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Battle of New London
21:00 hours, April 18, 2544 (Military Calendar) /
New London System, Bridge of the UNSC Debora
"I asked the status of the Venra, Lieutenant.", Captain Jerome Malloy repeated. A short white man with a too clean uniform staggered, "Oh yeah. Uhm, right. Yes... sir. Venra's just twenty more minutes out, sir." "Very well, Lieutenant Douglas.", said Malloy. "Have all ground troops landed yet, Lieutenant Feathers?" A thin, good looking blond woman responded, "Uhm yeah, I think so, sir." He knew that he needed them in their highest spirits and with some confidence but such an answer simply couldn't suffice. "Please confirm that all troops have landed and are standing by, Lieutenant Feathers. Zuko? What's the status of the fleet? Did the other AI's get the battleplan?" A small human-like red figure appeared on the holotank. "Yes, Captain. They have all responded and are all awaiting for the timer to reach zero." "Thanks Zuko. You know what to do." Malloy took another look around the bridge. He was glad when he saw his Lieutenant-Commander Ivan Stramovich look him in the eyes. At least someone who's handling the whole situation with a bit more courage. Then again, the Lieutenant-Commander had been in space almost as long as he had. "Sir", Ivan said, "Archers are ready to be launched and the MAC is charged."
It had been three hours ago when the UNSC Debora, a Firefly class Carrier had gotten the report of the slipspace monitoring station that had detected them. A small fleet of Covenant forces. Upon getting the data confirmed the Captain's heart had been pounding in his throat. "What great timing.", Malloy had thought. Although the Captain had been in space for a long time now, most of his crew was fresh out of the academy. Sure the simulations prepared them to know what to do when put in a dangerous situation, however it's still a simulation. And he knew that all too well. And now he and the freshly graduated crew members had to work together. No. Not just work together, survive together. They needed to survive in order to kill off evey single piece of the Covenant's forces. The fate of the entire population of New London rested on their shoulders. He had decided to make sure to stand firm and try to ease some of the pressure off of the rest. So far it hadn't worked though. The image on the screen of the Covenant ships approaching was just a too fearsome image. Also as the Carrier was the highest ranking ship for now it was made the Flagship, only for now though, as the Venra, a Marathon class Cruiser wouldn't be there before the Covenant forces would reach them.
"How's the evacuation of the planet going, Lieutenant Feathers?", Malloy asked. "All squadleaders report that they have touched down and are assisting in the evacuation, however due to the large population it'll take time to evacuate all of them." "Alright. Thanks Lieutenant Feathers. Please inform them that some more IFT ships are heading their way from the north." "Yes, sir. No problem, sir." "Thank God there was a IFT meeting or evacuation wouldn't have been this easy. Well, as far as this is easy.", Malloy thought to himself.
The IFT or Interstellar Federation of Traders was a union created by traders before the UNSC had been created to offer protection to all the traders. Now it was more of a formality and if there were price complains traders could go to the IFT to complain. It's annual meeting was on New London this year and didn't quite turn out to be like last time. It had been disturbed by the news of the approaching Covenant forces and now, instead of running they choose to help the colonists to get off the planet. Well, most of them did.
The timer reached five minutes and Malloy looked over at Lieutenant Douglas. "Open a channel to the fleet and the entire ship." "Uhm ... yes, sir. Channel open, sir.", Douglas said. The captain noted how most were still scared. That's why he wanted to give a short speech now. "This is Captain Jerome Malloy from the Firefly class Carrier Debora. I just wanted to say to all of you that you should remember your duty towards the UNSC; however what really matters is that we all do more then our very best. We must try to destroy all of those uglies that are heading this way. Remember what is at stake here. An entire planet is being evacuated and that takes time. Time they actually don't have. We are here to make some time. So good luck to all of us. I have faith in all of you. Captain Jerome Malloy out." When the line was broken he said to his bridge officers, "I know most of you are all just out of the academy and didn't expected to see combat this soon. However they're here now. I have faith in all of you to do what is needed. Let's kick some uglies down."
Bridge of the Pire of Purity
Shipmaster Shav Matsumee watched over the holografic display on the bridge of the Assault Carrier Pire of Purity as he was thinking of what action would be best to bring as much of the selected Seraph fighter past the human forces to have them bombard the planet. Though it was no order by the Prophets Shav hated the humans so much that he preferred to eliminate as much of them as possible at once instead of hunting them down again after they had escaped. His thought were interrupted by a crewmember, "Shipmaster, we have all the enemy ships accounted for. There are thirty-six ships, mostly small ones." "Hmmm, that won't be a problem.", said Shav "These humans are dumber then most Grunts anyways. Besides, we have four CCS class Battlecruisers, seven CHS class Frigates and five CHR class Frigates anyway. There is nothing they could do to harm us."
"We are almost in firing range, Shipmaster.", said the Elite Mar Shanee behind the tactical ops console. Shav stood up from his hoverchair and walked to the larger hologram in the center of the bridge. "Burn their defiling ships down as soon as we're in range." "One more minute, Shipmaster.", Mar Shanee said. And while Shav lowered his lower jaws to speak streaks of fire left the human ships. Shav had seen them several times before. He knew what damage they could do but ignored that for a moment as the CCS class Battlecruiser Relentless Justice boosted it's engines to far beyond the normal levels and jumped in front of most of the MAC rounds. The final loss, the Relentless Justice, two frigates and one Battlecruiser were heavily damaged. "Fools.", Shav said, "Now it's our turn. All ships fire plasma torpedoes and pulse lasers. Launch all Seraph fighters and prepare for a second round. And,", he added, "begin charging our special weapon."
As red lasers impacted on the human's ships who were not scattering, blue light were released from the Covenant ships heading to finish some ships off. And right behind the plasma torpedoes came the Seraphs that were selected to bombard the surface. While the human's fighter had started attacking the rest of the Seraphs, the torpedoes provided perfect cover for the bombers.
"How far are both reinforcement groups?", Shav asked looking up from the holo image of the battle. "Shipmaster, enemy reinforcements will arrive in approximately thirteen minutes. Our should arrive in two hours." Shav's forces were a recon group to send before the strike fleet to eliminate all difficult objects allowing the rest of the fleet to arrive without problems.
As Shav returned to his seat he allowed himself to enjoy the moment for a bit by smiling over the humans that had already died. He was pleased with himself over his move to sacrifice one Battlecruiser for the rest and laughed again to himself when he thought of the human who had thought out such a perfect attack and then see it fail.
Bridge of the UNSC Debora
"Damn them. Damn the darn Covenant bastard who thought of putting that cruiser in front of their fleet.", was Malloy thinking to himself. "Amethyst and Soma move more to the right and try to shoot down that cruiser in the middle there." "Understood Debora." "Zhukov, try to punch through that frigate on the left." "We'll do." Captain Malloy was ordering the fleet around to try and keep things as organized as possible. For as far as that was possible. "Sir, we lost the Amsterdam at all hands. They seem to be targeting our Destroyers over our Frigates, sir.", Douglas said. It took the captain by a bit of a surprise as he had almost forgotten the other people on the bridge due to the hectic out there. "Alright, Lieutenant.", Malloy said as he gave a quick look around the bridge while he could and noticed that although still mostly scared the fresh crew had no wish to die just yet and was going to give it their best to postpone death for another day.
"Alright,", he thought to himself, "let me lead these kids into safety." "Sir,", Ivan said, "our MAC is sixty percent charged and rising, they'll be in range of the Archers in three ... two ... one. Firing!" But not only the Debora had started to rain missiles on the Covenant's ships that had weakened or just weak shields the rest of the fleet had gotten in range too and was now adding more streaks into the darkness. It was a magnificent view to see that many missiles heading towards the enemy forces. It brought back the painful reminder of how little damage they could do. However as the first wave of missiles had hit the targets and the second wave was being prepared good news came from the tactical ops station; "Sir, the MAC has been charged for ninety-five percent." A smirk appeared on Malloy's face. "Zuko, ... " "Already ahead of you Captain", the hologram said before the Captain could finish his sentence. "I gave all the other AI's their targets. We're taking that big ugly ship in the middle there as our target." "Fire the MAC, Lieutenant-Commander.", said Malloy. "Blow them to pieces. No tricks this time."
As all ships fired their MAC again and started the rain of missile fire again the Covenant frigates tried to evade them. Unsuccessful though. Another five Covenant frigates less. Also that heavily damaged CCS was put out of action. The biggest ship's shield had absorbed the two MAC rounds it had gotten though. And now, Malloy knew, were the roles changed again. Soon the Covenant would release their plasma torpedoes again. Something jumped to mind though. "Lieutenant Douglas, how long until the Venra arrives?" Behind the Covenant forces a disturbance could be seen as a UNSC Marathon class Cruiser came out of lightspeed. "It just did, sir." And before the Covenant could do anything the Venra fired all three it's MAC's and as the second impact made the shield of the CCS class Battlecruiser fail the third put a hole clean through it. And just some moments later the Archer missiles impacted and burned away even more of the Covenant ship.
A face appeared on the main screen of the Debora's bridge. "Nice of you to save some for me, Malloy." "No problem, Alex. I knew you wanted to have some fun so I left you some good treats." "Haha, thanks." Captain Alex Grissom said. "So what's our status?" Jerome's face turned a little more grim. "Not too well, they only lost eleven of their ships, though three cruisers now thanks to you. We lost, uhm Lieutenant, how many?" Douglas checked his reports and said, "Eleven ships destroyed and another seven .. no make that eight incapacitated." Malloy did the math in his head real quick, the Covenant started with sixteen ships and are down eleven, that means five more left and we started with thirty-six ships and lost nineteen so we have seventeen left. Five against seventeen could be won. Especially with the Venta present now. "I am worried about that Assault Carrier there though, Alex.", Malloy added. "It's not a standard configuration." "Don't worry about that right now, Jerome. We'll go and take a closer look and put it out of action soon too." Malloy started, "Don't you think it's weird though that they haven't even turned to you?"
Before anything else could be said the Covenant forces released their plasma torpedoes upon the remaining UNSC ships. "Another five ships lost.", Malloy thought. But he was wrong. Because when one of the torpedoes hit the bridge of the UNSC Frigate Shannon the ship drilled itself into the last destroyer and took it down with her. It was hard to watch. "Lieutenant Feathers, how are things going planetside?"
One mile outside New London's capital Blair
As the last IFT freighters and transport were landing the Marines were occupied with helping to board everything for evacuation. Sergeant Andrew Wilder was overseeing his squad that was helping with the guiding of civilians. "Frank, Lloyd, go and help those in the back that have trouble moving or are handicapped in any way." It had been four hours of trying to maintain the peace and trying to keep the terrified civilians calm. It had been extremely hard on all of them.
In the distance some ships had started to take off again. "Good.", Wilder thought to himself. "Hey, Johnsey, we could really use a hand here. People are starting to get anxious. As you're done already why not help us out a bit, eh?" "Sure thing, Wilder. We'll be there as soon as ..." But his sentence was cut off by an enormous explosion in the sky. Everyone was shocked and feared the worst. When Wilder looked up he saw that the ships that had already taken off were shot down or being shot down by enemy Seraph bombers. Because he needed to stay cool he shouted in his comm to his squad, "Man the Warthogs! Let them taste our rounds and missiles!" As the marines tried to reach the Warthogs through the scared civilians some Seraphs started bombing the city, leaving no person still remaining in the city alive, the remaining Seraphs were turning for another bombing run on the transport ships.
Wilder put the Warthog in gear as soon as the LAAT on the back was manned and drove towards the incoming Seraphs. As did many other Warthogs. The sound of the Warthogs roaring was only surpassed when the gunners started firing. Three of the six Seraphs crashed by the LAAT rounds and the missile fire. At that time one of the Seraphs pushed it's engine and started bombing the incoming Warthogs. The remaining two released their plasma bombs on the transports again and again two ships were lost. However this time when the Seraph came over the remains of the transport it came in range of the Scorpion tanks and they opened fire instantly, putting an end to the bombing of those Seraphs.
"Johnsey, let's head back ASAP and load up the remaining civilians. I don't think we'd last long if they came back.", Wilder said. "What do you say, Johnsey? Johnsey?" But no answer came. Johnsey had been on one of the Warthogs that was hit in the bombing run. "Alright.", barked Wilder now to both the squads, "Let's head back and finish up here as soon as possible so we can leave this place." It was never easy to lose a close friend but Johnsey hadn't been the first one and if they didn't move now, he sure wouldn't be the last one of today.
Bridge of the Pire of Purity
"Shipmaster, planetside Seraphs are reporting that they have started bombing. Some have encountered resistance though.", said an Elite. "Shall I order the other Seraphs to take those tasks over, Shipmaster?", Mar asked. "No, let them continue their initial mission and when they're all done have them bomb the left objectives together." "Yes, Shipmaster.", Mar said. "Shipmaster, our special weapon is fully charged." "Good. Very good." Shav pushed some buttons of his gravity chair to display a small hologram on his chair again. He smirked. "Target the enemy's reinforcements. Tell others to keep attacking the rest of the enemy forces." As the enemy ship entered the system it almost immediately opened fire upon one of the two remaining CCS class Battlecruiser, the Spirit of Prosperity, and destroyed it. Now it was time to repay him. "Target locked, Shipmaster.", Mar said. "Fire at will.", Shav replied. Outside, on top of the ship, energy was starting to build up. It looked beautiful but deadly. It was purple with a bright white core. When it had formed a large enough sphere of it, like a beam of lighting it shot to the enemy ship. Upon impact it drilled right through the ship. When the beam stopped the damage was clearly visible, there was no way the ship would ever fire another shot again.
"That's a hit.", said Mar. Shav nodded and smiled slightly again. "The strongest ship the humans had to offer and their latest weapon burns right through it, he almost felt pity for the humans. These humans are so weak, it's a good thing we are exterminating them. There is no way we would need another race like the Grunts.", Shav thought. Mar interrupted his thoughts when he said: "Shipmaster, the special weapon will need another ten minutes to recharge." "No matter.", Shav said, "We'll have them destroyed before that anyways. What ships have they got left?" "Only two more larger ships left, Shipmaster. This one,", he marked one ship on the holo display, "is their flagship from what I can tell by their communications. And besides that they have nine other smaller ships left." "Hmmm.", Shav said.
Bridge of the UNSC Debora
As the Assault Carrier fired it's special weapon on the Venra ,all the Debora's crew could do was watch in horror. "Ivan, how far's our MAC?" "Charged for seventy percent, sir." "I want all of the remaining ship to fire at that Assault carrier, understood? Zuko, make it happen with the other AI's alright?" "Yes, sir. Already on it." As all the MAC's were charged they fired them at the same time at the Assault Carrier. "Oh shit!" was heard when the remaining CCS fired up it's engines again. The CCS fire two plasma torpedoes, both at a different target and then got hit but all the incoming MAC rounds and was obliterated. The only hope left was that a round or two would brake through the CCS and hit the Assault Carrier. And indeed two rounds did. Their hope was down to zero though when these rounds were just absorbed by the Carrier's shield.
That was it then. There was nothing left they could do now but hope to survive for the next round. The two plasma torpedoes the CCS class had released prior to destruction took two more frigates down with it crippling the fleet to just nine ships. Soon the remaining ships would be able to fire their plasma torpedoes as well. What would happen then? Captain Malloy wasn't sure. He just hoped that they had bought enough time for the remaining civilians to escape. While thinking that his hopes of surviving were becoming smaller once again as the remaining Covenant ships fired their plasma torpedoes.
"Quickly Lieutenant Feathers, how are things on the ground? Have most started to evacuate already?" All of a sudden a great shock could be felt and Malloy was knocked over by the blast. A couple of consoles gave up and released some sparks. He quickly stood up again and barked, "Lieutenant Douglas, report!" But he got no answer. He looked over to the communications chair and saw that the Lieutenant had been slammed against the computer console by the shock and was unconscious. He quickly ordered an ensign to take over for now. "Zuko, what's our status?" This time the holo tank remained empty but his voice was clearly heard. "Four plasma torpedoes hit us on the starboard side, sir. At the same time. We've got reports of tons of internal fires and our starboard hangar is whipped away. We lost long range communications for now but I'm already trying to repair that and I dispatched repair teams to assist." However, before anything else could be said or done another shock went through the entire ship but this time the Captain remained at his feet. "Zuko? What happened this time? Zuko?" It took half a minute before he responded. "Sir, they put our engines offline with another two plasma torpedoes from that Assault Carrier. And now we lost power to remain in orbit. We have no power to fight the planet's gravitation." "So in other words, we're going to crash on the surface?", Malloy asked. "Yes and no, sir. Yes we're going to crash on the planet but I will still do my best to make this as good as a crash landing as I can." "Can we still get a message out to one of the nearby ships?", Malloy asked. "I think I could manage it, sir. Which ship would you like to send a message to?" "The strongest ship left, that Halcyon class Cruiser that was with us, the Pillar of Autumn.", Malloy answered.
As a face appeared on the screen Malloy started talking, "Captain Ramone, we're going down. We're falling towards the planet. I want you to take command of the fleet. Take out that Assault Carrier before he destroys more of you, before he gets to glass the planet. They only got frigates left and a MAC would go right through so they have no shields anymore besides the ship's shield. Destroy it. We'll try to get a ride from the IFT after we helped the civilians onboard. Just take that son of a bitch out for us, will you? After you destroyed that fleet make sure the civilians get away and then get out of here too. There are bound to be more coming soon. Good luck Captain, we're counting on you." "I will do anything I can, sir", Captain Ramone answered. "Good luck to you too." The screen went black again and so did most other consoles and screens. Alright Zuko, do what you can for us. Malloy pressed a few buttons and put on the speakers throughout the ship. "This is the Captain speaking, we're going down. We're falling towards the planet and we'll try to make a crash landing. I want all lower deks evacuated. When we have landed we will try to give a helping hand to our marines by getting all the civilians on the IFT ships and then get a ride ourselves. So hang on guys, we're not out of this yet."
One mile outside New London's capital Blair
The Seraphs still bombing Blair didn't pay much attention to them and Wilder was glad for that. At their last bombing run he had lost two marines of his squad and another two of Johnsey's team. Wilder had assumed control over both squads after Johnsey had died. "Sir, I'm just getting a message from above. It seems the Debora is coming to us. She's crashing down." "Damn, so the Covenant are winning? Then we better put a move on it.", Wilder said. "Sir,", said Frank, "we only have barely have enough space for all the civilians and us. The Debora is a Carrier. It has a huge crew. I'm not sure if we would all fit and if those Seraph would come back for us and take out some more ships ..." "Stow the bellyaching, Marine. We'll do our best. Alright these transports are loaded up, tell them to hit the skies, we'll move on to the next ones."
In the sky a trail of smoke could be seen after a ball of red flames about two minutes later. It was the Debora coming down. It was a sad but yet also beautiful sight to see. Zuko had done his best to land as close as possible to the IFT ships without having to worry about hitting one. "Hold on!", Malloy yelled, "Brace for impact!" As the ship hit the surface of the planet everyone was knocked off their feet and fell over, more internal explosions were heard and all the remaining consoles went dark. The ship left a trail of destruction behind it for over twenty kilometers before it come to a stop.
Malloy felt a huge headache as he started to regain consciousness again. "Captain? Captain? Sir? Can you hear me?", Lieutenant Feathers asked. "Yeah, yeah, I can hear you.", Malloy replied. "Thank God, are you alright, sir?", she continued to ask. "I'm fine, how about the others?" "I'm not sure about the entire crew but here we lost three men.", she answered. "Alright, how's Zuko?" "I'm fine, sir. Though there isn't a lot of power left, there's enough to keep me going for a while." "Can you fire up the speakers throughout the ship? I want to tell everyone to head for the port hangar to get off of here and head for the IFT ships. I want our pilots to start loading off all Warthogs still on board with the Pelicans so that we have enough ways to head for the IFT ships.", Malloy said. "Just start moving towards the hangar yourself.", said Zuko. "I'll make a copy of myself so that he could guide the crew there and in the worst case self destruct the ship if the enemy would come to close. That way you can take me along with you and we wouldn't violate the Cole Protocol." "Alright, sounds like a good plan. Make it happen.", Malloy said. And after two minutes the bridge crew was heading towards the hangar as Zuko's copy could be heard overhead guiding all the crew to go to the port hangar.
It had felt like an earthquake when the Debora had impacted with the surface but now they needed to continue loading up the last civilians. "Sir?" "What's up, Franky?", Wilder asked. "Sir, these are the last transports. There's no way the Debora's crew would fit in here." "You're right Franky. I know. I'll try to ask the Captain what do. Because even if we could fit them in here that would mean that we had to wait for them to get here, meaning we'd have to put all these civilians lives at stake. And I don't believe that's what we were supposed to do. Find Biggs for me will you?", Wilder said. "On it, Sarge.", Franky replied. "Yo! Biggs! Sarge wants you, man!" As Biggs was heading over Wilder said, "Alright Franky, get these people in the ships we'll board the last one if necessary alright? Biggs, I want you to try and get in touch with Captain Malloy. Ask him if we should wait and that we don't think he'll fit with his entire crew." As Wilder was saying that seven transports were seen approaching in the distance. "Alright.", Wilder corrected himself, "You can scratch that last bit. Though do ask him if he wants us to guard the transports and let the civilian ones take off or that we should board this ship now and get going."
Back on the Debora the bridge crew just reached the hangar. It's already crowded there with people and the pilots are working their ass off to get all the transports and personal off of the ship. "Sir? We're getting a message from the marines at the evacuation site. I'm linking it to that Warthog there.", Zuko said. "Captain Malloy?", asked a voice. "Yeah that's me. Is that you Wilder?" "Yes, sir. Sir, we've loaded up all the civilians just now and we can take a ride from this ship or wait and guard the incoming transports. What would you want us to do?", Wilder asked. "Get off this rock now that you still can Wilder. The transports 'll still be there when we come over. If those Seraphs would start to head over then there's little you can do anyways. Get off and search for a way to head back to Reach. I'm hoping some of the ships in orbit will make it to but if they don't then I need you to report what happened here, alright?", Malloy asked. It was a tough pill to swallow for the Sergeant but he knew what the Captain had said was true. "I'll do my very best, sir. And sir? Good luck to you too! I'm hoping I won't be there on the briefing alone though, sir.", Wilder said. "Thanks Wilder, we'll do our best. I couldn't let you face those pencil necks alone, now could I?", Malloy replied. Wilder smirked and said, "Damn right, sir. Wilder out."
When all personal was off the ship as well as all the transports, the crew formed a convoy and headed for the seven remaining IFT ships awaiting them. Captain Malloy found himself behind the wheel of a Warthog and as he was driving along he heard a familiar voice behind him asking him, "I know I'm the one who's supposed to know everything about the battlefield and what's going on but would someone mind to fill me in as to how and what?" Malloy smirked as he knew Lieutenant Douglas had regained his consciousness. "Lieutenant Feathers, would you mind filling in Lieutenant Douglas for me?" As Lieutenant Douglas turned around to face Lieutenant Feathers he saw the colossal carrier Debora lying there on the ground. "So we lost?", he asked? At the horizon three ships could be seen taking off marking the place where the IFT ships were waiting to pick them up. "At least most civilians had been able to escape.", Malloy thought to himself. "Now to just get my crew off of this planet too."
Bridge of the UNSC Pillar of Autumn
Captain Ramone had been given control of the fleet and as the Debora was falling towards the planet he needed to think of the surest way to destroy the enemy, his onboard AI hadn't been installed yet and thus he didn't have the luck to have someone, or rather something, checking his plans or even coming with better solutions. Right now, however, there was simply only one option in his view, just fire the MACs at the Assault Carrier. And thus he ordered the fleet to fire as soon as his set timer would reach zero. As soon as the timer had reached ten seconds all ships started launching their Archer missiles. And when the timer reached zero, all the MAC rounds were fired. One Convenant frigate tried to stop a MAC round by flying in front of it, but like Malloy had predicted, the MAC went straight through the ship and continued it's way to the Assault Carrier. Seven MAC rounds hit the Assault Carrier's shields. Instead of that the shields died at the third or fourth shot they didn't die until the seventh round hit it. "Let's hope our Archers do enough damage to keep those shields down till we have recharged the MACs again.", Ramone thought to himself. However he knew that those changes were too little to rely on. Especially as he saw the remaining frigates of the Covenant moving towards the Archers. They would do it again. Sacrifice the other ships for the Assault Carrier.
And that was indeed what happened. As the Archers tore away the Frigates' hull and caused their destruction the Assault Carrier was left without damage. "Soon,", Ramone thought, "will it unleash it's torpedoes again and then put their shield online again and we're back to square one." However, that wasn't what happened. Three MAC rounds hit the Assault Carrier and one of them hit the reactor and as it overloaded the entire ship became engulfed in a cloud of fire. When the cloud had dissipated all that was visible was a burning hulk. They had successfully destroyed the Assault Carrier. But where had those rounds come from? "Lieutenant Tucker, find out where those rounds came from.", said Ramone. However he already saw his answer as the Venra's core also overloaded and caused the entire ship to explode. "Hmm, when it got hit with that new weapon I was sure of it all aboard had been killed. I guess Captain Grissom or someone else aboard the ship had survived and managed to recharge their MACs. It's a great loss. Whoever was on that ship deserves ... what? A medal? What good does a medal do? No, he deserved to live on in eternity. He was a hero. Let's make sure the sacrifice wasn't in vain.", Ramone thought. "Enough time wasted standing around here. We'll celebrate later. Lieutenant Tucker, how is the evacuation on the planet going?", Ramone asked. "It seems that most civilian transports have gotten away already, sir. The mission was a success. There are still seven on the ground waiting to pick up the Debora's crew. The others are all in the air or already gone. Sensors pick up nothing in the direct area, sir.", Tucker replied. "Open a channel to the fleet.", said Ramone, "It's time to get going." "This is Captain Ramone of the Pillar of Autumn, set for random vector and we'll meet back at Reach. There's nothing in the direct area so these last transports won't find any trouble. Out job is done. We successfully hold out. We can all be very proud. Meet you all back at Reach for drinks and cocktails. Captain Ramone out." He turned to his navigations officer and said, "Lieutenant Joas, set random jump course and then prepare to jump. After three random jumps head for Reach." "Aye, sir." "Lieutenant-Commander, I'll be in my room if you need me. See to it that as many crewmembers as possible get some time off already, okay? They earned it big time." And as the remaining UNSC ships jumped to random systems as well as the IFT ships that were coming from the planet things were calm again around New London. Except for one small Seraph fighter that came from the Assault Carrier's hulk's hangar bay.
The Debora's survivor convoy
As Malloy was looking towards IFT ships he noticed that there was almost nothing left of Blair. He just hoped that most civilians as well as the marines that were ordered to collect certain people managed to get out of the city before they had started bombing it. It was a dark and scary image to see all those bombers laying waste to such a large and once powerful city. Just a few more minutes and they would reach the IFT ships. "Zuko,", Malloy said, "divide all the Warthogs and Pelicans to one of the ships and then use their comms to tell them where to go, okay?" "On it, sir.", Zuko said. "Would you also like me to contact the IFT ships and tell them we're on our way?" "No, thank you, Zuko, they already know.", Malloy replied. Ten minutes later the entire surviving crew had boarded the IFT ships and started to take off.
The Seraphs hadn't received any other orders and were thus still bombing what was left of the city. After the three MAC rounds penetrated the Assault Carrier, Shav had managed to get a zero grav. suit and was then able to keep breathing as an explosion whipped out most things onboard. Including the climate control. Around him he saw his fellow Elites suffocate. Shav felt enraged. He had failed and now all his brethren had died. He would never be able to return to his leaders. They would execute him on sight. There was only one thing to do. Get revenge. And so he made his way through the wreck towards the shuttle bay where he'd hope to find a way off this ship. At least a bit of luck. There were still three Seraph fighters left. As soon as he'd cleared the hangar he saw that the humans were already gone. Maybe, with some luck, there would still be humans on the surface. He had noticed how small transports had been leaving with humans before but was unable to do anything about it earlier. Maybe there were still some there. He would find out and then kill anything in his path. When he cleared the planet's atmosphere he saw that the Seraphs were still bombing the city. He also saw seven more targets trying to get away. He tried to get the other Seraphs to follow him but his communicator didn't work. "Hmm, now I see why it was still in the hangar. Damn piece of equipment. Couldn't those dumb Grunts have sent an Engineer on it?", Shav said to himself.
"Is everyone on board for the ride, Zuko?", Malloy asked the hologram. It was nicer to see him standing on the holotank of the IFT ship as his usual red self rather to just hear his voice. "Everyone's accounted for, sir. We're ready for lift off.", Zuko said. Malloy stood on the bridge of the ship and said to the pilot that they were ready for take off. The other ships had started taking off too. "This is it.", Malloy thought, "We made it. Against all odds did we make it. Let's just hope we don't have that Assault Carrier waiting for us when we get there." However that fear was soon taken away as the owner of the ship told him they had gotten reports that the ship had been destroyed and that the UNSC fleet had retreated already. The bridge's elevator came up again and as all heads turned to see who it was Ivan, Douglas and Feathers stepped on the bridge. As Ivan looked to the captain his face suddenly changed to one of horror. A loud bang was heard and when Malloy turned around to look he saw that the place where there had just been a transport ship there was now a huge explosion and wreckage that was falling down to the surface. A single Seraph fighter had released several bombs at once at the ship and it had been destroyed instantly.
Malloy felt his knees go weak and he suddenly felt very vulnerable. About a hundred people had died by the hands of one Seraph fighter. He had to remain calm and strong though. The owner of the ship felt the same and quickly told his crew to arm the missiles onboard and to prepare it's only missile launcher. They couldn't die. Not now. Not after making it this far.
Shav got even more angry when the bombing mechanism failed after the bombing run. "Damn this cheap piece of machinery. No, wait, I need to stay calm. I can still use the plasma guns to shoot them down.", Shav thought to himself. And so he turned around facing the back of the transports again as he opened fire on the back of the ships.
"We've almost got a lock, sir.", said one of the crewmembers to the owner. "Zuko, help them with it.", Malloy ordered. However, the Seraph's pilot was faster as he opened fire first. The plasma guns quickly disabled the transporter's engines. "We've been hit!", a crewmember said while panicking, "We're going down!". A monitor exploded and sparks came from it. "Haven't we been going down enough today?", Ivan asked dryly. The owner hurried to the microphone and said, "Everyone brace for impact. We're going down again." Another explosion was heard and a second transport's engine exploded and started going down. And then a third. However the fourth managed to hire a missile and as it hit it blew up the Seraph. And so only three of the transport kept going up, while three others went down.
Malloy braced for impact as the ship hit the ground. Since they weren't that high and speed wasn't to it's maximal settings yet it wasn't long before the ship came to a stop. Malloy quickly got up and looked for the other two hit transports. He saw the second one coming in faster then they had and instead of hitting sand like they did they were heading for rocks. As the ship hit the rocks it exploded, probably killing all that were in there. Another hundred lives lost. While they had been so close to getting away safely. The third transport was more lucky and also hit the sand. When Malloy looked around the bridge he saw Ivan helping Miranda Feathers up, Douglas who missed a monitor by an inch this time and who was now getting up again himself. He then noted the sickening sight of the owner being pierced through by a metal pipe that had come off during the crash. When Douglas noted it as well, he threw up. "Alright,", Malloy started, "let's head back down to the rest of the crew. We'll take it from there then." When they got there they found that most were fine besides some minor injuries. "Take whatever kind of food you can find and perhaps some tables and chairs and go outside and eat something.", Malloy called out to the crew. "Lieutenant Douglas and I are going to walk to the other transport and get the rest of the crew. We'll try to think of something then, alright? Get to it, then. Douglas, you're with me. Ivan, you're in command till I get back. Patch up any wounds and get them to eat something. I want them strong when we move again."
As Lieutenant Douglas and Captain Malloy were walking towards the other transport Douglas suddenly noticed that all the Seraphs had stopped bombing Blair and were gone. "Why do you think they stopped, Captain?", Douglas asked. "Hmm, what do you mean?", Malloy asked. "The Seraphs, sir. They've stopped bombing and they're gone.", Douglas replied. "I didn't even noticed that.", Malloy said. "Well sir, you're either Intel officer or you're not." Malloy smirked, "Yeah, I guess so."
Around New London
As the Covenant fleet arrived they noticed that nothing was left but debris. Including the debris of Shipmaster Shav Matsumee's Assault Carrier. "Admiral, I'm detecting a lot of Seraph bomber on the surface. They appear to be the only thing left at this planet. A battle appears to have taken place though however it seems that both forces obliterated the other." The Elite in the command chair sat quietly for a little while and then said, "Order the Seraphs back here and tell the fleet to get into position to glass this planet. I don't want any place left. This place still holds the stench of the human filth. If we do not burn this they will return here." As the fleet was scattering to move over the entire planet as a closing net the Elite Admiral watched the Seraphs dock at several different ships on the holo display. He then continued to watch the rest of the fleet get into position. When the fleet was finally in position the Elite Admiral ordered for a channel to be opened to the entire fleet. "This is the Truth and Reconciliation, begin glassing of this planet." With that order, all on the planet seized to exist.
21:00 hours, April 18, 2544 (Military Calendar) /
New London System, Bridge of the UNSC Debora
"I asked the status of the Venra, Lieutenant.", Captain Jerome Malloy repeated. A short white man with a too clean uniform staggered, "Oh yeah. Uhm, right. Yes... sir. Venra's just twenty more minutes out, sir." "Very well, Lieutenant Douglas.", said Malloy. "Have all ground troops landed yet, Lieutenant Feathers?" A thin, good looking blond woman responded, "Uhm yeah, I think so, sir." He knew that he needed them in their highest spirits and with some confidence but such an answer simply couldn't suffice. "Please confirm that all troops have landed and are standing by, Lieutenant Feathers. Zuko? What's the status of the fleet? Did the other AI's get the battleplan?" A small human-like red figure appeared on the holotank. "Yes, Captain. They have all responded and are all awaiting for the timer to reach zero." "Thanks Zuko. You know what to do." Malloy took another look around the bridge. He was glad when he saw his Lieutenant-Commander Ivan Stramovich look him in the eyes. At least someone who's handling the whole situation with a bit more courage. Then again, the Lieutenant-Commander had been in space almost as long as he had. "Sir", Ivan said, "Archers are ready to be launched and the MAC is charged."
It had been three hours ago when the UNSC Debora, a Firefly class Carrier had gotten the report of the slipspace monitoring station that had detected them. A small fleet of Covenant forces. Upon getting the data confirmed the Captain's heart had been pounding in his throat. "What great timing.", Malloy had thought. Although the Captain had been in space for a long time now, most of his crew was fresh out of the academy. Sure the simulations prepared them to know what to do when put in a dangerous situation, however it's still a simulation. And he knew that all too well. And now he and the freshly graduated crew members had to work together. No. Not just work together, survive together. They needed to survive in order to kill off evey single piece of the Covenant's forces. The fate of the entire population of New London rested on their shoulders. He had decided to make sure to stand firm and try to ease some of the pressure off of the rest. So far it hadn't worked though. The image on the screen of the Covenant ships approaching was just a too fearsome image. Also as the Carrier was the highest ranking ship for now it was made the Flagship, only for now though, as the Venra, a Marathon class Cruiser wouldn't be there before the Covenant forces would reach them.
"How's the evacuation of the planet going, Lieutenant Feathers?", Malloy asked. "All squadleaders report that they have touched down and are assisting in the evacuation, however due to the large population it'll take time to evacuate all of them." "Alright. Thanks Lieutenant Feathers. Please inform them that some more IFT ships are heading their way from the north." "Yes, sir. No problem, sir." "Thank God there was a IFT meeting or evacuation wouldn't have been this easy. Well, as far as this is easy.", Malloy thought to himself.
The IFT or Interstellar Federation of Traders was a union created by traders before the UNSC had been created to offer protection to all the traders. Now it was more of a formality and if there were price complains traders could go to the IFT to complain. It's annual meeting was on New London this year and didn't quite turn out to be like last time. It had been disturbed by the news of the approaching Covenant forces and now, instead of running they choose to help the colonists to get off the planet. Well, most of them did.
The timer reached five minutes and Malloy looked over at Lieutenant Douglas. "Open a channel to the fleet and the entire ship." "Uhm ... yes, sir. Channel open, sir.", Douglas said. The captain noted how most were still scared. That's why he wanted to give a short speech now. "This is Captain Jerome Malloy from the Firefly class Carrier Debora. I just wanted to say to all of you that you should remember your duty towards the UNSC; however what really matters is that we all do more then our very best. We must try to destroy all of those uglies that are heading this way. Remember what is at stake here. An entire planet is being evacuated and that takes time. Time they actually don't have. We are here to make some time. So good luck to all of us. I have faith in all of you. Captain Jerome Malloy out." When the line was broken he said to his bridge officers, "I know most of you are all just out of the academy and didn't expected to see combat this soon. However they're here now. I have faith in all of you to do what is needed. Let's kick some uglies down."
Bridge of the Pire of Purity
Shipmaster Shav Matsumee watched over the holografic display on the bridge of the Assault Carrier Pire of Purity as he was thinking of what action would be best to bring as much of the selected Seraph fighter past the human forces to have them bombard the planet. Though it was no order by the Prophets Shav hated the humans so much that he preferred to eliminate as much of them as possible at once instead of hunting them down again after they had escaped. His thought were interrupted by a crewmember, "Shipmaster, we have all the enemy ships accounted for. There are thirty-six ships, mostly small ones." "Hmmm, that won't be a problem.", said Shav "These humans are dumber then most Grunts anyways. Besides, we have four CCS class Battlecruisers, seven CHS class Frigates and five CHR class Frigates anyway. There is nothing they could do to harm us."
"We are almost in firing range, Shipmaster.", said the Elite Mar Shanee behind the tactical ops console. Shav stood up from his hoverchair and walked to the larger hologram in the center of the bridge. "Burn their defiling ships down as soon as we're in range." "One more minute, Shipmaster.", Mar Shanee said. And while Shav lowered his lower jaws to speak streaks of fire left the human ships. Shav had seen them several times before. He knew what damage they could do but ignored that for a moment as the CCS class Battlecruiser Relentless Justice boosted it's engines to far beyond the normal levels and jumped in front of most of the MAC rounds. The final loss, the Relentless Justice, two frigates and one Battlecruiser were heavily damaged. "Fools.", Shav said, "Now it's our turn. All ships fire plasma torpedoes and pulse lasers. Launch all Seraph fighters and prepare for a second round. And,", he added, "begin charging our special weapon."
As red lasers impacted on the human's ships who were not scattering, blue light were released from the Covenant ships heading to finish some ships off. And right behind the plasma torpedoes came the Seraphs that were selected to bombard the surface. While the human's fighter had started attacking the rest of the Seraphs, the torpedoes provided perfect cover for the bombers.
"How far are both reinforcement groups?", Shav asked looking up from the holo image of the battle. "Shipmaster, enemy reinforcements will arrive in approximately thirteen minutes. Our should arrive in two hours." Shav's forces were a recon group to send before the strike fleet to eliminate all difficult objects allowing the rest of the fleet to arrive without problems.
As Shav returned to his seat he allowed himself to enjoy the moment for a bit by smiling over the humans that had already died. He was pleased with himself over his move to sacrifice one Battlecruiser for the rest and laughed again to himself when he thought of the human who had thought out such a perfect attack and then see it fail.
Bridge of the UNSC Debora
"Damn them. Damn the darn Covenant bastard who thought of putting that cruiser in front of their fleet.", was Malloy thinking to himself. "Amethyst and Soma move more to the right and try to shoot down that cruiser in the middle there." "Understood Debora." "Zhukov, try to punch through that frigate on the left." "We'll do." Captain Malloy was ordering the fleet around to try and keep things as organized as possible. For as far as that was possible. "Sir, we lost the Amsterdam at all hands. They seem to be targeting our Destroyers over our Frigates, sir.", Douglas said. It took the captain by a bit of a surprise as he had almost forgotten the other people on the bridge due to the hectic out there. "Alright, Lieutenant.", Malloy said as he gave a quick look around the bridge while he could and noticed that although still mostly scared the fresh crew had no wish to die just yet and was going to give it their best to postpone death for another day.
"Alright,", he thought to himself, "let me lead these kids into safety." "Sir,", Ivan said, "our MAC is sixty percent charged and rising, they'll be in range of the Archers in three ... two ... one. Firing!" But not only the Debora had started to rain missiles on the Covenant's ships that had weakened or just weak shields the rest of the fleet had gotten in range too and was now adding more streaks into the darkness. It was a magnificent view to see that many missiles heading towards the enemy forces. It brought back the painful reminder of how little damage they could do. However as the first wave of missiles had hit the targets and the second wave was being prepared good news came from the tactical ops station; "Sir, the MAC has been charged for ninety-five percent." A smirk appeared on Malloy's face. "Zuko, ... " "Already ahead of you Captain", the hologram said before the Captain could finish his sentence. "I gave all the other AI's their targets. We're taking that big ugly ship in the middle there as our target." "Fire the MAC, Lieutenant-Commander.", said Malloy. "Blow them to pieces. No tricks this time."
As all ships fired their MAC again and started the rain of missile fire again the Covenant frigates tried to evade them. Unsuccessful though. Another five Covenant frigates less. Also that heavily damaged CCS was put out of action. The biggest ship's shield had absorbed the two MAC rounds it had gotten though. And now, Malloy knew, were the roles changed again. Soon the Covenant would release their plasma torpedoes again. Something jumped to mind though. "Lieutenant Douglas, how long until the Venra arrives?" Behind the Covenant forces a disturbance could be seen as a UNSC Marathon class Cruiser came out of lightspeed. "It just did, sir." And before the Covenant could do anything the Venra fired all three it's MAC's and as the second impact made the shield of the CCS class Battlecruiser fail the third put a hole clean through it. And just some moments later the Archer missiles impacted and burned away even more of the Covenant ship.
A face appeared on the main screen of the Debora's bridge. "Nice of you to save some for me, Malloy." "No problem, Alex. I knew you wanted to have some fun so I left you some good treats." "Haha, thanks." Captain Alex Grissom said. "So what's our status?" Jerome's face turned a little more grim. "Not too well, they only lost eleven of their ships, though three cruisers now thanks to you. We lost, uhm Lieutenant, how many?" Douglas checked his reports and said, "Eleven ships destroyed and another seven .. no make that eight incapacitated." Malloy did the math in his head real quick, the Covenant started with sixteen ships and are down eleven, that means five more left and we started with thirty-six ships and lost nineteen so we have seventeen left. Five against seventeen could be won. Especially with the Venta present now. "I am worried about that Assault Carrier there though, Alex.", Malloy added. "It's not a standard configuration." "Don't worry about that right now, Jerome. We'll go and take a closer look and put it out of action soon too." Malloy started, "Don't you think it's weird though that they haven't even turned to you?"
Before anything else could be said the Covenant forces released their plasma torpedoes upon the remaining UNSC ships. "Another five ships lost.", Malloy thought. But he was wrong. Because when one of the torpedoes hit the bridge of the UNSC Frigate Shannon the ship drilled itself into the last destroyer and took it down with her. It was hard to watch. "Lieutenant Feathers, how are things going planetside?"
One mile outside New London's capital Blair
As the last IFT freighters and transport were landing the Marines were occupied with helping to board everything for evacuation. Sergeant Andrew Wilder was overseeing his squad that was helping with the guiding of civilians. "Frank, Lloyd, go and help those in the back that have trouble moving or are handicapped in any way." It had been four hours of trying to maintain the peace and trying to keep the terrified civilians calm. It had been extremely hard on all of them.
In the distance some ships had started to take off again. "Good.", Wilder thought to himself. "Hey, Johnsey, we could really use a hand here. People are starting to get anxious. As you're done already why not help us out a bit, eh?" "Sure thing, Wilder. We'll be there as soon as ..." But his sentence was cut off by an enormous explosion in the sky. Everyone was shocked and feared the worst. When Wilder looked up he saw that the ships that had already taken off were shot down or being shot down by enemy Seraph bombers. Because he needed to stay cool he shouted in his comm to his squad, "Man the Warthogs! Let them taste our rounds and missiles!" As the marines tried to reach the Warthogs through the scared civilians some Seraphs started bombing the city, leaving no person still remaining in the city alive, the remaining Seraphs were turning for another bombing run on the transport ships.
Wilder put the Warthog in gear as soon as the LAAT on the back was manned and drove towards the incoming Seraphs. As did many other Warthogs. The sound of the Warthogs roaring was only surpassed when the gunners started firing. Three of the six Seraphs crashed by the LAAT rounds and the missile fire. At that time one of the Seraphs pushed it's engine and started bombing the incoming Warthogs. The remaining two released their plasma bombs on the transports again and again two ships were lost. However this time when the Seraph came over the remains of the transport it came in range of the Scorpion tanks and they opened fire instantly, putting an end to the bombing of those Seraphs.
"Johnsey, let's head back ASAP and load up the remaining civilians. I don't think we'd last long if they came back.", Wilder said. "What do you say, Johnsey? Johnsey?" But no answer came. Johnsey had been on one of the Warthogs that was hit in the bombing run. "Alright.", barked Wilder now to both the squads, "Let's head back and finish up here as soon as possible so we can leave this place." It was never easy to lose a close friend but Johnsey hadn't been the first one and if they didn't move now, he sure wouldn't be the last one of today.
Bridge of the Pire of Purity
"Shipmaster, planetside Seraphs are reporting that they have started bombing. Some have encountered resistance though.", said an Elite. "Shall I order the other Seraphs to take those tasks over, Shipmaster?", Mar asked. "No, let them continue their initial mission and when they're all done have them bomb the left objectives together." "Yes, Shipmaster.", Mar said. "Shipmaster, our special weapon is fully charged." "Good. Very good." Shav pushed some buttons of his gravity chair to display a small hologram on his chair again. He smirked. "Target the enemy's reinforcements. Tell others to keep attacking the rest of the enemy forces." As the enemy ship entered the system it almost immediately opened fire upon one of the two remaining CCS class Battlecruiser, the Spirit of Prosperity, and destroyed it. Now it was time to repay him. "Target locked, Shipmaster.", Mar said. "Fire at will.", Shav replied. Outside, on top of the ship, energy was starting to build up. It looked beautiful but deadly. It was purple with a bright white core. When it had formed a large enough sphere of it, like a beam of lighting it shot to the enemy ship. Upon impact it drilled right through the ship. When the beam stopped the damage was clearly visible, there was no way the ship would ever fire another shot again.
"That's a hit.", said Mar. Shav nodded and smiled slightly again. "The strongest ship the humans had to offer and their latest weapon burns right through it, he almost felt pity for the humans. These humans are so weak, it's a good thing we are exterminating them. There is no way we would need another race like the Grunts.", Shav thought. Mar interrupted his thoughts when he said: "Shipmaster, the special weapon will need another ten minutes to recharge." "No matter.", Shav said, "We'll have them destroyed before that anyways. What ships have they got left?" "Only two more larger ships left, Shipmaster. This one,", he marked one ship on the holo display, "is their flagship from what I can tell by their communications. And besides that they have nine other smaller ships left." "Hmmm.", Shav said.
Bridge of the UNSC Debora
As the Assault Carrier fired it's special weapon on the Venra ,all the Debora's crew could do was watch in horror. "Ivan, how far's our MAC?" "Charged for seventy percent, sir." "I want all of the remaining ship to fire at that Assault carrier, understood? Zuko, make it happen with the other AI's alright?" "Yes, sir. Already on it." As all the MAC's were charged they fired them at the same time at the Assault Carrier. "Oh shit!" was heard when the remaining CCS fired up it's engines again. The CCS fire two plasma torpedoes, both at a different target and then got hit but all the incoming MAC rounds and was obliterated. The only hope left was that a round or two would brake through the CCS and hit the Assault Carrier. And indeed two rounds did. Their hope was down to zero though when these rounds were just absorbed by the Carrier's shield.
That was it then. There was nothing left they could do now but hope to survive for the next round. The two plasma torpedoes the CCS class had released prior to destruction took two more frigates down with it crippling the fleet to just nine ships. Soon the remaining ships would be able to fire their plasma torpedoes as well. What would happen then? Captain Malloy wasn't sure. He just hoped that they had bought enough time for the remaining civilians to escape. While thinking that his hopes of surviving were becoming smaller once again as the remaining Covenant ships fired their plasma torpedoes.
"Quickly Lieutenant Feathers, how are things on the ground? Have most started to evacuate already?" All of a sudden a great shock could be felt and Malloy was knocked over by the blast. A couple of consoles gave up and released some sparks. He quickly stood up again and barked, "Lieutenant Douglas, report!" But he got no answer. He looked over to the communications chair and saw that the Lieutenant had been slammed against the computer console by the shock and was unconscious. He quickly ordered an ensign to take over for now. "Zuko, what's our status?" This time the holo tank remained empty but his voice was clearly heard. "Four plasma torpedoes hit us on the starboard side, sir. At the same time. We've got reports of tons of internal fires and our starboard hangar is whipped away. We lost long range communications for now but I'm already trying to repair that and I dispatched repair teams to assist." However, before anything else could be said or done another shock went through the entire ship but this time the Captain remained at his feet. "Zuko? What happened this time? Zuko?" It took half a minute before he responded. "Sir, they put our engines offline with another two plasma torpedoes from that Assault Carrier. And now we lost power to remain in orbit. We have no power to fight the planet's gravitation." "So in other words, we're going to crash on the surface?", Malloy asked. "Yes and no, sir. Yes we're going to crash on the planet but I will still do my best to make this as good as a crash landing as I can." "Can we still get a message out to one of the nearby ships?", Malloy asked. "I think I could manage it, sir. Which ship would you like to send a message to?" "The strongest ship left, that Halcyon class Cruiser that was with us, the Pillar of Autumn.", Malloy answered.
As a face appeared on the screen Malloy started talking, "Captain Ramone, we're going down. We're falling towards the planet. I want you to take command of the fleet. Take out that Assault Carrier before he destroys more of you, before he gets to glass the planet. They only got frigates left and a MAC would go right through so they have no shields anymore besides the ship's shield. Destroy it. We'll try to get a ride from the IFT after we helped the civilians onboard. Just take that son of a bitch out for us, will you? After you destroyed that fleet make sure the civilians get away and then get out of here too. There are bound to be more coming soon. Good luck Captain, we're counting on you." "I will do anything I can, sir", Captain Ramone answered. "Good luck to you too." The screen went black again and so did most other consoles and screens. Alright Zuko, do what you can for us. Malloy pressed a few buttons and put on the speakers throughout the ship. "This is the Captain speaking, we're going down. We're falling towards the planet and we'll try to make a crash landing. I want all lower deks evacuated. When we have landed we will try to give a helping hand to our marines by getting all the civilians on the IFT ships and then get a ride ourselves. So hang on guys, we're not out of this yet."
One mile outside New London's capital Blair
The Seraphs still bombing Blair didn't pay much attention to them and Wilder was glad for that. At their last bombing run he had lost two marines of his squad and another two of Johnsey's team. Wilder had assumed control over both squads after Johnsey had died. "Sir, I'm just getting a message from above. It seems the Debora is coming to us. She's crashing down." "Damn, so the Covenant are winning? Then we better put a move on it.", Wilder said. "Sir,", said Frank, "we only have barely have enough space for all the civilians and us. The Debora is a Carrier. It has a huge crew. I'm not sure if we would all fit and if those Seraph would come back for us and take out some more ships ..." "Stow the bellyaching, Marine. We'll do our best. Alright these transports are loaded up, tell them to hit the skies, we'll move on to the next ones."
In the sky a trail of smoke could be seen after a ball of red flames about two minutes later. It was the Debora coming down. It was a sad but yet also beautiful sight to see. Zuko had done his best to land as close as possible to the IFT ships without having to worry about hitting one. "Hold on!", Malloy yelled, "Brace for impact!" As the ship hit the surface of the planet everyone was knocked off their feet and fell over, more internal explosions were heard and all the remaining consoles went dark. The ship left a trail of destruction behind it for over twenty kilometers before it come to a stop.
Malloy felt a huge headache as he started to regain consciousness again. "Captain? Captain? Sir? Can you hear me?", Lieutenant Feathers asked. "Yeah, yeah, I can hear you.", Malloy replied. "Thank God, are you alright, sir?", she continued to ask. "I'm fine, how about the others?" "I'm not sure about the entire crew but here we lost three men.", she answered. "Alright, how's Zuko?" "I'm fine, sir. Though there isn't a lot of power left, there's enough to keep me going for a while." "Can you fire up the speakers throughout the ship? I want to tell everyone to head for the port hangar to get off of here and head for the IFT ships. I want our pilots to start loading off all Warthogs still on board with the Pelicans so that we have enough ways to head for the IFT ships.", Malloy said. "Just start moving towards the hangar yourself.", said Zuko. "I'll make a copy of myself so that he could guide the crew there and in the worst case self destruct the ship if the enemy would come to close. That way you can take me along with you and we wouldn't violate the Cole Protocol." "Alright, sounds like a good plan. Make it happen.", Malloy said. And after two minutes the bridge crew was heading towards the hangar as Zuko's copy could be heard overhead guiding all the crew to go to the port hangar.
It had felt like an earthquake when the Debora had impacted with the surface but now they needed to continue loading up the last civilians. "Sir?" "What's up, Franky?", Wilder asked. "Sir, these are the last transports. There's no way the Debora's crew would fit in here." "You're right Franky. I know. I'll try to ask the Captain what do. Because even if we could fit them in here that would mean that we had to wait for them to get here, meaning we'd have to put all these civilians lives at stake. And I don't believe that's what we were supposed to do. Find Biggs for me will you?", Wilder said. "On it, Sarge.", Franky replied. "Yo! Biggs! Sarge wants you, man!" As Biggs was heading over Wilder said, "Alright Franky, get these people in the ships we'll board the last one if necessary alright? Biggs, I want you to try and get in touch with Captain Malloy. Ask him if we should wait and that we don't think he'll fit with his entire crew." As Wilder was saying that seven transports were seen approaching in the distance. "Alright.", Wilder corrected himself, "You can scratch that last bit. Though do ask him if he wants us to guard the transports and let the civilian ones take off or that we should board this ship now and get going."
Back on the Debora the bridge crew just reached the hangar. It's already crowded there with people and the pilots are working their ass off to get all the transports and personal off of the ship. "Sir? We're getting a message from the marines at the evacuation site. I'm linking it to that Warthog there.", Zuko said. "Captain Malloy?", asked a voice. "Yeah that's me. Is that you Wilder?" "Yes, sir. Sir, we've loaded up all the civilians just now and we can take a ride from this ship or wait and guard the incoming transports. What would you want us to do?", Wilder asked. "Get off this rock now that you still can Wilder. The transports 'll still be there when we come over. If those Seraphs would start to head over then there's little you can do anyways. Get off and search for a way to head back to Reach. I'm hoping some of the ships in orbit will make it to but if they don't then I need you to report what happened here, alright?", Malloy asked. It was a tough pill to swallow for the Sergeant but he knew what the Captain had said was true. "I'll do my very best, sir. And sir? Good luck to you too! I'm hoping I won't be there on the briefing alone though, sir.", Wilder said. "Thanks Wilder, we'll do our best. I couldn't let you face those pencil necks alone, now could I?", Malloy replied. Wilder smirked and said, "Damn right, sir. Wilder out."
When all personal was off the ship as well as all the transports, the crew formed a convoy and headed for the seven remaining IFT ships awaiting them. Captain Malloy found himself behind the wheel of a Warthog and as he was driving along he heard a familiar voice behind him asking him, "I know I'm the one who's supposed to know everything about the battlefield and what's going on but would someone mind to fill me in as to how and what?" Malloy smirked as he knew Lieutenant Douglas had regained his consciousness. "Lieutenant Feathers, would you mind filling in Lieutenant Douglas for me?" As Lieutenant Douglas turned around to face Lieutenant Feathers he saw the colossal carrier Debora lying there on the ground. "So we lost?", he asked? At the horizon three ships could be seen taking off marking the place where the IFT ships were waiting to pick them up. "At least most civilians had been able to escape.", Malloy thought to himself. "Now to just get my crew off of this planet too."
Bridge of the UNSC Pillar of Autumn
Captain Ramone had been given control of the fleet and as the Debora was falling towards the planet he needed to think of the surest way to destroy the enemy, his onboard AI hadn't been installed yet and thus he didn't have the luck to have someone, or rather something, checking his plans or even coming with better solutions. Right now, however, there was simply only one option in his view, just fire the MACs at the Assault Carrier. And thus he ordered the fleet to fire as soon as his set timer would reach zero. As soon as the timer had reached ten seconds all ships started launching their Archer missiles. And when the timer reached zero, all the MAC rounds were fired. One Convenant frigate tried to stop a MAC round by flying in front of it, but like Malloy had predicted, the MAC went straight through the ship and continued it's way to the Assault Carrier. Seven MAC rounds hit the Assault Carrier's shields. Instead of that the shields died at the third or fourth shot they didn't die until the seventh round hit it. "Let's hope our Archers do enough damage to keep those shields down till we have recharged the MACs again.", Ramone thought to himself. However he knew that those changes were too little to rely on. Especially as he saw the remaining frigates of the Covenant moving towards the Archers. They would do it again. Sacrifice the other ships for the Assault Carrier.
And that was indeed what happened. As the Archers tore away the Frigates' hull and caused their destruction the Assault Carrier was left without damage. "Soon,", Ramone thought, "will it unleash it's torpedoes again and then put their shield online again and we're back to square one." However, that wasn't what happened. Three MAC rounds hit the Assault Carrier and one of them hit the reactor and as it overloaded the entire ship became engulfed in a cloud of fire. When the cloud had dissipated all that was visible was a burning hulk. They had successfully destroyed the Assault Carrier. But where had those rounds come from? "Lieutenant Tucker, find out where those rounds came from.", said Ramone. However he already saw his answer as the Venra's core also overloaded and caused the entire ship to explode. "Hmm, when it got hit with that new weapon I was sure of it all aboard had been killed. I guess Captain Grissom or someone else aboard the ship had survived and managed to recharge their MACs. It's a great loss. Whoever was on that ship deserves ... what? A medal? What good does a medal do? No, he deserved to live on in eternity. He was a hero. Let's make sure the sacrifice wasn't in vain.", Ramone thought. "Enough time wasted standing around here. We'll celebrate later. Lieutenant Tucker, how is the evacuation on the planet going?", Ramone asked. "It seems that most civilian transports have gotten away already, sir. The mission was a success. There are still seven on the ground waiting to pick up the Debora's crew. The others are all in the air or already gone. Sensors pick up nothing in the direct area, sir.", Tucker replied. "Open a channel to the fleet.", said Ramone, "It's time to get going." "This is Captain Ramone of the Pillar of Autumn, set for random vector and we'll meet back at Reach. There's nothing in the direct area so these last transports won't find any trouble. Out job is done. We successfully hold out. We can all be very proud. Meet you all back at Reach for drinks and cocktails. Captain Ramone out." He turned to his navigations officer and said, "Lieutenant Joas, set random jump course and then prepare to jump. After three random jumps head for Reach." "Aye, sir." "Lieutenant-Commander, I'll be in my room if you need me. See to it that as many crewmembers as possible get some time off already, okay? They earned it big time." And as the remaining UNSC ships jumped to random systems as well as the IFT ships that were coming from the planet things were calm again around New London. Except for one small Seraph fighter that came from the Assault Carrier's hulk's hangar bay.
The Debora's survivor convoy
As Malloy was looking towards IFT ships he noticed that there was almost nothing left of Blair. He just hoped that most civilians as well as the marines that were ordered to collect certain people managed to get out of the city before they had started bombing it. It was a dark and scary image to see all those bombers laying waste to such a large and once powerful city. Just a few more minutes and they would reach the IFT ships. "Zuko,", Malloy said, "divide all the Warthogs and Pelicans to one of the ships and then use their comms to tell them where to go, okay?" "On it, sir.", Zuko said. "Would you also like me to contact the IFT ships and tell them we're on our way?" "No, thank you, Zuko, they already know.", Malloy replied. Ten minutes later the entire surviving crew had boarded the IFT ships and started to take off.
The Seraphs hadn't received any other orders and were thus still bombing what was left of the city. After the three MAC rounds penetrated the Assault Carrier, Shav had managed to get a zero grav. suit and was then able to keep breathing as an explosion whipped out most things onboard. Including the climate control. Around him he saw his fellow Elites suffocate. Shav felt enraged. He had failed and now all his brethren had died. He would never be able to return to his leaders. They would execute him on sight. There was only one thing to do. Get revenge. And so he made his way through the wreck towards the shuttle bay where he'd hope to find a way off this ship. At least a bit of luck. There were still three Seraph fighters left. As soon as he'd cleared the hangar he saw that the humans were already gone. Maybe, with some luck, there would still be humans on the surface. He had noticed how small transports had been leaving with humans before but was unable to do anything about it earlier. Maybe there were still some there. He would find out and then kill anything in his path. When he cleared the planet's atmosphere he saw that the Seraphs were still bombing the city. He also saw seven more targets trying to get away. He tried to get the other Seraphs to follow him but his communicator didn't work. "Hmm, now I see why it was still in the hangar. Damn piece of equipment. Couldn't those dumb Grunts have sent an Engineer on it?", Shav said to himself.
"Is everyone on board for the ride, Zuko?", Malloy asked the hologram. It was nicer to see him standing on the holotank of the IFT ship as his usual red self rather to just hear his voice. "Everyone's accounted for, sir. We're ready for lift off.", Zuko said. Malloy stood on the bridge of the ship and said to the pilot that they were ready for take off. The other ships had started taking off too. "This is it.", Malloy thought, "We made it. Against all odds did we make it. Let's just hope we don't have that Assault Carrier waiting for us when we get there." However that fear was soon taken away as the owner of the ship told him they had gotten reports that the ship had been destroyed and that the UNSC fleet had retreated already. The bridge's elevator came up again and as all heads turned to see who it was Ivan, Douglas and Feathers stepped on the bridge. As Ivan looked to the captain his face suddenly changed to one of horror. A loud bang was heard and when Malloy turned around to look he saw that the place where there had just been a transport ship there was now a huge explosion and wreckage that was falling down to the surface. A single Seraph fighter had released several bombs at once at the ship and it had been destroyed instantly.
Malloy felt his knees go weak and he suddenly felt very vulnerable. About a hundred people had died by the hands of one Seraph fighter. He had to remain calm and strong though. The owner of the ship felt the same and quickly told his crew to arm the missiles onboard and to prepare it's only missile launcher. They couldn't die. Not now. Not after making it this far.
Shav got even more angry when the bombing mechanism failed after the bombing run. "Damn this cheap piece of machinery. No, wait, I need to stay calm. I can still use the plasma guns to shoot them down.", Shav thought to himself. And so he turned around facing the back of the transports again as he opened fire on the back of the ships.
"We've almost got a lock, sir.", said one of the crewmembers to the owner. "Zuko, help them with it.", Malloy ordered. However, the Seraph's pilot was faster as he opened fire first. The plasma guns quickly disabled the transporter's engines. "We've been hit!", a crewmember said while panicking, "We're going down!". A monitor exploded and sparks came from it. "Haven't we been going down enough today?", Ivan asked dryly. The owner hurried to the microphone and said, "Everyone brace for impact. We're going down again." Another explosion was heard and a second transport's engine exploded and started going down. And then a third. However the fourth managed to hire a missile and as it hit it blew up the Seraph. And so only three of the transport kept going up, while three others went down.
Malloy braced for impact as the ship hit the ground. Since they weren't that high and speed wasn't to it's maximal settings yet it wasn't long before the ship came to a stop. Malloy quickly got up and looked for the other two hit transports. He saw the second one coming in faster then they had and instead of hitting sand like they did they were heading for rocks. As the ship hit the rocks it exploded, probably killing all that were in there. Another hundred lives lost. While they had been so close to getting away safely. The third transport was more lucky and also hit the sand. When Malloy looked around the bridge he saw Ivan helping Miranda Feathers up, Douglas who missed a monitor by an inch this time and who was now getting up again himself. He then noted the sickening sight of the owner being pierced through by a metal pipe that had come off during the crash. When Douglas noted it as well, he threw up. "Alright,", Malloy started, "let's head back down to the rest of the crew. We'll take it from there then." When they got there they found that most were fine besides some minor injuries. "Take whatever kind of food you can find and perhaps some tables and chairs and go outside and eat something.", Malloy called out to the crew. "Lieutenant Douglas and I are going to walk to the other transport and get the rest of the crew. We'll try to think of something then, alright? Get to it, then. Douglas, you're with me. Ivan, you're in command till I get back. Patch up any wounds and get them to eat something. I want them strong when we move again."
As Lieutenant Douglas and Captain Malloy were walking towards the other transport Douglas suddenly noticed that all the Seraphs had stopped bombing Blair and were gone. "Why do you think they stopped, Captain?", Douglas asked. "Hmm, what do you mean?", Malloy asked. "The Seraphs, sir. They've stopped bombing and they're gone.", Douglas replied. "I didn't even noticed that.", Malloy said. "Well sir, you're either Intel officer or you're not." Malloy smirked, "Yeah, I guess so."
Around New London
As the Covenant fleet arrived they noticed that nothing was left but debris. Including the debris of Shipmaster Shav Matsumee's Assault Carrier. "Admiral, I'm detecting a lot of Seraph bomber on the surface. They appear to be the only thing left at this planet. A battle appears to have taken place though however it seems that both forces obliterated the other." The Elite in the command chair sat quietly for a little while and then said, "Order the Seraphs back here and tell the fleet to get into position to glass this planet. I don't want any place left. This place still holds the stench of the human filth. If we do not burn this they will return here." As the fleet was scattering to move over the entire planet as a closing net the Elite Admiral watched the Seraphs dock at several different ships on the holo display. He then continued to watch the rest of the fleet get into position. When the fleet was finally in position the Elite Admiral ordered for a channel to be opened to the entire fleet. "This is the Truth and Reconciliation, begin glassing of this planet." With that order, all on the planet seized to exist.
Star Wars models for DAZ
Images of available Star Wars models for your 3D rendering. Note that these are not downloads but, where possible, download links will be on the pages. Some are hi-res characters and clothing for G8 and G3 models, some are simple objects such as vehicles. I'm hoping this will be a fairly exhaustive look at both free and premium models available for Star Wars fans.
$10/month
Suggested Collections
This is my own Halo fanfic story called Battle of New London.
© 2008 - 2024 chakotay02
Comments1
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thats prety good. may recomend indenting paragraphs though? also, you should start a new paragraph when someone starts talking.