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Shadows of an Empire: Chapter 1
Posted By: tsukahara10<st.krueger@comcast.net>
Date: 29 September 2006, 9:00 pm
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Chapter 1: Invincible
0852 March 25th, 2561 (UNSC Military Calendar)
UNSC Flagship Invincible, in orbit around Earth
Markus saluted a passing Navy Commander as he made his way towards his General's office. He had orders to report to General of the Corps James Patterson at 0900 hours for reasons undisclosed at the time. Markus was very nervous for several reasons. For one, this was the General of the Corps. Why would the five star General want to talk to him? It was obviously something very important. Second, he was lost on the huge flagship and couldn't find the General's quarters, and he didn't want to be late.
The Invincible was the first of a new class of warships, the Cole-class Flagship. Five kilometers long, this ship was five times larger than anything else in the UNSC fleet. It boasted six Magnetic Accelerator Cannons covering the forward, aft, port, starboard, ventral, and dorsal sides of the ship. Ten thousand Archer missiles were another part of the ship's arsenal as well as hundreds of automated 50 caliber point defense guns. An experimental plasma turret was also fitted to the nose of the ship. The turret was developed using data given to UNSC scientists by the Elites, and was improved upon by the Humans before being installed on the Invincible. Along with the main weapons, the Invincible had eight hangars capable of holding two squadrons of Longsword fighters each, and had enough barracks to hold an entire division of Marines plus the two thousand man crew.
The flagship was more of a mobile command station that anything else. The vessel was home to several of the highest ranking officers in the UNSC. The bridge crew contained some of the most seasoned veterans and was commanded by Captain Mitsuo Nakano, who had made himself famous during the later years of the war by being the only Captain to destroy or disable over fifty Covenant ships. The Invincible was also the headquarters of the new Colonial Defense Committee, headed by General Patterson. Seven other Generals and Admirals of all degrees made up the committee.
The Invincible was so large and complex that, on his way to see the General, Markus lost himself in the maze of hallways. He should've been in Patterson's quarters by now. He quickly rounded a corner to the right and almost bumped into a Rear Admiral walking out of a door.
"Excuse me, sir," Markus apologized as he snapped a quick salute. "Do you know how to get to General Patterson's quarters from here, sir?"
Without a sound, the Rear Admiral motioned through the doorway he had just come out of and held the door for Markus.
"Thank you, sir," Markus nodded and scurried in the door. He lightly rapped on the door to let the General know he was there.
"Enter," Patterson said. He finished jotting some notes from his previous meeting with the Rear Admiral and looked up to see Markus saluting him in front of his desk.
"Captain Markus Gunderson reporting as ordered, sir," Markus said.
"At ease, son," the General replied.
Markus relaxed and glanced around the room. A small cardboard box on the General's desk caught his eye.
"You've probably been waiting for this for a while," Patterson took the cardboard box, opened it and set it in front of Markus. "So congratulations, Major Gunderson."
Sure enough, inside the box was a golden oak leaf, the insignia of a Major. General Patterson stood up and extended a congratulatory hand. Markus grateful took the General's hand and gave it a nice firm shake.
"Thank you, sir!" Markus exclaimed.
"Of course, it isn't quite official yet," Patterson explained. "There is some paperwork that needs to be done, but we will take care of that before you leave. But now we have more important business." The General sat back down in his chair and leaned back. "You are getting this new promotion because the third Battalion eighth Marines needs a new executive officer. The current XO is AWOL, and we needed someone to replace him as fast as possible seeing as the battalion is currently dealing with another rebellion. You will be serving directly under Lieutenant Colonel Sarah O'Brian. She is a very capable commanding officer, and has led that battalion to many victories. The three-eight owes its record of excellence to her. Now, I've seen your record and I'm confident that you will only add to the excellence."
"I will, sir. Thank you sir," Markus said trying to hold back his excitement. "I won't let you down."
"I know you won't, Major," Patterson smiled knowing that Markus was trying his hardest not to jump through the ceiling. "Let's get down to the important details. Your battalion is currently stationed on Beta Cassiopeia III. Seven hundred Marines make up your battalion, which is split into three infantry companies and an armored company. Should Lieutenant Colonel O'Brian become incapacitated you are to assume full command of the entire battalion until further notice. Understood?"
"Yes, sir," Markus nodded.
"The shuttle Eclipse will take you to your destination," the General continued. "It is scheduled to leave at fourteen hundred hours today. That should give you enough time to get ready. You will be going alone so as not to risk more personnel than we have to, so an AI will fly the shuttle while you spend the five day journey in cryo. The Eclipse will land at Delta Base on BC III. From there you are to find O'Brian and receive further orders. Any questions?"
"No, sir," Markus replied.
"Good," Patterson said as he motioned for Markus to pull up a chair. "Now if you'll take a seat, we can get the boring, tedious paperwork done to make your promotion official."
Captain Mitsuo Nakano felt extremely privileged to command the most powerful ship in the UNSC Navy. The Invincible was truly a force to be reckoned with. It was too bad that it was finished too late to be tested against the Covenant's ships. In fact, the Invincible hadn't seen a single battle in its five years of service. Nakano was silently hoping that these insurrections would give the UNSC reason to test the true power of their first flagship. The Invincible was built to be able to obliterate a group of five Covenant destroyers by itself. The damage it would do to rebel controlled ships was unimaginable. He really wanted to try out the plasma turret. It was the first large scale plasma weapon the Humans had ever constructed. It had been tested on asteroids and large pieces of debris left from the Covenant War, and it worked perfectly. All it needed was a real target.
But Captain Nakano would have to wait another month before he would get a chance to test the "Pride of the UNSC." The Invincible had orders to stay at Earth until the second of the mighty flagships was commissioned, the Intrepid. Then the Invincible would be transferred to the UNSC's new military stronghold, New Reach. From there, the Colonial Defense Committee would oversee all military operations in the New Colonies and what was left of the Outer Colonies.
"Captain, there's some debris heading our way," the sensors officer announced. "Looks like part of an old Covenant Assault Carrier. Must've been kicked into a wide orbit around the sun and just recently come back. It's about two million kilometers behind us, sir."
"Walsh, charge up the plasma turret," Nakano ordered.
"Aye, sir. Turret charging at ten percent per second," replied Lieutenant Tom Walsh, the weapons officer.
"Zimmerman, turn us around, but keep us on our current heading," the Captain said as he leaned back in his chair.
"Aye. Rotating ship, sir," answered Lieutenant Laura Zimmerman from the navigations console.
Earth passed by on the main view screen as the ship rotated and the wrecked Covenant ship came into view. The purple mass of metal was just a small spot, but was slowly increasing in size.
"Plasma turret is fully charged," Walsh said.
"Target the debris and fire," Nakano commanded.
"Firing," Lieutenant Walsh replied.
On the screen, a glowing ball of golden plasma shot forward towards the floating pile of junk. The golden plasma was significantly hotter than the red plasma fired by the Covenant plasma turrets. The Humans had a knack for taking Covenant technology and improving it for their own use. The bridge crew watched as the hundred meter wide ball of energy splashed against the kilometer long hunk of metal. Within seconds, the heat from the plasma disintegrated over half the wrecked ship.
"Charge up and fire again when ready," Captain Nakano said.
"Aye, sir," Walsh typed in the commands on his screen and within seconds a second plasma torpedo sped towards the Covenant ship. The golden blob impacted the wrecked hull and vaporized the last of the debris.
God, I wish that was a real fight, Nakano thought to himself. I need a chance to test this thing in real combat.
Little did he know that his chance would come sooner than expected.
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