2230 hours November 19th 2552 (military calendar)
Final jump en route to Picon
UNSC Able
Captain Brian Jackson stood on the bridge of his Able class heavy destroyer as the fleet of eleven UNSC ships reported in, along with the ten Colonial Marinestars loaded down with just over fifty thousand colonial crewmen. Their job was a simple one, to board the large number of undamaged or fully repaired colonial and cylon ships and then to get the hell out under the cover of the UNSC guns.
"The last Marinestars Drake, Golaith, and Griffin have now checked in, Captain." announced Lieutenant Samantha Wright from her communications console "all ships now report ready for the last jump to Picon."
Brian keyed the fleet wide comms. "Ladies and gentlemen we have been busy these last two weeks all to set this one assault in place. So let's not mess this up, the preliminary scout says we will be out numbered nearly thirty to one but dont worry most of them are still heavily damaged from the ass kicking we gave them over Scorpia. So there is no real reason to worry that said we will emerge from slipspace less then a klick in front of their parking lot." he smirked "where our colonial friends will secure ready ships and jump out as we unleash hell upon them. We will have approximately four hours to deal as much destruction as we can. Let's show these machines why the Covenant was so much more dangerous than these war games."
As he finished the slipspace portals opened for a short fifteen minute jump.
The UNSC task force appeared right where they wanted massive orbital facilities stretched for as far as the eye and radar could see and every square meter of surface was covered in ships undergoing repair or que'd for repair. In a glace Captain Jackson saw nearly three dozen Battlestars and almost twice that in Cylon Baseships the number of both types of escorts couldn't be counted.
Behind them he saw was fifty ships of mixed Cylon and Colonial design centered around a quartet of Atlas class carriers and nodded
"Aron orders the fleet to form a line between the Cylons and the parking lot behind us and launch all Longswords. We will keep any QRF they might have from trying to push crews behind us." Able's XO nodded and began issuing orders to the fleet even as Brian started his next orders " Ensign Conners open all Archer pods and charge the MAC. we will hold position here until the marinestars and any ships they can grab are gone."
Looking at the active Cylon forces already launching thousands of raiders and vipers Brian saw twenty six Base ships and eleven battlestars with nearly twice that in escorts.
Just as the fleets Longswords formed up and began to move towards the enemy, an alert sounded as the Marinestars arrived just behind the UNSC line before he could even radio them to hurry up nearly a hundred Raptors and shuttles.
"MAC is charged sir." called Conners "what should be our first target?"
Studying the Cylon formation Brian commented "looks like they have learned they are smartening up they aren't as clustered as usual." he pointed to a pair of Battlestars and a Beserk that hadn't gotten the memo "there."
Conners didn't respond but went to work typing into the computer a few seconds later she called out "Firing."
The Able along with the rest of the fleet fired nearly as one and ten relativistic slugs slammed through the cylons fleet Brian watched quietly as eight battlestars and five Basestars exploded the destroyers heavy MACs slamming through one ships and destroying another sending debris ranging in size of a colonial Viper to a UNSC Mammoth ground vehicle into scores of escorts and other capital ships. As Brian watched the severed flight pod of a battlestar cartwheeled trailing fire and debris smashed three manticore corvettes and pancaked a Cylon Cerberus before coming to a stop against the side of a battlestar already missing both flight pods.
Looks like the captain wanted to help that battlestar with a new flight pod jokes "Ensign Conners as her fingers danced across her terminal as she started recharging the capacitors for the next shot.
There was a small chuckle from several of the bridge watches. As Ensign Amanda Willard the tactical officer called out, the report of the first strike "confirmed the destruction of thirteen active capital ships and thirteen escorts of various class and origin."
And then the fleets merged and it became a slugging match of targeting and firing the heavy Titanium-ll battleplate was able to shrug off all but the heaviest of AP shells the majority barely scratched the paint. Whereas the chromium armor of the Colonial and cylon ships broke under the hammerblow of the UNSC Missiles,autocannons, and point defence guns.
Longswords piloted by veterans of not only the human covenant war but this one as well made quick work of the cylon raiders and vipers. In areas where the UNSC had received fighter superiority the fighters became improvised bombers buzzing cylon ships launching Morey mines along their hull
Lieutenant Aaron O'Conell grimaced as his Longsword launched its last missile. A corner of his mouth lifted as it ran home destroying a pair of Raiders who were avoiding his wingmates 50mm cannon and 120mm ventral cannon.
"That makes fourteen Scimitar 5 and 6." he announced
He could hear the annoyance in their voices
"Three more to catch up to me 1" five said
"Bout time you caught up with the lead." six replied
An alert sounded and Captain Brian Jackson's voice came over the comms "UNSC Trebuchet has taken damaged Scimitar squadron divert to render aid."
"Wilco Sir Scimitar on the way" replied O'Conell
As his squadron arrived in the area the small missile corvette Trebuchet was under attack by a cluster of cylon controlled Colonial ships, He looked at the display seeing a battlestar missing a flight pond surrounded by dozens of escorts throwing hundreds if not thousands of flak rounds and recovering and launching fighters from its remaining pod.
"Simatar1 to all Simatars." O'Conell called to his squadron "follow me in let's finish off the one wing battlestar arm your mines we will scatter them over that one armed bitches hull."
As they soared past the corvette Aaron saw the damage to the corvette a crater marked where a missile or several missiles had slammed into and destroyed bow mounted M870 rampart emplacement.
A series of clicks, rogers and understoods followed as the twelve longswords formed up in four arrowhead formations and screamed over the unknown battlestar dropping nearly a hundred and fifty mines. As the last three fighters flashed over the engines the mine's computer finished its countdown and detonated as one.
The battlestar vented every external compartment to space, its few remaining weapons lay in destroyed piles. The few organic cylons aboard either suffocated or flash froze to death leaving the ship nothing more than a morgue and scrap.
With nearly half of the cylons fleet destroyed the UNSC already out of MAC rounds and now running low on missiles Captain Brian Jackson looked over the parking lot seeing nothing but empty space knew the parked ships had been successfully jumped out issued the order
"Withdrawal i repeat and confirm withdraw its time to let the colonials have some fun as we resupply."
The last thing the UNSC saw as they jumped was the remains of the cylon force centered around eight battlestars and two dozen baseships forming up to pursue only to stop dead in their tracks as four new battlestars and nearly a hundred and fifty escorts blinked in.
UNSC casualties 8 longswords and fifteen sailors on the corvette Trebuchet