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Attack on Sol (Part 1)
Posted By: Slit Throat
Date: 7 May 2004, 10:56 PM
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Ensign Margaret Gibson blearily opened her eyes. A status screen located just over her bunk blinked on as she took stock of her surroundings. Gibson was stationed on the observational outpost orbiting Pluto. Ever since the survivors from Reach had returned and uncovered the immediate threat to Earth, the U.N.S.C. had been on full alert. They had reassigned top people to the outposts on the edge of the system and had ships on patrol 24-7.
Margaret slowly sat up and checked the monitor; everything was green and no contacts, friendly or otherwise. Her curly brown hair bounced as she got out of the bunk and dressed. It was 0600 and her watch started at 0630, but Margaret had a habit of being early. She walked down the bare hallway leading to the main analysis station and opened the door. The young man sitting at the main computer gave a start and turned around.
"Hey Marge. I wish you'd stop sneaking up on me like that, it gives me the creeps!"
Max Stratel was the Lieutenant in charge of the outpost and had been for several months.
"Hey Max," Margaret returned with a grin, "is it me sneaking or you sleeping?"
Suddenly a red light pulsed on the control panel. They both just stared at it for a moment before responding. Red meant either the Covenant or a malfunction, and with the maintenance check only a day gone, it was sure to be the former.
"Get Pluto HQ on the line, quick," Max ordered, already typing in commands for a probe launch, "probe launch in 3,2,1."
A small dot appeared on the display as the probe entered Slipstream to check the source of the warning.
"Pluto HQ on the line," Margaret announced. " General Kamter, we have incoming contacts, likely Covenant ships, probe is checking now," Max said into the desk mic, " standby."
The data collector was suddenly covered with calculations and one brief message: HOSTILES CONFIRMED.
"Covenant battle group incoming sir, better warn the Fleet."
**********************************************************
Master Chief, Spartan John-117, was dozing. There had not been much time for resting after he and his team returned with the news of the dire Covenant threat. This was the first time in 3 days that he had gotten any sleep at all.
John was awakened with a jolt as a Klaxon went off in the loading bay. He immediately jumped off the bench he had been relaxing on and activated a com link to the bridge.
"What's going on sir," he asked, "are we under attack?"
"Not at the moment" came the terse reply from Captain Mark Telling, "but we've just received a report from the Pluto observational outpost that the Covenant are on their way. The Washington is enroute to head them off."
The Washington was one of about 20 cruisers left in the Fleet. It had been Vice-Admiral Preston Cole's flagship in the campaign for Harvest. Now commanded by Captain Mark Telling, it was manned by some of the best naval personnel in the Fleet including all surviving Spartans. Even armed with 3 formidable MAC cannons, 75 automated defense guns, and 50 Archer missile pods, however, the Washington was no match for a Covenant battle group.
"Alone sir," asked John, incredulously, "with all due respect, is that wise?"
"Not alone," responded Telling, "but with 9 other ships. You see, when you and your squad returned, Cortana gave us the specs on the Covenant shield system. We improved upon them as best we could and these ships have been outfitted with the improved shields. We also were able to install the improved weapons and reactors used on the Pillar of Autumn. These ships are the best in the Fleet as of yet."
"That's good to know sir," acknowledged John, relieved, "what should my team and I do?"
"Just be ready, we may need you to board one of their ships."
"Right sir, we'll be ready."
**********************************************************
"What was that about?" asked Linda when John turned away from the com panel on the wall.
"That was the Captain." John said, "we're on our way to Pluto to head off a Covenant assault."
Fred sighed, "it was only a matter of time."
"So what's the plan Chief," queried Will.
"When we reach Pluto, if the battle starts to tip in the Covenant's favor, we'll board one of their ships and attempt to take it over." 'Just like the Ascendant-Justice' he thought.
"So we're just extra cargo until things get nasty," concluded Fred. John nodded.
"We might as well get some rest," suggested Linda, " we have about 10 hours."
10 hours later, the Washington's battle group exited Slipstream about a billion kilometers from Pluto to find a desperate battle taking place. 20 human vessels, mostly frigates and a few destroyers, were being slaughtered by a Covenant armada of at least 50 ships!
A few of what passed for frigates in the Covenant fleet moved to engage the interlopers. Their plasma turrets warmed and belched superheated plasma at the incoming ships. The Washington and other ships opened fire with their MAC cannons. Plasma and depleted uranium shells crossed each other so that it seemed the intervening space was on fire. The plasma impacted first but the new shields flared, cooled and held.
The MAC rounds, however, hit the Covenant ships with such force that their shields did not so much as flicker before they died. Several punctured each ship and they all went up in clouds of nuclear gas. The remaining 30 or so Covenant ships turned and opened fire on the new threat. All of the original human ships were either dead in space or utterly destroyed.
Once again fire covered the intervening space and impacted each side but due to the sheer number of enemy ships, the humans began to take losses.
The first to go was the Lincoln. It took 3 hits to the nose and its shield flickered and faded. Another round hit the bridge, and rendered the ship dead in space. The Covenant, however, were taking heavy casualties.
Out of the original 50 ships, only 12 remained and they had all taken damage to one degree or another. Suddenly all of the ships wheeled around and moved off. They gathered speed for a Slipstream transition, but the Washington launched one more volley at the retreating ships and managed to disable one. The rest entered Slipstream and escaped.
The Spartans had watched the battle via external cameras.
"That was impressive," said Will "I guess the shields really work, we only lost 3 ships!"
"I just wonder why the Covenant retreated," mused Linda. "They've only done that a few times. At Reach, and Sigma Octanus they dropped ground troops and at Halo they warned their leader. I wonder what they're up to here." said John ticked them off his fingers and shook his head.
"Well the shields must have been a shock and we did hit them pretty hard," pointed out Fred "maybe they went to get reinforcements or to regroup?"
"Let's make sure they didn't drop any troops," suggested John "we don't want to loose any planet unawares.
He walked over to the com and linked to the bridge. "Captain, I'd like you to scan the planet's surface for troops and such." requested John.
"Already done. There's nothing unusual down there that we can tell, and even if there were, we have bigger problems."
"Like what sir?" asked John.
"We just got the news a few minutes ago. The Covenant bypassed all the other planets, Earth is under attack."
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