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The Last Fortress by Mike
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Last Fortress - Introduction
Date: 16 August 2003, 9:41 PM
"If I die in a combat zone."
The chorus of men echoed back in a simultaneous thundering roar.
"If I die in a combat zone."
Again the Sergeant called out.
"Box me up and ship me home!"
They returned,
"Box me up and ship me home!"
The Sergeant called out the last line.
"Pin my medals upon my chest, and tell my men I did my best."
The words almost stung as the Marines sang the cadence. They had all seen the reports of the battle at Reach, and they all knew that there were very few survivors. The only capital ship that even had a chance of surviving jumped into a slip stream with the entire covenant armada hot on their tale. What had happened to them after was anybody's guess, there had been no contact.
They knew that Reach was the last outpost left. It was supposed to be impregnable, it was supposed to be a fortress world. How quickly it had fallen.
The remnants of whatever had escaped Reach came hobbling back a week or so ago. Every now and then a crippled fighter returned, and the pilot, if he was alive, was given a medal and another ship. The Marines however, we never so lucky. They came back in boxes, if they came back at all. The whole expeditionary force at Reach had been vaporized, when they glassed the planet, at least that's what the pilots said. But it was probably true. Three whole Marine divisions, the historic First Marine Division, the Ninth Expeditionary Force, and the newly formed Thirtieth Marines, numbering way too many to count, had been planet side when the Covenant forced dropped in, and the casualty rate was one-hundred percent.
These Marines were recruits. They had joined up about two months ago, but had not finished training in time to be deployed to Reach. Now they were training to defend the last fortress humanity had. Earth.
The group of thirty or so men rounded a green tent, sprinted to a patch of open dirt, and quickly formed ranks. The sergeant made his way to the front of the group and began to talk in the loud booming voice that characterizes a Marine sergeant.
"At-ten-hut."
"Alright everyone hit the rack, and get some sleep, we're on maneuvers tomorrow."
"Dismissed," he said in a voice that was not quiet, but more solemn, very unlike the stentorian voice of his usual self.
Silence rained supreme as the Marines moved to the barracks to get some sleep. They didn't want to admit it, no one did, but they were scared, all of them.
As the Platoon leaders mulled into the Operations room, Major Danby, the Regimental Intelligence officer, took lead.
"Alright, I want everyone in their seats." He waited until the room was silent.
"The maneuvers today consists of anti-invasion force deployment. We're gonna be training to counter a possible invasion of a city or region. As you know our regiment is fairly overstrength and our four battalions will be deployed to this area," as he paused to point at the maps. "The operations covers the entire region, so be ready, the could hit us anywhere."
"Our job is to contain the invasion forces and call in support. We are the spearhead gentlemen. We make contact, we conduct reconnaissance, and then we call in our friends. We are team blue, and the enemy, led by General Harding, is red. Intel suggests that the invasion force may consists of Helljumpers, and a Marine Assault Brigade. These guys are elite, and we will be outnumbered almost three to one.
There was a brief murmur about the room, as the battalion commanders listened to the information being given to them about the operations.
The briefing came to a close with little formalities. Before anyone could leave a yeoman, one of those Navy administrators came in, and handed a brief message to the Regimental CO, who had attended the briefing and was just about to leave. He took the message brashly, and held it up to his nose as he read the type.
His stare turned cold as he dropped the piece of paper. There was no sound in the room, but everyone saw him do it. They stood there silently, not wanting to move.
"Stand to, take a seat gentlemen," he finally whispered.
He began to read. "Contact with Pluto Listening Post lost. Flash traffic received on emergency frequencies reads: 'This is Listening post Foxtrot Charlie. we have contact with extremely large naval armada. Transponder signal does not match UNSC. Probable Covenant invasion force. Recommend Alert One. Recommend Alert One. This is not a drill.' Headquarters confirms. Covenant invasion force detected. Initiate plan Zulu - counter invasion forces with all available strength. Hold ground. Prepare to defend."
Last Fortress - Deep Strike (Chapter One)
Date: 19 August 2003, 2:24 AM
"At thirteen hundred the force was detected just off the meteor belt. At thirteen forty-five, Pluto was glassed, and all contact with the outpost there was lost. An emergency flash traffic message was received at thirteen fifty, and at fourteen hundred, our fleet began to move."
He paused for a moment to bring up the map.
"Task Force Dagger, composed of carriers Constellation, Essex, and Saratoga, will move out with the destroyers, Spruance, Jenkins, and the McCaffrey," he said as he pointed to the blue designators on the map.
"Task force 116, consisting of the other two carriers, and a destroyer screen will also be with us. But remember, the capital ships will not be making the jump. It's gonna be just us fighters out there." The pilots paused for a moment to take in the information.
"Unfortunately, that's about all we have." Several of our ships are in dry-dock as we speak, and they're being scrambled, but fifteen minutes ago, we lost contact with Saturn outpost.
No one spoke. There was nothing to say. They were coming.
"Which is why gentlemen, we've called upon to conduct, a deep reconnaissance in force. Our targets will be determined when we find out what we're up against, but as for now, we're to conduct an in-system jump and hit them while they're still approaching Earth."
Someone broke the silence, "But sir, that's suicide, has an in-system jump even been tried before."
The Colonel conducting the briefing looked exhausted as he replied to the comment.
"Son, look they're coming, and they're coming pretty fast. Now it's up to us to slow them down, so our boys on the ground can be ready for them. This ain't Reach, we can't retreat anywhere. If they get Earth then it's all over, and we lose."
The pilot nodded his head sympathetically. He was just scared. But then again, so was everybody.
"Now as I was saying, our priority of targets will be as follows: Loaded troop transports are your primary target. Enemy carriers are secondary. Escort frigates and supply ships are your tertiary objectives. Remember watch out for fighters, but use save your nukes for the transports. We're only going to get one shot at this, and if we go down, Earth goes down."
The pilots nodded, as they moved out of the briefing room, and into the supply lockers. Quickly donning their equipment and giving a few last words of encouragement, they ran to their fighters.
A voice could be heard over the speaker. "This is the captain, pilots to your ships. Officer of the deck, you may commence flight operations when ready, all crew man general quarters for flight operations repeat man general quarters for flight operations."
It was a frenzy in the corridors as the pilots ran down the long hallways. More like organized chaos. This is where the training kicks in. It wasn't a frenzy as everyone knew exactly where they were supposed to be. The klaxons were unrelenting however, as the pilots of Bravo Flight, Iron Angels moved to the hangar. The crew cleared the way, as the pilots moved forward.
Upon reaching the hangar, the pilots moved to their respective fighters. Lieutenant Junior Grade Jimmy Sanderson ran as hard as he could to the ship. His crew, headed by a Senior Chief Lipton, stood ready, and began to guide him as he inspected his ship. They had done a good job. They always did.
He jumped into the cockpit, of the new fighters. X-22 Shadow's they were, the latest in military technology. Jimmy couldn't help but think that it wasn't at all reassuring that his ship was made by the lowest bidder.
Sweeping thoughts away, he began pre-flight. His fingers danced across the buttons, as he made sure his systems were working. On the headset, he could hear the Senior Chief going through the checklist.
"Environment."
"Check."
"Weapons."
"Check."
"Guidance Systems."
"Check," as he pushed the final button, and the cockpit sealed him into his fighter.
"Alright sir, checks out, pre-flight complete, ready to launch."
"Thank you Chief."
"Thank you sir, good hunting."
Jimmy smiled as he looked to the launch officer for permission to launch. The man in a white flight deck shirt, looked at him as he waved his fist, signaling Jimmy to start the engines. The engines roared to life on the Shadow. The officer moved his arms above his head, and Jimmy saluted to the man. The launch officer saluted back bent down and touched the deck, meaning Jimmy was cleared to launch.
He punched the afterburner, and sent his ship into the dark reaches of space. Next to and behind him were his friends, the others of Bravo Flight, and they too were ready.
He heard the Flight leader, Major McKnight over the intercom, "Gentlemen, form up, and prepare to go to slip stream. Flight, check in when ready."
The voices echoed in his mind.
"Bravo Ten standing by."
"Bravo Five standing by."
"Bravo Two standing by."
The others checked in, and finally it was Jimmy's turn, "Bravo Nine standing by."
Major McKnight came over the intercom again, "Alright Angels, go to slip stream."
The fifteen fighters of Bravo flight joined the hundreds of other fighters in the Squadron as the stars turned to streaks, and they were gone to meet their fate.
Minutes later they arrived at their destination, with no apparent casualties from the inter-system slip stream jump. But they did see the covenant armada. It filled the space.
It must have been at least fifty ships. The largest invasion force Jimmy, and I'm sure all the other pilots had ever seen. By now, they'd all learned what the covenant ships looked like, and could easily pinpoint the types of ships they had with them. Jimmy counted seven carriers, but others said eight. But what he did see was a massive amount of troop transports, probably all loaded.
That was just capital ships of course, but there were others, auxiliaries, supply ships, and the picket cruisers.
Major McKnight's voice came in over the intercom. "Bravo Flight your targets are those troop transports. Alpha will is on our six running cover. I'm patching the targets through to your HUD."
Red dots started appearing on Jimmy's screen and he followed McKnight's bird as they lined themselves up with one for a strafing run.
Lieutenant Morrison's voice came through, "That's weird, no fighters."
And at that instant his ship was vaporized. Another scream came through the com,
"Fighters, three o'clock, lots of em."
"Evasive action, keep yourself on that bomb run," the Major replied.
But it was too late, the fighters had closed in, and soon enough individual dogfights broke out.
Jimmy caught a Covenant fighter on its tail and sent a blast right through the fuselage.
"Nice shot Bravo Nine."
He tried to get a clear shot of the transports, but more fighters just kept coming in.
Jimmy didn't know what had happened to Major McKnight, but they couldn't let this happen, they needed to get to that transport.
"Bravo flight, break through those fighters and get to the transports," Jimmy screamed.
His warning light went off, and he saw he had a Covenant fighter on his tail. He pulled to the right hard, and let the enemy fighter pull past him to his left as he clipped the side of the Covenant fighter and sent it spinning off into space.
He saw his opportunity open as Alpha flight moved in to support. They were badly beaten up with their own fight, but were giving Jimmy and whoever was left alive enough time to slip through and hit those transports.
Jimmy broke through the fighters and called for all fighters to follow him.
"Bravo Four on your six."
"Bravo Seven on your wing."
Alright boys, I'm uploading targets, hit them with all the firepower you have and then bug out, and try to take as many of those fighters with you as you can.
One fighter could almost take out a troop transport, if it got lucky, but he didn't want to take any chances. He assigned them all the same target, and came in hard and fast.
The three fighters smashed through the destroyer escort, and simultaneously launched four projectiles each, which streaked to the unlucky troop transport.
Jimmy screamed, "Bravo flight pull up, pull up! Bug out, I repeat bug out.
There was no answer as the three fighters split up, and jumped back into the dogfight.
The shockwave and debris signified the destruction of the Covenant transport, and a temporary victor for Earth.
Before long, all the fighters were empty of munitions, but not before they had taken two other troop transports with them. Then came the evac code signal.
Jimmy now leading Bravo flight, after everyone except Bravo Four and Seven were destroyed, got the command.
"Bravo flight, disengage, I say disengage the fighters and prepare to slip stream."
"Four Ready."
"Seven Ready."
"Alright break contact. Disengage."
The fighters jumped into slip stream, but not before Bravo Four disintegrated into a ball of flame and debris.
Upon returning to their carrier, they were told the mission was a success. A total of three troop transports were destroyed, and two others were seriously incapacitated. Unfortunately they were told, the Covenant were still coming, and the battle was far from won. For now though they had slowed them down, and bought time for the Marines.
There was still a major naval battle ahead when the Covenant reached Earth, and of course, if, well it was more of a question of when they defeated the UNSC Naval forces, there was the battle of the planet.
Earth was still outnumbered four to one, and the defenses she had in orbit would take some of the Covenant cruisers down, maybe even take half or even most of the fleet, but they would still come until the very last was destroyed. They had showed some understanding of tactics on previous battles, but they expected that here, the would fight until the very last.
The war would go on, and although they had bought crucial time with the deep strike, the Covenant coming, and they were coming fast.
Last Fortress - The Rock (Chapter Two)
Date: 23 October 2004, 3:37 PM
Lieutenant Sanderson walked into the ready room.
It was empty except for himself, and an Ensign who was in his flight group. They were the sole survivors of the Iron Angels, Naval Air Squadron 524. Lieutenant Commander McKnight walked in, and the Ensign quickly called Attention on Deck.
Must be fresh out of the Academy Jimmy thought, 21 years old, at most.
"As you were gentlemen," McKnight said quickly.
"We just got more reports from our reconnaissance mission. Totals put it now at seven troop carriers destroyed, several others damaged beyond repair. We also destroyed two of their destroyers, and damaged several others. Human casualties are now at 85 percent."
The Ensign started to shake his head, and Jimmy closed his eyes. It was all he could do to stop from crying.
Commander McKnight had a glance that always put people at ease. From the first time Jimmy met him, back when McKnight recruited him for the Iron Angels, he had always been comforted by his gaze, now all he could see in his eyes was fear.
"A few minutes ago, we lost contact with Mars colony. We are assuming it was glassed, although recent transmissions from the colony now suggest ground forces may have been landing. We expect contact with the main fleet within the next twenty-four hours."
"Our mission specifics are being deliberated by higher up back on Ea...," he was knocked off his feet, by what seemed to be an explosion fore of the ship. Immediately the klaxon sounded with the GQ alarm, and the briefing room turned into organized chaos. Then the ship's 1 MC came alive.
"General Quarters, General Quarters. All hands man your battle stations. This is not a drill."
Immediately the green light came on, and another loud siren started whaling as the training kicked in and Lieutenant Sanderson and the other remaining members of Squadron 524 ran to the hanger. Sanderson remembered the chills he got when he was at OCS, training to be a pilot and the green light came on. He couldn't help but think when a scramble would be used, but he hadn't predicated an invasion of his home, of Earth.
"Marine Detachments, Report to Combat Stations. Colonel Kilgore, report the Combat Information Center," the voice once again said over the speaker.
Lieutenant Sanderson ran and ran. He knew where he was running to, that was automatic, but he couldn't feel his legs moving, and he couldn't believe this was all happening, the Covenant, Earth, the war. He looked to his left as he ran down the passageway and saw a Petty Officer with a damage control party, ready to repair any damage caused by the upcoming battle. He saw Marines running down the corridor, trying to get to where they were supposed to be. He saw the hanger bay door, and he went through, as another voice came on the speaker, this one he recognized to be the captain's.
"Gentleman, we have made contact with the main Covenant armada approaching Earth. Contact will be in fifteen minutes. All hands, arm yourselves with personal sidearms. Stand ground and remember..." and the Captain's voice started to waiver, he was about to cry, "there is no where to retreat to. Show no mercy. Kill them all."
"Prepare to Repel Boarders"
Lieutenant Sanderson ran into his already prepped plane and did his checks. His crew chief whispered "Godspeed" into his ears. He knew he was never going to see the Lieutenant again. Sanderson nodded and slammed the cockpit cover down and accelerated the throttle to full power. His craft shot out of the hanger and he formed up with the other Iron Angels to prepare to fight his last battle.
For the Marines aboard ship, the fight had just begun, none could foresee how the covenant would fight, but Naval Intel gave the inclination that they may try to board the ship and seize it. Captain Myers was one of the Marine company commanders aboard ship. His job was to prevent enemy forces from boarding and taking control of the ship. He was talking with the platoon leaders in the passageway as several soldiers ran by loaded down with ammunition.
"We cannot let them get to Engineering. If they make it that far, we should be dead. We're going to try to stop them right here. As you can see we've set up barricades and det charges. Tell you Marines to hold ground, we've got Corpsman on our backs for our wounded. There's not much I can tell you except get good ground, good cover, and use explosives wisely. They'll probably come through our shuttle bays or escape pod doors, so position accordingly. Good luck Gentleman."
At that instant another explosion rocked the passageway.
"Enemy forces have landed, Enemy forces have landed. Repel boarders. All Marine units to your sectors. Repel Boarders."
The Marine Captain put on his helmet. "Let's go do our job, shall we."
He picked up his rifle, and walked towards his position. He could hear explosions up ahead. His Lieutenants rushed ahead to coordinate the battle. He walked towards the battle with his weapon raised, and his sights zeroed. He saw the firefight with his Marines shooting at covenant coming through the shuttle bay doors. He dropped behind some barricades and opened fire. The Marine next to him grinned,
"Nice you to join us Captain."
"Wouldn't miss it for the world, Corporal. Wouldn't miss it for the world."
And the final battle had begun. Who knew how long the Marines would be able to hold. They would give them soldiers on earth enough time to prepare, and maybe, just maybe they would succeed, and win.
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