gorovek grinned a Sanghellii grin and laughed.
The two corvettes ditched their carrier. They jumped into Slipspace, leaving it behind. The larger ship was obviously having trouble with its FTL drive as sparks flew across its hull but it remained in realspace. The Angel was almost on top of it. And barely contained plasma was burning at its prow.
"Burn you mongrels." Said Gorovek as the Angel unloaded its deadly cargo. Firepower usually reserved for burning world cleaved the carrier in two. The first battle of the scouring of Reach was over.