1910 hours November 1 2552 (Military Calendar)
Scorpia
Hanger bay UNSC Hawaii
Lieutenant Commander George Ericson ran down the corridors of the Diligence class destroyer Hawaii. Rounding the corner into the small hanger and looking around, immediately catching sight of his target, the Covenant Seraph.
The only covenant space superiority fighter the UNSC had acquired when the human slaves under the Jackal pirate shipmistress Tau'cha rebelled and took the pirate augmented human ships. Ericson had spent nearly four hundred hours at the controls practicing and while not as experienced as he was behind the stick of a Longsword, he was better then the next four best pilots the UNSC had right now.
Hitting the activation stud the bottom of the cockpit dropped allowing him to sit and be elevated into the alien fighters hull.
Several technicians repairing a longsword that had its port wing shredded by a pair of Cylon raiders noticed the Seraph powering up and came running over. Ericson didn't give them a chance as he punched it down and out of the segmented hangerbay.
He had barely cleared when the radio on the wall came to life "Seraph1, this is Hawaii your launch is unauthorized where do you think you're going?"
Ericson rolled the craft to the side unleashing the four heavy plasma cannons blowing three raiders into molten slag. "Seraph1 to Hawaii we are too outnumbered heading to do what i can."
The reply took a moment "very well Seraph1 i don't need to tell you how important that craft is to the war effort do i? Needless to say, your skills.?"
The Seraph bobbed out of the way from a spread of missiles from a Cylon Manticore and he returned fire with the quartet of fuel rod cannons the superheated radioactive plasma burning the corvette hull until it explosively decompressed and split in half. "Roger Hawaii, I didn't know you cared." he said with a grin heading toward the next cylon ship, a firestar.
No reply was needed for the banter as the nimble Seraphs energy shielding flared from a grazing flakk shell. George spared a glance at the display for shields seeing a small dip in them as he turned back to the fight.
The Seraphs advanced maneuvering helped avoid the incoming fire from the frigate as he neared he made a strafing run over the enemy ship stitching it with hundreds of small plasma projectiles. Creating dozens of minor breaches leaking atmosphere. Knowing the Seraph only had forty fuel rods for the heavy cannons he was forced to use his plasma cannons only.
The alien fighter made three more passes over the frigate focusing fire on the guns and engines. George turned to make his forth pass and paused the engines were dark and the frigate wasnt firing anymore. Moving closer George saw lumps of melted metal where the frigate's guns had been melted, same with the engines the central cone of the engine blocks had fused blocking fuel to the actual engines.
"Hawaii this is Seraph1"he radioed "be advised due to limited heavy munitions ships i engage will most likely be adrift and defenseless. Recommend dispatching a missile to finish them off."
"Hawaii copies" came the reply.
George leaves the crippled ship behind and continues his hunt focusing on the smaller escorts or fighters using exclusively the limitless plasma cannons.
Over the next four sweat soaked hours George in his Seraph cuts a swath through the Cylons fighter ranks destroying so many Vipers and Raiders he lost count. And leaving several small corvettes and frigates as an expanding cloud of debris. Out of the corner of his eye he sees a Cylon baseship swarming a group of eight smaller Colonial Berserks and firestars. And maneuvers to engage.
Screaming up behind the occupied Baseship he pulls the triggers on his fuel rod guns and only one glowing green orb fires. Looking down as the green orb splashes burning into the weak central spire he sees the four indicators for his cannons turn red indicating that was his last rod.
Snarling he turns the fighter in as tight of a turn as he can and lets loose with the plasma cannons aiming for the drop cradles that held the baseships raider complement. The small high speed plasma projectiles burning holes through the cylons armor as he continues to focus on a single spot he jolts to the side and sees his shields have dropped to four raiders flashed past their cannons still firing.
George kicks a petal and the maneuvering jet quickly turns him in the raiders direction and he chases after them. Looking at the purple holographic radar he zeros in on the four fighters that had jumped him. The powerful drives quickly bringing them into sight.
Lining the first fighter into the Seraphs crosshairs he hits the stud and the cannons flash stitching twenty eight plasma bolts into the main fuselage superheating the tylium fuel and causing it to explode peppering its wingmates with shrapnel
The surviving trio bank hard in different directions and George pursues the pair. Bucking and weaving over nearby ships and chucks of wreckage. It takes a minute or so but George smiles savagely as he sweeps both fighters from the sky with a sustained burst of plasma. Looking around both electronically and with his own eyes the last one is nowhere to be seen.
Turning back to reengage the basestar he sees its expanding cloud of debris as the cluster of colonial ships move in tandem to target the next cylon ship. He follows them for a moment and as he leaves the radio cracks to life "this is the Firestar Sloop i don't know what you are but we appreciate the assistance."
Rather than respond he waves his fighter in salute as he races towards the nearest UNSC ship the Destroyer Able.
As George closed on the Able he noticed they were only firing their autocannons rather than their MAC or Archers as he closed in he creeps up behind four fighters, a pair of raiders and a pair of vipers escorting a heavy raider.
With a blood thirsty grin he opens fire from behind them, stitching one of each fighter into a fireball and melting one of its clusters of engines as the Seraph soared over their forward again George sees a pair of Longswords flash past him and blow apart the crippled heavy in a steady stream of fire from their 110mm rotary cannon.
Seeing the nearby battlespace was relatively clear he hailed the Destroyer. "Able, this is Seraph1."
The reply came almost instantly Seraph1, this is Able Actual appreciate the help Commander."
"No problem sir, what's your status?" George inquired
"Honestly? We are down to autocannons and longswords and they are running low as well." came the tired reply.
Nodding George had figured as much "how long to resupply if given the chance?"
The answer came back a few minutes later. "No more than an hour." Able guessed
"Recommend you dock your fighters to load them with everything they have left and high tail it sir." George said looking around "without ammo you're just a sitting duck."
Nothing happens for a few minutes then the four longswords of the Able came in for a landing and the rampart guns opened up in short conservative bursts rather than typical full automatic. The destroyer turned toward the planet and began to accelerate and a few minutes later the longswords relaunched.
The five fighters formed up and did their best to fill the hole left by the destroyer.