The Siege of Zion Base; Part One: Mission - Chapter 5
Posted By: Scimitarex<scimitarex@omegacell.net>
Date: 13 February 2004, 7:43 PM
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Chapter Five
1310 Hours, December 8, 2552
Sinai Star System, in orbit of
planet Genesis
When the Covenant had exited Slipspace, they had exited right in the very midst of the planetary orbital defense net. Because the planet was worth so much to the war effort the system had a dozen orbital MAC battlestations, as well as a small fleet of destroyers, and frigates for protection. The most powerful ship, being the command ship of the flotilla was the Barca, sister ship the Hannibal which had been destroyed at Reach.
The Barca's commander was Commodore Helen Pierce, who was also charged with Genesis' defense fleet. Pierce had been taken by complete surprise for several reasons; it was not known to the UNSC that the Covenant had even known the location of the Sinai system; and they had jumped into the midst of their entire defense network. That meant that they had known the precise locations of each MAC station and ship before they had jumped in system.
Within the first seconds of the Covenant's exit into the system, they had bypassed the early warning system and destroyed the communication arrays of the main orbital control platform in orbit over the planet. The planet-side forces had no warning at all until the first plasma volley had reached the surface of the planet, obliterating medical facilities and communication bunkers.
Commodore Pierce was a brilliant tactician, and held her own against the Covenant who, much to her surprise, had brought only half the number of UNSC ships. The UNSC fleet not only outnumbered the Covenant two to one, but they also had the advantage of the orbital defense stations. The Covenant's whole attack seemed to be based around surprising them. Now that they had lost that advantage she wondered what they would do next.
Her first thought was that the Covenant might have reinforcements waiting to jump in-system, but she had never seen the Covenant attack in this manner before, so she kept ready for anything.
Then she saw it, a large battle cruiser, flanked by two smaller frigates, made they're way toward the planet, suddenly breaking off from the engagement. They were after the planet-side structures on the northern continent and were going to invade.
She ordered a few ships to follow and eliminate the threat to the planet, and sent a transmission on the emergency frequencies to the ground facilities warning them to prepare for invasion.
Pierce then turned her attention to the battle, and how they Covenant had planned this attack. She knew there were only a few possibilities; either the Covenant had a spy in their forces; they could scan star systems from immense distances; or the UNSC had a traitor who was giving the Covenant information. She discounted the last idea almost immediately, it was a possibility, but it didn't fit the precision with which the Covenant had orchestrated the attack. The traitor would have had to be in the Sinai system to have relayed such precise information. The security in this sector was so tight though, that not even Covenant sympathizers, as rare as they were, could have know the system's location let alone the exact positions of their fleet and battle stations.
The second option was also unlikely. The Covenant had never been able to scan from other star systems from known experience, though she supposed that they could have developed the technology. But even that possibility seemed remote.
That left only the first option, the Covenant had a spy in this system's forces. Any Covenant spy that was organic would be immediately recognized, so it wasn't one of the aliens. A ship perhaps? Even if the Covenant had developed the ability to jam a star ship's sensors, they would have detected a transmission. Or would they? If they were using a unknown type of stealth transmission, it was possible they might have mistakenly thought the transmission to be background radiation.
Then it occurred to her. What if the spy was one of them, but not a person?
She immediately ordered every ship to scan their AI databases for anything out of the ordinary. Ten minutes later reports came in from every ship. There was no Covenant AI present in any ship. So it wasn't an AI. Then it had to be something they had overlooked.
Pierce returned her thoughts to the battle in space and left the thoughts of how and why this had happened for later. After they had driven the Covenant out of the system, then they could think about how the Covenant had done it. How they had passed every defense measure in one of the most tightly defended locations in UNSC space.
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