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Aboard the Virginia
Posted By: snypehunter117<redsgehl@verizon.net>
Date: 15 February 2005, 9:52 PM
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HALO:Aboard the Virginia- Chapter 1
1822 Hours, December 2, 2552 (Military Calendar)/
UNSC Vessel Virginia- Slip space- en route to Sol System
The master chief stood on the bridge, looking over damage reports on his heads-up-display. "Cortona, how long until we reach Earth?"
"Approximately 17 hours," Cortana's disembodied voice responded. Normally the purple slender form of Master Chief's A.I. would be displayed on the bridge's holopad, but the previous battle had rendered its projector inoperable. "I could move this tug faster if I had a little more power," Cortana nagged.
"Well, unless you can somehow get reactors three and four operational, you're going to have to take what you can get. Your computer alone takes up nearly 15% of all the ship's remaining power," The chief responded. The ship was a mess. Out of its original four reactors, only two remained... and they were both badly damaged- one at 17% and the other at 23%. They had barely enough power to operate the slip space drive and Cortana at the same time. "What is the status of the ship?"
"Not much better then it was the last time you checked. As you know, our weapons check brings in nothing. Structural integrity is down to its lowest operational strength, power generators are barely working and..." Cortana was cut off by the noise of the ship exiting slip space.
"I thought that we had another 17 hours," Master Chief asked, slightly confused.
"We do... The power generators can no longer generate enough power to maintain a stable flight through slip space. At the generators' current rate of decay, I estimate that they have a maximum semi-effective lifespan of 2 hours before complete failure. Sorry Chief, but that's the best I can give you with this hardware."
"Well, I guess it'll have to do. Where are we?"
"We are 600 million kilometers outside of the Epsilon Eridani System... I'll move us closer, I'll give you an update as soon as we get into scanner range," Cortana replied.
"Good work Cortana. Keep us moving in-system and park us in the asteroid field. I don't want any surprises." The chief thought for a moment, and then asked, "How much power do you think we will have when we reach the asteroids?"
"Sorry to say Chief, but only about 7%. I'm sorry, but our ship will not be able to function on that little power. I'll have to go into your suit in order to be any help at all. Also, you'll have to route all power to the engines, and switch the life support of the bridge to local emergency batteries."
"I see. You heard the lady, Marines. Pack up all the gear that is still of any use to us and move it onto the bridge. Cortana: Drop power to life support and depressurize all compartments except for the bridge in five minutes."
"Yes Sir!" The 2 remaining marines and Cortana answered.
HALO:Aboard the Virginia- Chapter 2
1827 Hours, December 2, 2552 (Military Calendar)/
UNSC Vessel Virginia-Asteroid Belt of the Epsilon Eridani System
"There's more space in here than there is between Earth and the outer colonies," Cortana wittily remarked as she uploaded herself to the Chief's brain.
"I think someone gained a little weight..." The Chief joked back.
"Touché"
"What's our power level?"
"Well," Lieutenant Savoia responded, "Worse off than Cortana predicted. We are currently at 5.6%, and dropping. We've got about eleven minutes of useable power left."
"Cortana, are you thinking what I'm thinking?" The Chief asked with a smile.
"I think so. From what I can make out on long range scanners, the covenant never cleaned up the floating junk yard in orbit of Reach... If we can get there, there might be a chance that we can find a working fusion reactor, just like we did for the Ascendant Justice, only this time, we gut the ship that has the reactor, and trade it for one of the reactors we have. Lieutenant Savoia, please plot a course, take us to Reach's graveyard of ships."
"Yes ma'am" Savoia responded as she began typing into the NAV computer. The weakened Virginia groaned as ship accelerated to a mere 6 percent of its normal speed. "ETA at this speed, thirty four minutes, and that's if the power lasted the whole time. It'll take close to three hours after the power fails. Ideas anyone?"
"According to weapons panel one," Pvt. Hicks said thinking aloud, "We still have the front chemical pack... That should be enough thrust to slow us down, if not, we can use what little power we have left in the local power grids of the lower deck. That'll give us enough power to stop for sure."
"Good plan," the Chief commented, and then added, "but we're going to have to re-wire a few things on the lower decks in order to get the power we'll need to stop. I'll rewire it myself, since I have a pressurized suit. I'll be back in forty minutes." With that, the Master Chief stepped onto the elevator, and went down to deck 3.
HALO: Aboard the Virginia- Chapter 3
1907 Hours, December 2, 2552 (Military Calendar)/
UNSC Vessel Virginia- In orbit of Reach- Epsilon Eridani System
(Forty Minutes Latter)
The Master Chief stepped back onto the bridge from the elevator. "Well," he stated, "the lower decks' power is ready to be transferred to the engines."
"Just in time too," Lt. Savoia responded. "We're getting mighty close to Reach. Cortana, go ahead and fire the front chemical pad."
"Firing now," Cortana announced. A loud thud emanated from the nose of the ship and jerked the three crewmembers forward from rapid deceleration. "Good news. Our speed is now down to 80 kilometers per second. I'll fire what remains of the thrusters. We'll be in scanning range in 3..... 2..... 1. I'm doing an active scan now, and maintaining speed at 15 kilometers per second. Ah, here we go. Although not an exact match, it should work pretty well. I have found one frigate power core operating at 32%. Not much, which is why I overlooked it last time I was here, but it's more than we have now. Moving to intercept."
"Good work Cortana. Keep us updated."
"Will do Chief. I'm using the few remaining repair drones on the Virginia to cut out one of our current reactor, and then swap it with the Yorktown's reactor." The ship slowly groaned to a halt 'above' the Yorktown. "This won't take long."
"Sir!" Pvt. Hicks called out with fear in his voice. "Long range scanners indicate that a Covenant scout ship has just transitioned from slip space near the edge of the system... and it looks like it's spotted us."
"This isn't good," the Chief said as he shifted in his seat. He didn't like space battles. He didn't trust space ships- never has, and never will. On the ground, he could win. But in space... let's just say it was a different story. "Cortana, I need that reactor installed ASAP. We're sitting ducks out here."
"I'm working as fast as I can Chief. I'll need at least fifteen minutes. No bargaining. That's as fast as I can go."
"Just try and hurry up. I don't like just sitting here."
HALO: Aboard the Virginia- Chapter 4
1909 Hours, December 2, 2552 (Military Calendar)/
UNSC Vessel Virginia- In orbit of Reach- Epsilon Eridani System
"Covenant ship will intercept us in nine minutes. Hear that Cortana?" Pvt. Hicks reported.
"I am well aware of our present situation Private. Good news. Installing the reactor is going better then I expected... but we'll still be cutting it close." Cortona informed the Private.
"Hicks? What is our weapons status?" The Chief asked in a calm and serious voice.
"Not good sir. With the power we have now, the best I can give you is... point defense chain guns." The chain guns were designed to try and repel boarding craft. They had a lot of trouble penetrating shields, but they could tear through un-shielded craft at close range very quickly. "But we only have eleven out of our twenty-five operational... and we don't have the crew to operate them. Without Cortona controlling them, they're of no use to us. Sorry Chief, but we don't have enough power to even think about using the MAC gun right now."
"Well... it'll have to do. Power them up using their local batteries and... prepare them to fire together. Give me manual firing control." The Private typed few commands into the computer and a picture of space popped onto the Chief's HUD. Soon a little targeting reticule appeared on the display. This allowed the chief to fire the chain guns as if he were at one of the weapon stations. If the chain guns had more of a punch, then the covenant wouldn't stand a chance. But they weren't more powerful... and that would be a problem.
HALO: Aboard the Virginia Chapter 5
1918 Hours, December 2, 2552 (Military Calendar)/
UNSC Vessel Virginia- In orbit of Reach- Epsilon Eridani System
"Covenant ship is within firing range... and we still can't move!" Pvt. Hicks reported in terror.
"Generator installed Chief. You'd better plug me into the system now."
"Nice timing. I'm inserting you back into the mainframe now, Cortana. Get us out of here!"
"No problem Chief. We are heading out of system at 15% thrust... I'm also charging the slip space capacitors with the power we have left. Charging will be complete in forty five seconds," Cortana happily reported.
"Covenant ship is firing!" Pvt. Hicks yelled.
"Savoia- evasive maneuvers!" The Chief ordered.
"Already on it."
"Thirty seconds until the Slip space drive is ready," Cortana said. Two loud thuds reverberated through the ship as super heated plasma blobs met the cool titanium of the Virginia's hull.
"We may not last that long if the Covenant keeps this up." The chief commented as he gritted his teeth from another impact. "Hicks. Take control of the bottom side turrets, I'll use the dorsal ones. They may not be much, but let's try and give them back everything that they're giving us."
"Yes Sir!"
"Chief? I have an idea to deal with that pesky Scout ship that's on our tail... and with your permission; I'd like to have a little fun with them." Cortana requested with a hint of amusement in her voice.
The Virginia shuddered and groaned as another plasma blob cut into its hull. The turrets sprung to life and let out 30 rounds of armor-piercing explosive rounds per second. The Covenant ship's shield glowed as the rounds bounced harmlessly of them. The covenant commanders must have been laughing at the humans struggle to survive. They were sure that there was no way they could possibly lose... because they happened to miss the tactical nuke that was heading straight for them- right before it detonated. The Virginia protected itself from the blast when it hid behind a drifting human ship- that still happened to contain a good bit of solid Titanium-A armor. The blast was so close to the enemy ship that its shields flickered, then died. But the Virginia still did not have enough fire power to blow the scout out of the sky... on its own anyway.
"Never," Cortana transmitted to the Covenant ship, "under any circumstances, pick a fight with a human ship that is obviously superior to yours." Those were the last words that the Covenant aboard that ship would ever hear. From the human ship that the Virginia hid behind came a huge burst of flame- As one lone archer missile pod shot from its holding tube a lunched towards the enemy ship. "Gotcha" Cortana smiled as the Archer missile made contact with the nose of the scout ship. A burst of flame engulfed the vessel and soon nothing was left of it but a molten slag.
A few seconds ago, while The Chief was busy making a distraction with the chain guns, Cortana was describing her plan to Lt. Savoia.
"Here's the plan," Cortana instructed Lt. Savoia through a private com. channel. "The chief is going to keep the ship busy with the turrets while I have Douglas fire its single active tactical nuke. You see, the Douglas was disabled before it had a chance to even fire its weapons. I'm launching the nuke now. It will take twenty seconds to reach the scout ship. Once the nuke takes out the Covenant's shields, I will fire an Archer Missile from the Nautilus in order to destroy the craft. In order for us to survive this plan though, I'll need you to get us here (a nav marker was displayed on the main view screen). Can you do that for me Savoia?"
"Yes Ma'am!" the Lieutenant responded in what Cortana thought was the most positive attitude she'd seen in her since the team of marines she had under her command died at the hands of the covenant on the failed mission that they were returning from.
"Covenant threat neutralized"
"Excellent work Cortana. How long until the Slip space drive is ready?"
"It's ready when you are."
"Take us directly to the Sol system."
"With pleasure." And with that, the Virginia was whisked away into the non-space of slip space.
If you want to see a more colrful version of this, go to http://mysite.verizon.net/vze8ne6e/id5.html
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