Alternate Past: Uncertain Future Mark II
Edited. Version 2.1
A/N: someone please check my math here later in the chapter. I did this edit as I was traveling on the road so…Yeah.
Posted:8/16/2013
Ch. 6 Shanix: Finale
"As it ends, so it begins."
7 Days since First Contact
"Do it! Finish it!" Killian roared at the Shellhead, defiant until the end. The corners of the Shellhead's mouth turned up into a smirk. Rumbling something in its Native tongue, it raised its massive shotgun and pointed towards the Lieutenant.
Just as the alien started to pull down on the trigger, a boom sounded, then another, and another. Soon the air was filled with the sounds of thunder. Looking up, streaks of fire rained across the sky and landed in the city. To the alien, it looked as though missiles were falling from the skies, to the marine, it was obvious what they were as he and every other human soldier who saw or heard them come through the skies knew what they were: reinforcements.
Thousands of Single Occupant Entry/Insertion Vehicle Drop-pods rained across the war torn city of Second Eden; some crashing into buildings, others into streets and some directly into a firefight. But every single Human being who heard the sonic boom of the pods, or saw the streaks of fire came down let out a cheer that shook the planet: The ODSTs were here, and it was payback time.
**The Skies above Second Eden**
A flight of GA-TL1 Longsword Fighters peeled off from the other fighters escorting dropships down to the city.
"All call signs report in. Raptor Lead reporting in."
"Raptor 2-1 standing by."
"Raptor 2-2, on station."
"Raptor 2-3, on station and ready to bring the pain!"
"Raptor 2-4 here, and ready to muzzle 2-3's big mouth. Ma'am."
Captain Genesis Amari, commander of Raptor Flight, an all-female ace squadron, chuckled to herself. "Alright girls, we got a job to do here. These alien bastards seem to think the air above Shanxi belong to them. These sons of bitches have hit this colony and to them I say this: Let's show them why they call Raptor Flight "The Valkyries of the UNSC!" Each Longsword pilot slammed the accelerator on their fighters, bringing their speeds to well past Mach 6, their weapons primed and ready. Both machine and man desired blood, and together they flashed forward in search of war.
**High Orbit above Second Eden**
On board a UNSC Heavy Cruiser, Say My Name, only one thing was on the minds of the crew: rage: Pure and utter rage. They had seen the enemy take down the light-cruiser Peace of Mind, concentrating their fire on the starboard side. A lucky one in a thousand shot striking an armed Archer Missile pod just as the missiles were about to fire. It set off a chain reaction that ripped through the ship despite the honey-combed structure, reaching more ammunition storage areas before finally reaching the reactor and destroying it from all sides. And he be would be damned before he would let another one fall to the alien upstarts. The heavy frigate and destroyer pair, Terra's Shield and Terra's Sword tumbled in space for a few moments as the detonation, brief as it was, splashed over the pair's shields and shook the hull.
Several of the invaders ships began moving in on the pair, seeing the moment of weakness and seizing advantage of the stricken vessels. "Target their frigates; I want 50 missiles for every single damn frigate we can get at! Get our autocannons targeting their corvettes; I want those damn things gone like the damn Heretics!" Captain Cid Eldred ordered. "Someone get me a firing solution on one of their cruisers; get Harrdrn on the horn, I want a clear line of sight between my cruiser and those bastards!"
"Aye aye!" Raging Horse, the Say My Name's ship AI, taking on the image of an Apache war chief, donned in full traditional Apache war dress. "These intruders have spilled the blood of our kin, now it is our time to spill theirs." The Apache Native styled AI thumped his chest once before his avatar faded from the display.
'Damn, this is turning into one big cluster fuck.' The captain though as he watched the battle from his bridge. The space above Shanxi was pure hell: autocannon fire and flying missiles traded positions with the aliens' own missiles and mass accelerator rounds. Because of the close quarters forced upon them by the alien cruisers closing the distance before they could be destroyed by MAC rounds, the UNSC ships were forced to rely solely on their point-defense systems and secondary armaments. It was a style of space-based combat no one in the UNSC Navy was prepared for. For the majority of all major space battles since the beginning of the Great War, had been at great distances were both sides could rely on their primary, bow mounted armaments. As opposed to just broadsiding the enemy like the ocean-based galleons of old earth.
With the loss of one of their cruisers already it was a blow to the morale of some of the crew. The majority of them were only recent academy graduates. Very few, like the captain, who had been an ensign himself, were veterans. He himself had served aboard a Charon-class frigate, the Hail the Dawn during the Human-Covenant war, facing against overwhelming odds and to see one of their mightiest ships be taken down so quickly after the beginning of an engagement was nothing unusual among the veterans. For the young, inexperienced and new crewmen and women, it was a shocking and near-unfathomable idea. Growing up during a time when humanity was seen as nigh invincible, death and loss had never even touched their minds. Noticing this, the captain sighed before drawing in a breath, his chest puffing up as he did so. "Wake up you maggots!" The bridge crew jumped in their stations and their captain's voice. "You think this is bad, you ain't seen anything yet! They have brought down one of ships, taken how many lives were on her, and now it's time to do the same a hundredfold!" There was no roar from the crew, there was no cheer, but one wasn't needed. "You are the best of humanity! We are the UNSC Navy! And now is the time to show these aliens why humanity is a galactic superpower!" As though the guns answered for them all. The dual H-Class MACs fired noiselessly in space, the technology battle-tested on retrofitted Halcyon(Grade-I) cruiser, the Pillar of Autumn engaged. Magnetic energy capture fields regaining the energy that would have been lost in the firing of the first barrage being recaptured and fed back into the MAC. There was a slight tremor on the bridge as a triple barrage of MACs rounds traveled at a fraction of the speed of light, streaking towards their target. Spearing through the front of the targeted enemy cruiser-analogue upon impact, travelling down it's length, before gouging a massive exist out the back and passing clean through, the alien cruiser-analogue shattering from the impact. The rounds themselves impacting against the Era of Retaliation after gouging their way through, creating the barest of shudder in her shields.*
At the same time The Say My Name's autocannons opened fire, on both her broadsides, spooling up the rotating barrels to allow the highest possible rate of fire. An enemy frigate-weight/class ship was the first unlucky target. The ship's nacelles flaring white-blue as it attempted to get out of the cannons' line of fire. An effort too little, too late; 88mm shells blasted the shields apart under an endless salvo. When they fractured, the guns only fired even faster. The rounds ripping through the enemy's hull, shredding everything to pieces. At the end, all that was left was floating shards. The ship been so thoroughly annihilated, the reactor had not even overloaded. All of the cruiser's escaped, by the luck of not being inside the autocannons' cone of fire.
On the bridge, Raging Horse reappeared on the dais, the AI gestured the captain over to the tactical display. "I've got something." His hologram moved as if to tap the display, changing to show a cleared picture of the position of all the ships. "When we took out that cruiser, the cruiser was targeting one of our frigates." A line of sight was projected from the alien vessel, lining up with the heavy-frigate, which had presented its stern towards it.
"What are you saying?"
"I am suggesting rather than try and take the enemy head on, we focus on protecting our own ships." With that, more lines of sight appears on the screen, from both UNSC and the alien ships. "Projections show that this will be a far more effective strategy as it will allow us to preserve other vessels and at the same time, allow us to use our full instead of only our secondary armaments."
The captain had to agree with the AI's assessment. The enemy cruiser-weigh/class vessel they had destroyed had been targeting one of their frigates, specifically the bridge area. Whether by luck or design it hadn't mattered. Had the MAC round fired only so much later, the frigate, The Guardian, would have been crippled by losing its bridge.
"Alert the Admiral. Send this tactical data to all the ships. Let's finish off the rest of these bastards."
**SOEIV Drop Pod: Alpha L9-2A**
Special Operations Trooper Callsign Phoenix watched as the majority of the other drop pods descended below him towards Second Eden. Watching them for a few moments, he began punching in new coordinates and shifted his drop pods towards Tero City. Engaging the smoke projectors and opening up the secondary fuel lines, further igniting the outside of the pod. A moment later deploying flares. In the chaos of the battle in orbit and arrival of the ODSTs no one on the ground paid any real attention to the single pod that seemingly malfunctioned and began moving away from the rest.
Phoenix though knew his role. Having been briefed by the head of the Office of Naval Intelligence Section III herself: Admiral Margaret Orlenda Parangosky.
**Earth: London: ONI Sec. III Headquarters: Office of Parangonsky**
"You called for me ma'am?" Despite his cool demeanor, inside he was terrified. Few every had direct contact with the Head of Section III and lived to tell about it. Despite this being his third time inside the admiral's office, a record among the non-Admiralty, it was no less nerve wracking.
"Ah yes, callsign Phoenix. You are the man correct?"
It may have come like a question but the Special Operations Agent knew better. It was more or less a test, as common rumor went that only one man had ever crossed the Admiral and lived.
"Yes ma'am."
Satisfied she nodded, "As I'm sure rumors have spread around, First Contact has been made yet again on Shanxi."
The trooper's eyes widen. 'First Contact! Again!' He had been too fight in the Human-Covenant War or the immediately thereafter, Heretic Wars. But had seen action in all the conflict Humanity had found itself in thereafter. And his skills had attracted the attention of ONI Section II. And later Section III.
"We have an, asset of considerable value at Shanxi. And is currently behind enemy lines of these, 'invaders'. This asset cannot be allowed to fall into enemy hands. It is doubtful that they would ever realize the value of what they now possess but still, we cannot take that risk. Your mission is twofold: ensure extraction of the asset from the planet by any means possible and target any potential enemy HVTs(High Value Targets.) Your ship leaves in a few hours. Dismissed."
** SOEIV Drop Pod: Alpha L9-2A**
"Landfall in 10 seconds."
Phoenix was shaken from the memory and braced his body for the landing. Despite all the advances made to drop pod, it was a still a jarring and potentially lethal experience. Even so long after the Wars, the ODST Division was still an all-volunteer outfit.
"Engage secondary thrusters, 30 degree turn. On my mark. Mark." The drop pod shook hard as the secondary set of thrusters on his modified drop pod engaged. Turn it away from the front lines and towards the outskirts of Tero City.
**APUFMKII**
**SOEIV #1445262**
ODST Trooper Heller, Maks. Private: First Class. Jester Squad
Current Location: 30,000 meters above Second Eden and dropping
Private Maks held on to the handles of his Single Occupant Exo-atmospheric Insertion Vehicle. Listening to the pod shake it and thousands of others like his, were dropped from low orbit, now heading towards the planet at, or rapidly approaching, terminal velocity: the maximum speed a falling object will every attain by gravity alone while falling. He heard a faint click as his helmet radio engaged. The voice coming over belonging to the Colonel.
"Listen up Marines! We are currently dropping into the nice and pleasant city of Second Eden. This is not a just another combat drop people! We are dropping right onto of enemy positions into the heart of a civilian locale. Our primary objective is to defend the civilians. You find any, get them to a safe zone ASAP! Secondary objectives are to take out any and all unknowns! We are not to allow anything that isn't human or at the very least familiar stay inside this damn city! SOP for any surrendering unknowns. Good luck." The comm. didn't shut off as the colonel finished. One of the other ODSTs hacked the comm. network and soon, music began blaring through the network. Maks recognized it as something from the 21st century.
Soon enough though, the music cut out as the clouds began to appear before they breached the cloud layer. The colonel's voice came over the comm. again. "All pods, prepare for course correction on my mark." He held the control yokes in his hand. "Mark." Pressing the button, Maks felt his pod jolt as it directed itself closer to the city.
He grimaced as he saw a pod catch fire before hurtling out of control. The person inside never even screamed. Wherever it landed, it was going to be outside the city. Whoever was inside would be dead before they landed. It was a better fate then your pod losing control in freefall and digging your own grave. Trapped inside a small pod-turned-coffin. With a choice of either just waiting until lack of oxygen or hunger killed you, or you saved yourself the wait. Small mercies.
He pushed the thought into the back of his mind as the automated systems engaged. "Engaging Drag-chute." His pod shuddered violently as the chute deployed on his and the other pods to slow them down before making landfall. Gripping the yokes tight, he prepped himself to hit the ground. And show the aliens why to be ODST meant to be an elite.
**Raptor Flight: Raptor Lead**
"The fuckers banking left! Don't let him!"
"Like hell I'm going to let the bastard get away!" Raptor 2-2 shouted back. Lieutenant Clarice Ternen gritted her teeth. "Get back her you little twerp." She yanked her control stick left and right as she tried to keep the enemy fighter in her sights. The crosshairs in her helmet drawing upon the enemy fighter, shifting between red and green as they passed over and off the target. This time, as they passed over the target, they stayed red: a target lock. "Got him! Raptor 2-2 firing!" Her thumb depressed the button on top of the control stick, launching an ASGM-10 missile towards the target. At the same time, she pressed on the trigger on the stick, launching a burst of 110-mm shells from the fighter's rotary autocannon. Half of the burst found their mark, slamming into the fighter's shield, which, despite the salvo, still held. Its pilot let out a sigh of relief just before his fighter's console flared a warning: enemy ordinance locked on. His mind only had time to register the message before being consumed in a great flame as the missile found its mark.
"Hell yeah! That makes eight today!"
"Nice job Raptor 2-2, not bad." Flight control lieutenant called back. Taking a look at the general status of the fighter group ordered, "RTB Raptor flight. Time to refuel and rearm. Looks like you might be the last ones to go out. Enemy fighter squadrons are dropping out of the skies."
"What? Seriously?" Raptor lead was surprised, as were the rest of her squadron. They had realized they and the other fighters, ranging from other Longswords and several Saber squadrons, along with the new Broadswords were suprerior to the alien fighters but didn't realize they were that superior.
"Yeah, our fighters are really wiping the floor with them. And it doesn't help them that more than a few of their fighter groups tried to charge our frigates more than once."
"Alright then." Raptor lead responded. "You heard command girls, RTB to refuel and rearm. We-What the hell?" Her display started blaring warnings out to her, something about a, target lock! "Raptor flight: break formation, break now!" Almost as one, the five GA-TL1 Longsword-class Interceptors broke formation. Each heading off in individual directions, a moment later, flights of missiles passed by where each interceptor had been before turning to follow their respective fighters.
"Shit! Raptor flight, evade, evade, evade!"
Each interceptor began making maneuvers to try and throw off the missiles. All of them began firing off chaff and flares to throw off or force the missiles to detonate early. For some of them it worked. Setting off one missile and triggering a chain reaction. But for Raptor 2-3, whatever she tried, the missiles stubbornly tracked her interceptor.
"Help! I can't get this thing off me!"
"Roll! Roll!"
"I tried!"
"Head for one of the frigates! Get in range of their CIWS, use them to take down the missiles!"
"Copy that!" Raptor 2-3 turned her interceptor to the right, slamming on the throttle as she came out of the turn. The missile pack following her trail. "Oh god, oh god, oh god." Sweat dripped down her face as she desperately tried to outrun the missiles. Her onboard display blaring warnings as the missiles closed in. She tried to force more out her engines but they were already pushed to the max.
She cracked a small smile as a frigate, The Shepard's Staff, came into sight. "I'm going to make it, I think-" her radio cut off abruptly as the missiles made contact. Their sheer number overloading her shields and destroying her fighter in seconds.
"No!" Raptor 2-4 screamed. "2-3 do you read! 2-3!" She was answered with silence. Breaking protocol she cried, "God damn it if you're alive, Patricia, answer me!" Her radio crackled with static. Unseen by the others, but known by the rest of her squad mates, tears ran down the face of 2-4.
"Command, where did does that ordinance come from?" Raptor lead asked.
"One moment." Flight control answered. "Found it, it was from one of their frigates that came down in-atmo."
"Mark it on my HUD. Same for the rest of my squad. Tell the hangar crew to prep 'Rapier' for four. Raptor Lead out." Tears streaked down the face of the squadron leader's face but unlike 2-4, her face was contorted into a look of pure rage. "Bastards just took down one of my girls. None of them are getting the fuck off this planet now."
**Second Eden**
On the ground, all within in the city, turian, krogan and human alike, were transfixed by the sight of the pods streaking down from low orbit. The fact that the krogans and turians did not understand why their foes began cheering to the skies around them would be their undoing.
As the pods began landing around and outside the city, many of them landing behind enemy lines, very few crashed into any buildings.
On the ground, a turian soldier stared at the skies as the flames from reentry vanished and revealed the pods. "By the spirits, are they mad?!" His mandibles lay slack against his face, his jaw open at the sight and he was not the only one. His entire squad, a mix of standard troopers, with several sentinels and even an ex-Cabal who returned to active duty was staring at the skies. "What is wrong with these primitives?!"
His eyes widened as he realized several of those very pods was heading in his general direction. And one was, "Spirits! Everyone move! Get to cover! One of those things is coming down here!" He and the rest of his squad began rushing for whatever cover they could find, whether it be inside a nearby building or behind a vehicle.
The pod crashed down with a thunderous roar, sending tremors through the earth and through dust and debris into the air. Most of the squad remained fine, despite the dust thanks to their armor and helmets. "Sound off! Everyone alright." There was some coughing but the majority did call out their callsigns and reported themselves as being fine. "Weapons up, I want to take a closer look at that pod. Maybe get whatever poor volca out of there if it's still alive."
As they approached the pod, their astonishment increased as the dust settled and the pod could be seen more easily. The front, if what was facing them was it, had a cross-shape of what looked to be tinted glass, which didn't make sense as that would and should have shattered from reentry forces.
Inside the pod, an ODST lay waiting. The trooper knew that while they may be able to see outside the pod and the aliens, the aliens would not be able to look it. Gripping the M6-C variant pistol tightly, a hand waited against the release mechanism. Once pulled, the pod door would be violently ejected. Giving the ODST inside both an easy exit from the pod and at the same time, giving them a few precious seconds to act as the enemy was recovering from the pod door's ejection.
"C'mon, c'mon. Just get a little close you ugly bastard." The hand gripped the lever tighter.
As for the turians, the commander approached but kept his distance. Signaling one of his sentinels, he ordered. "Get over there, try and open up the pod. We'll cover you." With that the sentinel nodded and stepped forward, his omnitool out and ready.
Shaking his head as he found no remote access. He stepped closer to try and find a port to link to the pod or if needed, open it manually. Not knowing it would be the last thing he did on this new world.
Inside, the ODST grinned. "Gotcha."
As the turian sentinel approached the pod door, the last thing he would ever see would be the door being explosively propelled from the pod before it splattered him against it, slamming into a small car before bouncing around the street.
Trying to recover from the shock, both from the sudden death of their comrade and the explosive ejection of the pod door, the turian squad was slow to react. A trio of 12.7mm by 40mm rounds slammed into the head of another turian, this one a soldier. The first two powerful semi-armor piercing high-explosive rounds slamming into the turian's shield, causing it to shimmer as it stopped the rounds. The last round shattered the shield and sliced off one of the turian's mandibles.
Recovering from their stupor, the Turians trained their weapons on the pod and opened fire, filling the inside with a flood of mass accelerator rounds.
But the ODST had already abandoned the pod and rolled to the left by the time the Turians had opened fire on the pod. Slotting the pistol in its holster, the ODST brought up the rifle they had ripped from the pod to bear. The MA6-Series A-Variant rifle rattled on full-auto as the twice-over accelerated rounds slammed, shattered and eviscerated the shields and the bodies of the aliens in front of them.
The Cabal however, brought up the strongest barriers it could muster as it dived towards the pod itself, the closest cover in the area. Skimming their barriers as it made it, the pod rattled from the barrage it was subjected too. Gathering the energy for singularity in its palm, it moved around the pod and threw it where they had last seen the ODST.
Catching the ODST off guard, the trooper tossed themself forward to avoid the mass of dark energy. Barely avoiding the high-gravity sphere, the trooper rolled and in one fluid motion, slid right into the face of the Turian Cabal.
Forgoing their guns, the two elite soldiers threw themselves at the other, one drawing a knife, the other focusing their biotics into their fists. They grappled, trying to get an advantage over the other and pin them to the ground. The Cabal lightened its own weight using their biotics. The sudden shift caused the ODST to lose their focus, allowing the Cabal to pin the ODST to the ground. Smirking in victory, the Cabal pulled back its arm, and slammed down a biotically charged fist on the polarized visor.
Only to be meet with the shimmer of a shield as it intercepted the strike. Still the shield shattered but had reduced the blow by so much it only cracked the ODST's visor. Seizing the chance, the ODST brought up the knife and sliced the Cabal across the throat, arterial splatter coating the ODST's now cracked visor. The turian fell backwards, talons clutching at the wound uselessly trying to stem the blood flow.
Pulling itself up, the ODST flicked the blood off the knife before returning it to its sheath. Tracing a hand across the cracked visor, the trooper snarled audibly before removing the helmet and throwing it to the ground.
The dying Cabal, looking at the Elite Human warrior looked on wide eyed as the face of the human warrior was shown. It had expected a male to have been underneath that armor. A grizzled veteran with the scars to match.
The trooper tided up their hair, the knot having come undone during the drop. Looking down at the wide-eyed, dying alien warrior asked, "What? Never had a woman kick your ass before?" Tying off the knot, she removed the detachable earpiece from inside the helmet and placing it in her ear.
Back at Killian's position, the Krogan warrior who had the marine dead to rights looked away from the sky as the last of the falling objects disappeared from the sky. Turning back to his defeated foe, the Krogan smiled a wicked smile. It raised its massive shotgun once again towards Killian's face, who looked past the weapon and directly into the eyes of its holder.
As the massive finger squeezed the trigger, a massive crack sounded through the air. A second later, the gun was split in two, fragments flying into the air. The front of the weapon spinning through the air before landing on the ground.
Both soldiers and everyone else around them, alien and human alike, turned towards where the sound had come from. A single man stood in one the buildings, looking outside a ruined window. An ODST soldier, garbed in the blue striped uniform of a designated marksmen, on one knee with an SRS99D-S2 AM sniper rifle aimed at the pair.
"Have no fear! The Helljumpers are here! "
Across the city ODSTs began to joy the fray. The alien soldiers found themselves falling back as they were met by humanity's elite ODSTs. With the constant flow of elite and fresh troops, the invaders found themselves defeated at every turn, loosing what precious ground they had gained.
The tide had turned. They fast learned why the ODSTs were so feared.
Second Eden would not fall.
**APUFMKII**
Turian Frigate; Menae's People
"Tch, only got one of their fighters." The gunnery officer was irked, the missiles he had launched against the fighter squadron had all been evaded save one. And even then it was close as it was had been almost inside the alien cruiser-analogue. Likely trying to head into a safety zone where the ship's own weapons would have brought down the missiles themselves.
To the officer's side, his companion placed a hand on his shoulder. "Ah well, least you did before the one made it inside the zone."
"There is that. You got anything else on your scanners? Mine's clear."
Going through the various scanners modes, he also searched the skies. "Nope. All clear too." A blip appeared on his screen. "Wait a tick. I think I may have something." Going through the various modes, the blip remained the same. "Yeah. I got a contact. No, make that two, three. By the Ancestor, give me a moment to clear this up." Tapping away at the haptic interface before him, the turian officer worked to clear the sensor readings. "Got it! Reading four contacts. They're-" He paused, to reaffirm what the sensors were telling him. "They're fighters? What the hell do they think that'll do against a cruiser? Tickle our shields?" A few of the other officers let out a few laughs at the insinuation. They had no idea how wrong they were.
On the other side, across the now four women fighter squadron, each of them with tear streaked faces, their faces contorted by pure rage eyed the alien frigate-analogue in front of them with pure hate. "Alright ladies," Despite how much the death of Raptor 2-3, 'no Patricia, her name was Patricia' the squadron leader chided herself. However much it hurt, she knew for a fact that 2-4 was hurting worse then she could ever feel. The pair had a sisterly-relationship. Closer than most sisters actually ever were. There were even rumors the pair are, were, lovers.
None of that mattered now. "We've got an alien bastard who thinks they just took down one of the UNSC's best and they are going to get away with it. And what do we say to that?"
"They are going to burn for what they did!" Raptor 2-1 screamed.
"Blood, they will pay their debt in blood." Raptor 2-2 whispered.
"…" Raptor 2-4 didn't respond. Her face a stony façade as she glared at the vessel. If looks could kill, the frigate would have burned in an instant.
"Prep Rapier Packages." Across the four Longswords, four missile pods across the wings of each of the fighters, infrared laser designators tagging the alien frigate. "Pick your targets, and cut loose." With that, the fighter squadron broke formation, each heading along their own path towards the comparatively flat ship.
Raptor lead and 2-1 stayed together, the latter trailing behind the former. Tagging a location on the ship, the pair fired a total of eight missiles before pulling off a strafing run, unleashing a wall of 110mm shells that shattered against the shields before banking away and heading back the way they came.
Raptor 2-2 split and headed towards the rear of the ship. Letting loose her four missiles targeted directly at the engines before backing off and following Lead and 2-1.
Seeing the total of twelve, relatively small, missiles heading towards them, the turian crewmen shrugged it off. Not seeing any real threat. It would be their undoing.
Six of the twelve missiles shot ahead of their fellows. Two from each of their pack of four. The tips of these began to glow an iridescent green. A plasma green. The missiles began to close in together as much as possible without colliding. Focusing on a single point. The plasma energized missiles, meant to shatter the shields of a small capital ship upon impact, had a far different effect against Element Zero based barriers. The majority of the missile disintegrated upon hitting the shields, vaporizing on impact. However, the energized plasma ignored the barriers, splattering against and melting the hull. The plasma, from both literally melting the hull, and overloading several systems, weakened the kinetic barrier generators in that particular area. Meanwhile, the remaining four missiles began to line up one behind the other. The first vaporized much like the missiles before it, as did the second, but also exteremely weakened the barriers. The third simply ignored the barrier as though it didn't exist and burrowed a path into the warship, the fourth following suite, burying themselves deep within the ship.
Instead of detonating, the missiles simply sat there. Those who had survived the missile's murderous journey into the bowels of the ship rose. Some shell-shocked by what had just occurred. "Spirits, what just happened?" a turian engineer asked, blood streaming down his head. Looking around, he saw the missiles, just sitting there. "The missiles, they haven't detonated yet. Why?"
Before the engineer could do anything more, he was thrown off his feet as the process repeated itself in the rear of the ship. More missiles slamming into the engines but narrowly missing the engine core. At least, that was most assumed since they weren't free-floating particles. Orders were being shouted to evacuate the damaged sections and anyone that could try to affect damage control.
Outside the ship, Raptor 2-4 searched for a more suitable location to let loose her salvo. Passing by the side of the alien frigate, she spied what looked to be shuttered windows. A layer of armor that normally would not be deployed outside of combat to allow those inside to see outside. A wicked smile stretched across her face as she targeted her salvo directly at the shutter, firing it off before banking away. Never would she know, that when the two penetrator missiles burrowed their way into the ship, the first would impact the turian officer who had launched the salvo that killed Raptor 2-3.
With the loss of the bridge crew, the turian frigate began to list. Turning sideways and towards the ground. It would never reach it in one piece. The eight missiles that had buried themselves inside, registered the others were now also onboard. Each having burrowed inside. With the confirmation signals received, electricity was sent from internal batteries, triggering the release of neutron particles a small chunk of radioactive matter. Splitting the atoms with the forced addition of another neutron. Following Einstein's equation of mass-to-energy conversion, a massive amount of energy was released from the nuclear fission reaction. Contained for a split second inside the lead-container, it sought an escape. It did not care why it was there, why it was being blocked. All it cared about, was expanding as far as possible as demanded by the laws of entropy and it would not be denied.
In unison, eight low-yield nuclear missiles, each the equivalent of a Fury-tactical nuke, detonated. The missiles of a Rapier Anti-capital ship, meant to cripple the equivalent of a Covenant cruiser, was pitted against a pitiful Turian cruiser.
All that would mark the existence of the once mighty vessel would the glassy crater carved into the planet directly beneath where it once was.
*A/N: Correct me if you think I'm wrong but seeing what the Infinity did in the Spartan Ops episode 1, I think it's shield would be able to take a MAC shot like it's nothing, especially after passing through another ship.
