The Crimson Viper
Posted By: The Commodore<panbg@hotmail.co.uk>
Date: 10 February 2006, 11:45 am
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Captain Orhis looked at the navigation computer watching the huge amount of ships heading towards REACH and wondered how his small "gunman" class cruiser would survive this encounter. He and his crew had survived quite a few missions before, but even he, the Captain; the man who was supposed to always think they could pull through had serious doubts.
He had to concentrate. "Lieutenant Robinson, is the MAC gun ready to fire?"
"Waiting for your order sir," answered Robinson with a grave look on his face.
"Good, make sure all guns are ready to fire as soon as the covenant come in range."
"Yes sir."
The captain went back to the display and watched what was happening. There was not a single ship in the covenant fleet the Viper could stand up to. It was in that moment that he saw a large group of ships separating from the main group and heading towards a destroyer.
"Lieutenant Whitham, which ship is that?"
"That one sir?" his hands quickly moved over the console as he scanned the database. "The Pillar of Autumn sir, newly outfitted"
"Outfitted for what?" the captain returned.
"Classified, sir."
"Right, Lieutenant McGrath take us between that ship and the covenant. Full ahead"
"Yes sir." She quickly moved her fingers over the console and the ship was soon moving towards the Autumn. Captain Orhis didn't quite know what he was doing. All he knew was that ship was carrying something important and he had to protect it.
"Sir getting a call from Admiral Stanforth" Lieutenant Whitham said.
"On screen" answered the Captain.
"Orhis, what the hell are you-
There was a huge impact and the whole ship shook.
"Report!" shouted the Captain.
"Hull at eighty percent, communications out!" said Lieutenant McGrath.
"Whitham, warn me if there's another impact! Full tactical alert!" The red lights came on. No answer from Whitham though.
"Whitham?" He turned around and Whitham had gone all that was left was a bloody trail. The rest of the crew on the bridge looked at him. "Leave it, ETA?"
"One minute." Answered McGrath.
"Robinson, is the MAC gun still hot?"
"Yes sir."
"Good, arm our nuke."
"Yes sir."
If this worked the autumn might be able to make run for it with its valuable cargo, whatever it was.
"Sir we're nearly in position and the covenant have just fired simultaneously."
"Brace for impact!" shouted the Captain.
The shockwave hit the ship hard.
"Fire all broadside guns! Fire the MAC and the nuke!"
The small ship fired a deadly salvo of destruction. The covenant fired again.
"Captain, the ships hull is at twenty percent! Should we pull out?"
"Negative, we need to protect the autumn!"
"Yes sir,"
After two minutes there was hardly any damage to the autumn but the lights on the small cruiser were flickering.
"Captain, one more hit and we're done for"
"Hold position!"
Suddenly, the Autumn jumped into slipspace.
"Get us out of here, McGrath!"
"Yes, sir!"
The cruiser jumped into slipspace with a jolt.
"Report, McGrath!" shouted the captain.
"Slipspace engine is barely working, the coordinates are all wrong! I can't correct them. We'll get to our coordinates in about two hours."
"Damage?"
"The compartment behind us is fully intact, the engine room is still together and so is the hangar. Everything else is gone."
The captain paused a second. "Gone?"
"Yes, sir."
"How many men do we have left?"
"Fifty-six."
That was two hundred dead and floating in space. They had only been in the battle twenty minutes.
"What rank are they?"
"Thirty marines, sixteen engineers ten pilots." Lieutenant McGrath answered.
"Can we reach them?" He asked her.
"Not until we come out of slipspace."
"They have enough air, don't they?"
"Yes, sir."
"What do we have in the hangar?"
"Two tanks, three warthogs one of which has the new MAC gun, five pelicans, plenty of ammo and guns and enough supplies."
"We should look for Witham, come with me."
"Yes sir." Answered Lieutenant McGrath.
He left the bridge with Louise McGrath. They followed the bloody trail to Lieutenant Withams quarters. They found him dead on the floor. It looked like he was trying to get back to the door.
"Get someone from maintenance to clean this up." Said the captain.
"Who?" Answered McGrath.
"Get some marines then."
She left the room.
It was then he noticed that Lieutenant Witham had his hand clenched around something. He crouched down and opened up Lieutenant Withams hand. The captain found a high-memory chip.
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