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The Rise of Two Unlikely Heroes: [1] Red light, Green light
Posted By: The Underboss
Date: 3 September 2005, 8:44 pm
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It had been months since Green had seen his wife, or kids. It had been months since he had seen solid ground, for that matter. He was starting to walk differently due to the gravity level of the ship. He was aging, or at least he thought so. Lines were forming above his eyebrows, on his cheeks, and at the corners of his eyes. He couldn't stand to see himself in the mirror. Captain Lewis Green had been on this tattered junk ship for too long.
"Okay Lieutenant Machaon, man your station now, give me 60% power to our MAC gun," Green said nervously. The corner of his mouth twitched. Lieutenant Machaon picked up on his tone immediately.
"Something wrong, sir?" Lieutenant Machaon manned the weapons console. Her surname was Greek and meant Warrior, and that is exactly what she was. She was the smartest member of his crew, but the riskiest. When she did well, she did WELL. When she screwed up, though, she put every member on board in great danger.
"Well, I am not too well known for my speaking skills, so I will let you all see for yourselves." He got out of his seat, and walked over to a machine with the words: OVERHEAD BATTLE SCREEN PROJECTER stenciled on the side in block red letters. He pushed a button, and tapped a few keys, and a map popped up on a wall on the far left of the interior of the ship. "You see, these," Green took a erasable felt pen from the top of the podium the projector was set on, and scribbled sloppy outlines of what seemed to be 5 large shapes out in space. "These are, possibly, a group of Covenant cruisers. Now, this is why I wanted 60% to MAC guns. This isn't exact now, for I am not 100% sure that these are what I have told you."
"Lieutenant Child; get us a randomized jump vector, but keep in mind the Cole Protocol."
"Aye sir," Child said shakily.
"Anywhere but here is fine with me, Child." Green was worried. He was panicking, and that isn't good to show to his crew. But he was human, and humans have emotions. Right now, his main emotion was fear. Fear for his life, for his crew members lives. Fear that he wouldn't see his daughters or his wife again.
"Jump vector is…set in stone. Here we go," Child spoke softly. As the Achilles slowly sped up, Green couldn't help but think about what he was doing. Should he stay and try to fight them, or leave and call in the big boys. After thinking about it for awhile, he decided he was making the right choice. The hum of the machines quickly put him to sleep. He dreamed about his wife and kids.
Captain Green's eyes slowly slid open, but do to the roar of klaxons and the flashing of the red emergency lights, he suddenly jumped up. He rubbed his eyes, and smoothed out his uniform. He quickly walked out of his room, and down to the hall toward the elevator. He breathed in deeply as he pressed the up arrow, and waited for the elevator doors to slide open before him. They eventually did, and he stepped in. He hit B, and stepped back, waiting impatiently. A ding sounded and he stepped onto the bridge.
"Alright, everybody, now, why are the emergency lights on and why are the alarms sounding?" No one answered. "Well, why the hell wasn't I woken up?" Again, no one answered. They were all speechless; their mouths were dropped open, and frozen in place. Machaon finally pointed to the large bay window that displayed the whole front area of the ships view. Green quickly snapped his head to the left, and his jaw dropped as well. A Covenant cruiser ship was heading right for them, portside facing them. Lines of red and blue appeared on the surface.
"Sir, course correction," Child blurted out. Her face showed fear.
"Yes, give me course correction one, zero, zero, four, five, six, zero!" Green knew they had no chance against a cruiser. The Achilles was never meant for battle with cruisers, but then again, so far no other UNSC ship was either. The Achilles had one MAC Projectile weapon, and 8 Archer missile pods. But they had 2 Shiva Warheads, which were quite deadly, but wouldn't be useful here due to the minimal distance the cruiser was from them. The warhead would take them down, also.
"Course correction one, zero, zero, four, five, six, zero. Sir, they have sent a projectile toward us, impact in 45 seconds." Green swallowed hard, sweated dripped down his back. Everyone was drenched in sweat. He gripped his arm rests on his chair, and sat straighter.
"Damn it, move this ship, Child! Give me 110% power, and give it to our speed! If we sit here any longer, we won't go home to see our families." Everyone sat straighter and seemed more at the ready. The slip lurched forward, and Green had to grip tighter, and sit back to avoid falling from his seat.
"Sir, impact in 25 seconds, it is following us." Green mentally beat up on himself for that one, everyone knew the Covenant projectiles were followers; how could he have used so much power for something so useless? He had to put that behind him, he wouldn't let his crew die.
"Stop this ship, Child, and transfer the 110% from the reactor to the MAC weapon, Machaon. Send them to Hell." Green's face showed a smile.
"Aye, sir, MAC weapon firing now," Machaon said. The ship shuddered as the fiery projectile shot out, and sped toward the cruiser.
"Charge the MAC again…and finish them off," Green exclaimed. The Covenant projectile would hit them no matter what, but the two MAC Projectile's would, if not destroy, render the cruiser useless.
"Sir, impact in 5…4…3…2…1!" Green held on as tight as he could. The 150-ton bolt of plasma slammed into the ship. The bridge got noticeably hotter, and the stretching of metal could be heard all around.
"Give me a damage report, Child. Save the good news for last, also." Green wiped his forehead with the sleeve of his uniform.
"Decks A1-A5 are gone! The rest of the decks have been breached, and there have been over 150 casualties!" Green's eyes slowly closed, and he cursed silently.
"Well, let us focus on destroying this bastard," Green pointed to the cruiser. The first MAC round connected and the shields flickered, and died. The second round hit right after, and gutted the cruiser from stem to stern. "Power up the MAC again…one last time, Machaon!"
"Aye, sir, MAC weapon is powered up and ready, sir."
"You know what to do then, send them Hades. And this time, let's make sure we do!" The cruiser slowly started to move, but its shields were no longer working. It was junk, but could still fire, and that was dangerous. The MAC round lurched toward the ship, and when it connected, created a fiery explosion that was beautiful. Everyone on the bridge smiled, and sighed with relief. "All right, let's get this back to Earth. Make sure we have no followers first, though."
"Sir, incoming transmission, it's Admiral Lincoln!"
"Put it on the overhead teletron, thank you." Green didn't know whether this was good news, or bad news.
A grainy picture of the Admiral popped up on screen. "First of all, I would like to congratulate all of you on your victory," the Admiral's voice seemed a bit shaky, "but we have a more important goal right now, to save Earth!"
"What do you mean by that, Admiral," Green said questioningly.
"What I mean is that there are over 150 cruisers headed towards Earth, and they are bent on glassing it over!"
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