Earth's Destruction [6:3] All Alone...For Now
Posted By: Sentinel
Date: 31 March 2004, 11:52 PM
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The red blast of plasma sped past Longsword two faster than the eye could blink. It struck one of the tens of Covenant Seraph fighters charging up the Incinerator. The sniper round blew threw the teardrop shaped craft dead center. An internal explosion in the Seraph's engines caused it to drop straight down, but the fighter didn't explode. It crashed into the Seraph fighter below it. A chain reaction blew apart an entire vertical line. The white glow began to fade.
Raider shut off the lights in the cockpit to conserve the remaining power they had. The only light left in the Longsword was the faded glow of the plasma. "Fire the proton cannon."
Henderson looked around for a split-second to see where the voice came from. And then he realized it. "If we don't fire the cannon, we'll live this battle."
Raider shook his head while diverting the last of Longsword Two's power into the proton cannon charge. There was just enough left to hover where they were. "No we won't. We will die here. About several thousand Covenant are moving to our position, and the Spartan can't fire his weapon forever. And you'd know that if you looked at the radar, you'd know this."
Listening to Raider, Henderson glanced at the radar. A red blip filled up almost half of the circle shaped device, but was slightly separated. On this new type of radar, even the smallest separation can mean thousands of miles. "So, we're gonna fire it at the this blip here behind this blip here."
"No."
"What?"
"We're not going to fire at the blip itself," Raider replied, his face grim. "We're not gonna fire at that, because we firing at the base over there." The starboard camera zoomed in on a Covenant structure. Seraph fighters were spilling out of it like ants after their hill was crushed.
Henderson nodded his head and said, "I understand. I'll target it." He hit a few switches on the weapons consol. "But what the hell did you just say?!"
"You know what I said."
"It's armed, charged, and hot. In case you were wondering."
"I'm diverting all power this baby has into the cannon. This our last act in this war," Raider said grimly. "Fire at will."
"Firing the damn thing already!"
An enormous mass of energy shot from the now fully-crippled Longsword. It moved faster than lighting, and had no real target. It took out anything within a hundred feet of where it was being aimed. The Covenant fighters exploded in midair as the lighting-fast streak of energy sped past them. It finally reached its target, one of the major Covenant hangers. Electricity surged around the circular structure until it dissolved. The hanger appeared unharmed, until a flash of light so bright that it could blind you erupted from the Covenant structure. Every Covenant building in a five-mile radius dissolved. This was more destruction than when the Covenant glassed Reach.
"Damn," Henderson said, mentioning the destruction. "We gotta start giving the boys at ONI credit for this weapon."
Raider looked over his shoulder at the weapons officer. "We could, but ONI is obviously not around anymore!" He said with a lot of sarcasm.
"And now we're falling to our deaths," Henderson muttered.
It was clearly true. Longsword Two was dropping out of the odd "evening" sky. With the Longsword out of power, it was going to be an explosive landing.
* * * * * * *
"Longsword Two! Repeat, Longsword Two!" Spartan 467, Eric, said into the com while the Pelicans, with the remaining Longswords, retreated from the midair battlefield. "If you're out there, and alive, retreat to Base Zulu. Repeat, if you're still out there, retreat to Base Zulu."
Eric opened his external speakers. "I don't think they made it." Ever since the destruction of the Covenant hanger it had been slow going, finishing of the remaining Seraph fighters. The Covenant certainly were weaker here. That had to be the reason.
Several other Longsword fighters from the Firewall that had launched earlier than the ones the last remaining human forces had before this battle. They had landed a few kilometers from where the Firewall had crashed. It was amazing that they had survived the three months they were on this godforsaken planet.
Flight Leader Roger Hollows hit the autopilot switch. "I am so sick of piloting this thing non-stop, day after day," he complained, relaxing into his seat.
"Quit you're complaining, the Covenant could appear at any second and take your breath away."
* * * * * * *
Chris Raider forced himself from out of the severed cockpit. As they were going down, power returned to the Longsword. Just enough was given back to slow their decent. It was a miracle. But know they were in unknown territory, just on the outskirts of a Covenant city.
"Why'd fate have to pick this location for us to crash," Raider muttered grimly as he fell to his knees by Henderson's unconscious form. And now they were alone, all alone.
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