"And with the arrival of reinforcements from Ceres, our forces now number 24 ships," Nova reported.
I nodded at her words. "Bring all the ships on screen. It's time we assign proper positions."
Nova nodded and brought up the display, listing the fleet's ships and their classes:
[Flagship] UNSC Bastion (Halcyon-class Light Cruiser)
3 Paris-class frigates (two UNSC, one CMA)
6 Stalwart-class frigates (two UNSC, four CMA; Ironclad damaged)
7 Scholte-class corvettes
5 Mako-class corvettes
2 Gladius-class corvettes
I scanned the screen before speaking. "Okay, our frigates stay with us like before, and Group Sunlight and Group Pegasus remain the same too."
Nova updated the display accordingly:
Group Bastion:[Flagship] UNSC Bastion (Halcyon-class Light Cruiser)
2 Paris-class frigates
2 Stalwart-class frigates
Group Sunlight:[Flagship] CMA Sunlight (Scholte-class corvette)
2 Mako-class corvettes
Group Pegasus:[Flagship] CMA Pegasus (Scholte-class corvette)
1 Scholte-class corvette
3 Mako-class corvettes
"And that leaves us with 1 Paris-class frigate, 4 Stalwart-class frigates, 4 Scholte-class corvettes, and 2 Gladius-class corvettes," Nova added.
The Captain nodded. "Keep all the remaining frigates together and split the corvettes into two groups."
Nova updated the screen again:
Group Bastion:[Flagship] UNSC Bastion (Halcyon-class Light Cruiser)
2 Paris-class frigates
2 Stalwart-class frigates
Group Vigilance:[Flagship] CMA Vigilance (Paris-class heavy frigate)
4 Stalwart-class frigates
Group Swiftblade:[Flagship] CMA Swiftblade (Gladius-class heavy corvette)
2 Scholte-class corvettes
Group Horizon Spear:[Flagship] CMA Horizon Spear (Gladius-class heavy corvette)
2 Scholte-class corvettes
Group Sunlight:[Flagship] CMA Sunlight (Scholte-class corvette)
2 Mako-class corvettes
Group Pegasus:[Flagship] CMA Pegasus (Scholte-class corvette)
1 Scholte-class corvette
3 Mako-class corvettes
"Swiftblade and Horizon Spear will be under my direct command," Sarata said to Nova. "Meanwhile, Pegasus and Sunlight will report to Vigilance's command."
"There won't be any more reinforcements for a while, will there?" he asked, already knowing the answer but holding onto a sliver of hope.
Nova simply nodded.
Sarata sighed, leaning back in his chair. "It is what it is, I guess. Sometimes, I hate how big space is."
Nova nodded again but suddenly perked up, her tone bright and excited. "Well, I do have some good news! The last civilian has been evacuated from the colony, and the Marines are busy booby-trapping the entire city!"
Sarata gave her a flat, unimpressed look. "No. I'm not a ground-pounder, so no, I don't want to hear about it."
Nova's hologram slumped, her expression resembling a kicked puppy.
Sarata groaned, dragging a hand down his face. "Fine. You can tell me about it."
Nova immediately brightened, her holographic form glowing with enthusiasm.
2 Hours and 19 Minutes Later
Nova had finally finished detailing every step of the booby-trapping process. What had started as a simple explanation had somehow spiraled into a full-blown rant. She loudly criticized how poorly the Marines were handling the setup and described, in painstaking detail, how she could have done it all so much better.
When she finally dematerialized, Sarata blinked, staring at the empty space where her hologram had been moments ago.
"That was… yeah," he muttered, rubbing his temples.
He glanced around the bridge. Some of the crew looked intrigued, having listened intently to every word, while others, like John, were completely tuned out, casually playing cards.
Leaning back, Sarata massaged his brow. "Now, what did I forget?" he muttered aloud. "John, any idea?"
John, busy packing up his cards, glanced over. "Alien prisoners?"
"Not that," Sarata replied, waving his hand dismissively. "It's not like we can interrogate them for anything useful."
He turned to the screen in front of him, sighed, and finally asked, "Nova?"
Nova materialized instantly, her hologram flickering to life. "You're probably referring to their computers," she said matter-of-factly. "We managed to hack them, but the language barrier is a problem. So… we've got nothing useful."
Sarata snapped his fingers, nodding. "Yes, that—that's what I was forgetting. And, just as I imagined, nothing useful. Actually, can we use it to hack their ships?"
Nova's face lit up slightly, and she clicked her fingers. "No, we'd need to establish a connection first. But if we do…" She mimicked a dramatic gesture. "We could disable them in a second."
Sarata nodded, lifting his coffee mug for another sip. His face twisted in disgust. "I hate cold coffee."
Meanwhile, Nova, with little else to do, had turned her attention to deciphering the alien language. She watched hours of interrogation footage, but quickly realized how pointless it was. Understanding the language would have been difficult enough if the aliens were cooperative—but they weren't. They remained silent, only eating their version of rations and refusing to engage.
Frustrated, she nearly shifted to watching space battle footage to pass the time when something caught her attention. One of the outer satellites she'd helped place earlier had just picked up a signal.
Her systems processed the data instantly, and dread washed over her as the readings came through. Alien ships—35 contacts andthe signal was delayed by almost an hour minutes.
"Captain!" Nova called, materializing at the center of the bridge. Her holographic form flickered slightly, a rare sign of urgency. "Alien ships have entered the range of our outer satellites—35 contacts!"
As she spoke, alarms blared across every ship in the fleet, signaling battle stations.
The Captain nodded, his expression calm but focused. "Their size?"
Nova glanced at the incoming data before replying, "six frigates and rest corvettes."
The Captain nodded again, a faint smile tugging at his lips. Either the aliens hadn't anticipated reinforcements, or they were just that reckless. Still, he thought, they have 11 more ships than us.
Wait, something's not right, he thought suddenly, his brow furrowing. They could have dropped much closer to us. Why so far away?
An uneasy feeling crept into his mind, but he pushed it aside.
"Have Group Vigilance and her escorts attack from starboard. Our group and escorts will attack from port," Sarata ordered.
Nova raised an eyebrow at the tactic.
"It worked before, didn't it?" he said defensively.
Nova nodded.
Sarata glanced at the holographic display, his unease returning. "Is it just me, or does something feel off?" he asked Nova.
She tilted her head slightly, processing the question. "And why would you think that, sir?" she asked for clarification.
"Well, last time they dropped much closer to us," he answered, his hand resting on his chin as he stared at the tactical display. The Bastion was steadily moving farther away from Shanxi and the Group Vigilance.
1 Hour LaterMaybe splitting wasn't such a good idea, Sarata thought, watching the tactical display. It would take a good ten minutes for the groups to reach each other's positions if they needed to regroup—too long in a real engagement. But it's too late to change now. At least the enemy did the same, he reassured himself.
All enemy frigates, along with 10 corvettes, were grouped as Battle Group 1 and heading straight for Bastion's position. Meanwhile, 19 corvettes, designated as Battle Group 2, were closing in on Group Vigilance.
"Sir! 13 contacts behind us—1 frigate and 12 corvettes!" Nova reported urgently. "They'll be on us in 10 minutes—the same time it'll take for Battle Group 1 to reach us."
Sarata's mind raced as realization hit him. Battle Group 3 must've circled around the star system to strike us from behind.
"Full starboard! Get us close to Vigilance now!" Sarata barked.
The Bastion and her escorting ships immediately turned as sharply as they could, their engines flaring as they made for Group Vigilance.
Not good at all, Sarata thought, his eyes fixed on the tactical display. 29 ships coming at us—almost three times as many as we have.
"Nova, can we make it to Vigilance in time?" he asked, his voice tense.
Nova's hologram flickered as she performed the calculations.
"We should," she replied hesitantly, "but it'll be extremely clo—" Her voice cut off abruptly. "They're firing!" she yelled, alarmed.
Sarata frowned. "Firing? They're outside their range—"
Unless…
Nova's expression shifted as realization hit her. "Shit!" she exclaimed.
The enemy rounds weren't aimed directly at the fleet. Instead, they were calculating intercept trajectories, firing ahead to cut them off.
And before Sarata could respond, another volley was fired—this time from Battle Group 3 behind them, targeting Bastion's engines.
"If we stay on course, we'll be hit," Nova warned quickly. "But if we maneuver to evade, we won't reach Vigilance in time."
Sarata cursed under his breath. "Dammit. They're pinning us down."
He gritted his teeth, his mind racing. "Turn us to port," he ordered finally. "We'll engage Battle Group 1 head-on."
"Group Swiftblade and Horizon Spear are to engage Battle Group 3. Launch the fighters."
The Bastion began to turn, its massive form dwarfing the smaller ships in its escort. Seconds later, eight fighters launched from its hangar bays—half outfitted in anti-ship configurations, the other half in anti-fighter roles.
"Anti-ship fighters are to target Battle Group 3," Sarata instructed. "Anti-fighter units will stay with us."
Seconds ticked by, the tension mounting. The enemy had ceased firing the moment Bastion began its turn.
"Four minutes until MACs are in range," Nova reported, her hologram glancing nervously at the Captain.
"Good. Fire a missile salvo," Sarata commanded. "Both Paris-class frigates are to target Frigates 1 and 2, the Stalwarts will target Frigates 4 and 5, and we'll target Frigate 3."
Nova watched as hundreds of missiles erupted from their pods, lighting up the tactical display like a swarm of angry bees. Beautiful, she thought as the Bastion fired 200 missiles, with each Paris-class frigate adding 260 more to the salvo.
Splitting her matrix, Nova began monitoring the entire battlefield, tracking every engagement.
Group Swiftblade and Horizon Spear launched their own missile salvo, though it was far smaller: 116 missiles total—100 Archer missiles and 16 Ares missiles. Each Gladius-class corvette contributed ten missiles, and each Scholte-class corvette added twenty, with an additional four Ares missiles from each Scholte. All projectiles locked onto the leading enemy frigate in Battle Group 3.
Meanwhile, Group Vigilance and its escorts unleashed a missile salvo just as impressive as the Bastion's. Over a thousand missiles, mostly Archers with 12 Ares missiles mixed in, streaked toward the 10 leading enemy corvettes in Battle Group 2.
Nova's systems hummed with anticipation. Now let's see what the aliens come up with to counter this.
Before the missiles could reach their targets, every enemy frigate launched two fighters—except for the leading frigate. Or should I say, super-heavy frigate, Nova thought as her sensors detected the lead ship's length exceeding 700 meters.
"Captain, the enemy has launched fighters—16 total," she reported quickly. "14 from Battle Group 1 and 2 from Battle Group 3."
She shifted her focus to the missile salvos.
The alien fighters were the first to engage, focusing on the Bastion's salvo, likely to protect their flagship. Efficient, Nova noted. From the Bastion's 200 missiles, 147 made it through the fighters' initial engagement, while six enemy fighters were destroyed when missiles struck them.
Next came the two corvettes escorting the flagship. Their laser point-defense systems lit up, slicing into the swarm. By the time the missiles reached their range, another 44 had been destroyed.
Finally, the flagship itself opened fire. Its point-defense weapons destroyed 16 more missiles before the barrage began slamming into the hull.
Nova nodded approvingly as her sensors noted the enemy venting their atmosphere prior to impact, a tactic to minimize internal damage. Smart, but not enough.
The missiles hit like a hammer. A total of 87 projectiles struck the flagship, ripping through its hull. Explosions rippled along the vessel's length, tearing it apart section by section.
The ship is gone, Nova thought as more missiles impacted, each detonation tearing through what little remained of the vessel.
She turned her attention to the other frigates in the formation. They were gone too, wiped out in the chaos of the missile salvo. Only ten corvettes remained. Good odds, she thought, her matrix recalculating probabilities.
Her focus shifted to Group Swiftblade and Horizon Spear. Their missile salvo had already been expended, leaving them defenseless. They're not going to survive this, she thought grimly. Outnumbered two-to-one and with limited missile capacity, the two groups were vulnerable.
Here it comes. Nova winced as the enemy ships opened fire with their MACs. The corvettes dodged the first volley with ease, their small forms slipping through the barrage.
But then the enemy fired again. And again. All the while, they closed the distance, tightening their formation. Finally, one of the rounds struck the CMA Swiftblade.
The corvette's small size worked against it. The enemy MAC round tore through the ship from fore to aft, gutting its interior and hitting multiple critical systems along the way. In an instant, Swiftblade was disabled, its engines flickering as power failed across the vessel.
The Horizon Spear returned fire, launching its own MAC shot, but the round sailed harmlessly past the enemy ships. Nova grimaced internally. The fighters are at least doing well, she thought, observing the Longswords.
The enemy fighters had been completely destroyed, their wreckage scattering in all directions. The Longswords held position, waiting for further orders or an opening.
Nova glanced at Vigilance's salvo and smiled, satisfied. Ten enemy corvettes had been reduced to burning wreckage. Another point for the UEG, she thought before redirecting the majority of her processing power to Group Bastion.
The remaining 10 enemy corvettes of group 1 opened fire with their MACs, sending a deadly barrage toward the Bastion. Nova ran the numbers in an instant: 46 seconds until our missile pods reload—15 enemy salvos to endure—and 68 seconds until we're within MAC range.
The enemy fire was concentrated entirely on the Bastion. Nova's smirk widened. Fools.
The Bastion's honeycomb structure was designed for survivability, with reinforced compartments and redundant systems. Good luck trying to destroy her, Nova thought confidently.
Taking control of both the normal and emergency thrusters, Nova executed precise maneuvers, weaving the massive ship through the incoming fire. Enemy MAC rounds streaked past, missing their target by narrow margins.
Nova calculated quickly: a round was going to hit the Bastion. She adjusted the ship's position, maneuvering it, so the impact would cause minimal damage.
"Hit. Decks 12 and 13 breached," she reported to the Captain, her voice calm despite the chaos. Without missing a beat, she returned her focus to dodging the incoming rounds.
More rounds struck the Bastion as the fleets closed the gap.
The second hit. Then the third. Fourth… Thirteenth. Yet the damage remained minimal. Hull breaches, a few destroyed Helix point-defense guns, and three disabled Archer pods. Nothing catastrophic. Nova allowed herself a small smile.
The UNSC fleet unleashed another missile salvo, this time splitting the payload across the ten remaining corvettes in Battle Group 1.
Once again, the enemy didn't stand a chance. Each corvette was targeted by at least a hundred missiles, and the results were devastating—one by one, they were annihilated, consumed in fiery explosions.
But despite the success, not everything was going well.
Groups Swiftblade and Horizon Spear had been completely wiped out, their ships destroyed under the relentless assault. Meanwhile, Battle Group 3 was closing in fast, with the Bastion's missile pods still reloading—another 58 seconds before they could fire again.
"Battle Group 3 firing on us!" Nova announced sharply.
"Full port!" Sarata ordered immediately, his tone commanding as the Bastion began to turn.
"What's their status?"
"Two corvettes down," Nova replied. "The Longswords performed a suicidal attack to try to save Group Swiftblade and Horizon Spear. Four Longswords lost in the process."
Nova's voice remained steady as she continued to dodge incoming fire. "MAC range in 30 seconds," she added.
A sudden jolt rocked the ship as another round struck the Bastion's topside hull. Nova's calculations had ensured minimal damage, but even she felt the strain as her systems worked overtime to keep the massive cruiser in motion.
"Deck 7 breached," she reported calmly.
The Bastion and its escorts fired their secondary batteries, the cannons roaring as they hurled rounds toward the approaching frigate. The shells streaked through the void, closing the distance rapidly.
The enemy ships easily dodged the incoming fire, the projectiles passing harmlessly by—but that was exactly what Sarata had intended.
Their evasive maneuvers threw off their firing solutions, causing most of their MAC rounds to sail harmlessly past the UNSC ships.
"Fire MACs," Sarata ordered, his tone calm but commanding.
Nova observed the barrage with something akin to satisfaction. This never gets old, she thought as all the UNSC ships in Group Bastion fired their Magnetic Accelerator Cannons at the leading frigate.
Five massive rounds tore through the void, streaking toward the target like harbingers of doom.
The enemy frigate attempted to evade, its thrusters flaring as it angled sharply to avoid the incoming slugs. But one round found its mark, slamming into the frigate's left wing. The impact tore the wing clean off, rendering the ship crippled and drifting.
Nova's satisfaction was short-lived. Her sensors picked up activity from the other enemy ships. The bank of launch tubes—previously dormant—opened up.
"Sir," Nova reported, her voice sharper than usual, "the unknown weapon banks have deployed. They're targeting the Bastion."
From the enemy corvettes, 32 glowing blue spheres emerged, gliding through space with an almost eerie grace.
"They're slow," Nova thought aloud, watching them closely,
"Starboard, 90 degrees," Sarata ordered, snapping Nova from her analysis. "Bring as many of our point-defense guns to bear as possible."
The Bastion and her escorts pivoted smoothly, maneuvering thrusters firing in coordinated bursts. On the tactical display, their formation shifted to maximize overlapping point-defense coverage while continuing to dodge the enemy MAC rounds. Nova noted that the enemy's fire rate was slowing with each shot, likely due to overheating.
They're losing efficiency, she thought, already preparing to assist with PD targeting calculations.
Then she saw it.
The enemy missiles—projectiles she had already calculated would take 50 seconds to reach them—suddenly accelerated.
What? Nova's matrix flickered with something dangerously close to panic. The projectiles' time to impact had been cut down to four seconds.
Terrified, Nova reacted instantly. She shut off most of the Bastion's main engines, leaving only the lower engine online, overloading it in the process. She then activated the lower emergency thruster on the port side. The ship's hull groaned in protest as it spun, minimizing its profile to expose as little surface area as possible to the incoming torpedoes.
It wasn't enough.
Five torpedoes were still locked on and closing fast. Nova redirected every available PD gun, launching a desperate volley. Two torpedoes were destroyed just seconds before impact—but three remained.
She watched in what felt like slow motion as the first projectile struck. The impact was unlike anything she'd anticipated. For a brief millisecond, the area around the hit glowed an unnatural blue before the Bastion shook violently. The armor and hull at the point of impact were sucked inward, twisted and torn apart as if being devoured.
The second and third torpedoes followed in quick succession, each wreaking havoc on the ship. One struck dangerously close to a Mark 33 Spitfire turret, ripping it clean off the hull.
"Multiple hull breaches!" Nova reported as the ship finally stopped groaning from the torpedo hits.
"Nova, launch missiles NOW! End them!" Captain Sarata roared, fury lacing his voice at the audacity of the enemy to damage his ship so severely.
The Paris-class frigates and the Bastion unleashed another salvo, a devastating wave of missiles streaking toward the remaining enemy corvettes. But the enemy, recognizing the battle was lost, initiated their FTL drives. One by one, the remaining corvettes jumped away, vanishing into the void.
"All contacts gone," Nova confirmed, her voice steady but tinged with relief.
Author's NoteSome Random Dude – Yup, both Spartan-I and Spartan-II programs exist.
Luke – Neither of those locations exists in this timeline. As for Hannibal Weapon Systems, they developed their tech without Forerunner technology.
Sci-Fi Guy 22 – I already added Turian corvettes (150m ships), so I don't plan on changing that. And about destroyers. I can see them being used by pirates and the Quarians.
About Eezo—I was originally going to say it was discovered 10 years ago, but I like your reasoning, so 9 years it is.
For the timeline, maybe I'll work on it later, but honestly, I don't feel like doing it right now.
As for the Spartan-III and IV programs—you're right, but Spartan-IIIs won't appear as they do in the lore. Instead, they'll essentially be Spartan-IVs.
Mass Effect FTL – The UNSC will never use it on their mainline warships, only on stealth ships. Why? First, they won't have enough Eezo to build hundreds of warships. Second, the size of UNSC ships makes Mass Effect FTL impractical.
Relays – I'm undecided about including them, but I'm leaning toward yes.
LoneFox123 – Disruptor torpedoes in my story are different. The most important aspect is that they "suck" space around them, pulling it into the core of the torpedo.
Also, yes, the UNSC would win a war against the Turians—primarily due to their missile capacity. Take a Marathon-class cruiser, for example—it can launch 1,400 missiles. What are the Turians supposed to do against that? It would also be incredibly difficult for the Turians to destroy a Marathon outright.
Additionally, the sheer size of UNSC-controlled space works in their favor. Without Mass Relays, it would take the Turians ages to get a fleet to any major UEG planet. In the meantime, the UNSC could build a few more cruisers and frigates. Let's not forget ONI's stealth ships, like the Point Blank-class stealth cruiser, which could strike Turians while they're venting.
Kazuto8080 – The answer to your question is above.
One of the Guests – The Turians will outnumber UEG ships 5-to-1. The UEG has around 4,000 ships, with approximately 1,500 of them being corvettes. Meanwhile, the Turians have about 20,000 ships.