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Earth's Destruction Chapter 6: Flying Solo Part One: Midair Melee
Posted By: Sentinel<bertuccismith@aol.com>
Date: 12 December 2003, 11:11 PM


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"We ready to attack their capital?" Eric asked through his comm. channel as the seven remaining Pelicans took off from the battlefield. Two of the four tanks from the Firewall had survived the last battle. Which was really the fifteenth on this world.

The pilot, Flight Leader Roger Hallows, started the engines. "Yeah. Everything's ready."

The Scorpion tanks were fit onto the sides of two Pelicans, each parallel to each other. That was enough firepower that won them their last victory. Although the Covenant lost thousands of soldiers, the Marines continue to have minor loses. Weird, isn't it? It's as though the Covenant on their homeworld are weaker than the soldiers that destroyed every human colony.

"Good, "Eric replied as he jumped through the open hatch. "Let's go."

There were 567 Marines, 256 Helljumpers, fifty-seven naval personnel, and one Spartan at the beginning of this fight in this hellhole. Now only 429 Marines, 198 ODSTs (Helljumpers), 37 naval personnel, and one Spartan left, and this was just the beginning. The UNSC forces were now headed toward the Covenant's capital city, far worse threats were there than around the more outskirts of the planet's many cities. Why, the whole planet was one big city, with less protection where the humans were. To the Covenant, in this particular location, were going easy. Not good at all.

The Pelican took off. This was one of the Pelicans that wasn't attached to a Scorpion tank. The Seven Pelicans took off in a V formation. The five remaining Longswords surrounded the dropships. The three Pelicans that weren't holding a Scorpion were holding a Warthog. They had managed to search the Firewall's wreckage and secure the other three Warthogs. The other two LRVs, and two Scorpion MBTs, were destroyed in that recovery mission. Admiral Severn was listed as KIA.

Eric shut off his MJOLNIR armor's external speakers and whispered, "At least he died fighting." That was a horrific battle. The city that they were in unleashed its entire Covenant army on them. Eric had to fire the deadly Fuel Rod Cannon SP from his SM8B, wiping out the army, but killing twenty-seven of his own men. And the thing is that those Marines were one hundred meters away at the time. Eric replaced his weapon with a dead Marine lucky enough to get one.

The whole purpose was to retrieve ammo, weapons, ect. Eric shuddered at the thought. Now back to reality. Eric rechecked his SM8B five times in the copilot seat.

Eric checked his radar. A huge blip was heading toward them, a red blip. Clearly not a good sign. He shouted the pilot to pull up, but Hallows never looked away from the cockpit window. Eric then realized that his external speakers were off and set them to "on". He turned to Hallows. "There's a reception waiting for us."

Hallows had a shocked look on his face, then he remembered his training. The frightened look subsided as hit turned on the comm. "This is Pelican 3 to all UNSC units. An extremely large radar blip is moving in our direction. Let's set the table."

The dropships and fighters continued, battle-ready. Then a swarm of Seraph fighters sped at them with terrifying speed. "This won't end well," Hallows muttered as he reached for trigger on his joystick.

"Let's blast them all to hell!" a new voice came from the comm. "And save them the trouble!"

The Seraphs began to form a straight line, the signal to start the Covenant's ultimate weapon, codenamed Incinerator. The Spartan opened up every human comm. channel. "Longswords, take out those fighters before they blow us to particles." He then added, "And hurry!"

The Longswords accelerated ahead of the Pelicans. A straight white line appeared along each Seraphs' hull. "They're charging the weapon," Eric whispered absentmindedly. "This better work."

The Longswords open fired upon the enemy ships, blowing holes in their charge. The Seraph fighters managed to fire an Incinerator shot, but enough Covenant ships were out to disrupt its aim. The shot fired in a remote direction, one far from the UNSC ships.

Eric sighed. They wouldn't be able to fire another one. Human and Covenant ships alike were swarming all over the place. More Seraph fighters joined the party, continuing to unbalance the odds. Hallows kept his hand on the Pelican's autocannon trigger. If any stray enemies came anywhere close, he'd pull the trigger and blast them to hell. The Seraph pilots clearly didn't have the idea to attack the Pelicans. They just flew around in fancy circles waiting to die. Eric concluded that they were probably screaming. These were the most inexperienced pilots he had ever seen. And ONI thought that the Covenant homeworld's defenses were the toughest enemies. Only the planet's outer defenses were deadly.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Longsword Flight Leader Chris Raider forced his Longsword into a steep dive, dodging Seraph plasma fire. Flight Officer Sam Henderson fired the 120mm autocannons. Both were the most skilled Longsword pilot and weapon specialists in the entire UNSC. Nothing could ever touch them, and they were determined to fight to the end.

"Maintain constant fire!" Raider yelled as he spiraled out of his dive.

Henderson switched to the 500mm heavy-duty cannons. "Not this time! I'm gonna blow each of them in one shot!"

"I order you to switch back to the autocannons now!" Raider said as a Seraph accelerated toward the Longsword. Clearly a collision course.

Henderson pulled his joystick's trigger. "Not this time!" he said calmly as the high-explosive round turned the Covenant craft into molten metal.

"On second thought, continue what you're doing." Raider pulled up just in time to dodge fifty plasma bolts at once.

Each blast missed by a mile as many explosions went off at once...





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