September 22, 2541

Prologue: The planet Dresden, a UNSC colony in the Telenovus system, has recently had some interesting developments. The planet is an oceanless, temperate colony of 54 million people. The planet itself was created in the aftermath of a supernova, so it has an unusually high concentration of the radioactive element: Uranium. Because of the high amounts of the element, 78% of all UNSC Nuclear weapons come from this one planet. Thus, the UNSC Office of Naval Intelligence has taken a particular interest in safeguarding the planet, and the recent Human-Covenant war has made this all the more necessary. ONI placed a space station in an asteroid field near the planet to keep an eye on things. The station and system’s been quiet. Well, until recently…

Location: Telenovus system / Colony: Dresden / ONI observation station 661 / 0300 hours.

Lieutenant Bryan O’Connor stared with groggy disbelief at the lit up instrument panel near his bunk. 4 out of the 5 lights were lit up, and the steady whine of a klaxon was buzzing in the background.

“This had better not be another one of those dam drills.” O’Connor muttered to no one. His bunkmate, however, heard him. Sergeant Wade Sherman was 6 foot 6, about 250 pounds, and could probably wrestle a grizzly bear with one arm. He was good humored, and a fine soldier in a fight, bragging that he had once hit a grenade at 600 yards with a BR-55 battle rifle. Whether or not this is true has yet to be confirmed.

“Lieutenant, if this is one of the Ensign’s dam jokes, I’m going to lose my foot up their…” The lieutenant cut him off before he could finish.

“Sergeant, a Class-4 alert is only triggered by the station’s computer if there is a serious threat. Crewmen cannot even trigger that type of an alert. Unless, of course, it’s another drill.”

 Captain Ernest Evans, ONI commander of the station, was away at Reach for his annual security briefing, so command of the station was left to Lieutenant O’Connor. 5 foot 11 and 200 pounds, Sergeant Sherman dwarfed O’Connor, but the men had a mutual respect for each other. O’Connor was a by-the-book, traditional ONI officer. He wore glasses, and had one of the highest tested IQ’s in the UNSCDF. Captain Evans had kindly programmed the computer to drill the men daily to keep discipline up while he was gone, but that decision had not gone particularly well with the crew, least of all Sherman.

            As he was trying to get his boots on, the station’s power flickered for a second or two. The sergeant tripped over his halfway attached boot, slammed his head on the bunk’s steel frame, and descended into a fit of cursing.

            “All right sergeant, that’s enough. Let’s get to the bridge and figure out what the computer wants, or to shut it down if it’s a drill.” The lieutenant ordered.

            “Yeah, yeah, I’m coming.”

            Ordinarily, a UNSC Marine Corps Sergeant would have no place on an ONI Installation. However, ONI felt that Dresden was a high-priority enough target to justify a few marines on board to meet the occasional unfortunate pirate who attempted to board the station. The station itself was affectionately called “The Doughnut” due to its superstructure appearance. It was a large ring of steel and titanium 40 meters in diameter, and spun at 5 rotations per minute to simulate artificial gravity. The station had advanced communications equipment that was capable of firing a high-frequency radio signal deep into space, so that ONI would be the first to know of any trouble at the station. The station itself was old, a relic of the 24^th century, but refitted to serve ONI’s needs. The power system faltered and failed every now and then, as evidenced by the flicker that the sergeant experienced earlier.

            As O’Connor and Sherman walked the short path to the bridge of the Doughnut, they were joined by equally upset marines and ONI personnel. No one liked drills, especially not at 3 in the morning. Meeting on the bridge, Lieutenant O’Connor took charge of the situation:

            “Computer: Diagnostic reason for Class-4 alert.” He barked out robotically.

            “Deep space anomaly 4428965AG has unexpectedly changed directions. Due to ONI protocol 481, it is required that a Class-4 alert be enacted at this time.” The computer’s metallic voice responded.

            “Distance from station?” The Lieutenant inquired.

            “Query: Define station please.” The computer countered

            Sergeant Sherman was getting seriously irritated at this point. Woken up at 3 in the morning to ask a computer about a strange moving asteroid, and then having to explain to the computer which station you wanted a distance for.

            “Dammit! Which station do you think he means?” the sergeant exploded.

            The lieutenant, calm as always, said to the computer, “Station definition number 661.”

            The computer clicked and buzzed for a moment, then replied, “Deep space anomaly 4428965AG: Trajectory- .07 degrees down angle from Station 661, moving at 72 m/s. Collision chance calculated at 0.00021%.”

            “Computer, take appropriate countermeasures to drop that chance to 0%. Please identify primary composition of 4428965AG.” The lieutenant ordered as the other men began to shuffle out of the room, seeing that there was no danger. He took off his glasses and began to clean them, a habit he had even when they didn’t need it.

            “Scanning… 4428965AG composition: Unknown alloy.” The computer said.

            “Unknown!?” The lieutenant exclaimed. The computer had always been able to detect the type of object in this asteroid field. “Computer” he said tensely, “Visual, please”

            “Affirmative. 4428965AG will be in visual range in 4.2 seconds.”

            There was a very large asteroid about 6 kilometers away from the station, which the computer believed that 4428965AG was behind. As soon as it cleared the asteroid, the computer locked on to it, and displayed it on the screen. All that appeared to O’Connor was a speck.

            “Computer, Magnify 1600%.” He said suspiciously

            “Affirmative.” The computer responded. As the screen zoomed in on the object, Lieutenant Bryan David O’Connor saw the clear outline of a Covenant CCS-Class Battlecruiser, causing his glasses to fall and smash on the floor a second later.

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Praise the Lord

Not bad, not bad. Keep up the good work!

collie2553:

Not bad, not bad. Keep up the good work!

Thank you sir!

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Praise the Lord

pretty good for first chapter nice work

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my account (my brother made the name)
Tanmanksu1000

My brothers acount i use
Topgun1017
27TS 1v1
33TS 2v2 random
15TS 3v3random
ever seen me ingame send me a msg tell me how i did or how the match went! ;)

saints:pretty good for first chapter nice work

Thanks! CH. 2 will be out soon.

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Praise the Lord

Location: Telenovus system / Colony: Dresden / ONI observation station 661 / 0310 hours / September 22, 2541

“Jesus!!” The lieutenant exclaimed. “Computer, flash message to Dresden and Reach, Covenant CCS-Class Battlecruiser sighted bearing 5.8 km from station 661. Notify Dresden Orbital Command. All hands, this is Lieutenant O’Connor! Stand by to repel boarders!”

The Computer acted on O’Connor’s orders, and began sending procedures for the messages. The Doughnut’s rotation sped up significantly, and 5 main antennae extended from the outer edges of the station. The reactor whined significantly louder as it struggled to keep up with the power demand. The lights dimmed to allow more power for the message, and then the computer began flashing a warning message.

“WARNING! Energy Spikes detected on 4428965AG! Enemy ship charging weapons.”

            By this time, all the crewmen understood the severity of the situation. Officers and marines scrambled over each other to grab weapons and strap on ballistics armor. Warning lights lit up as the station’s computer realized that it was under full attack. Sergeant Sherman, realizing that he could fully end up so much molecular dust rather than fighting the Covenant, exclaimed:

            “There is no way in hell they’re taking down this station with me in it!” To punctuate that point, Sherman slapped a clip into one of the station’s MA5B assault rifles. With only 4 officers and 6 marines, Sherman knew as well as anyone that the 10 of them had no chance at fighting off a ship of Covenant forces. That is, if they didn’t just vaporize the Doughnut without a second thought.

            “Computer! Initiate the Cole Protocol. Wipe all navigational databases. Ready the escape shuttle.” The lieutenant ordered.

            The computer replied immediately: “Affirmative. All navigation data has been erased. Warming up shuttle now.”

            It was at that moment that the Covenant ship loosed 5 of it’s 10 pulse laser turrets. Five bright red beams crossed the 4.9km of space in less than a thousandth of a second. When they hit, the beams were targeted at the Doughnut’s 5 communication antennae. The lasers melted clean through the antennae and continued off into space without slowing down. The computer, immediately realizing that damage had been done, reported appropriately.

            “CAUTION! Main communications structures destroyed. Long and short range communications ability is at 0%. Armor in all sections holding at 100%. Beginning defensive measures.”

            Despite being just an observation platform, the Doughnut was not defenseless. Hidden behind a handful of titanium panels on the outer surface of the station, it kept what Captain Evans referred to as “a security measure” Though far too small to hold a ship-sized MAC, Captain Evans had personally seen that 4 M68 gauss cannons were attached to the Doughnut’s superstructure. Capable of firing 25mm x 130 projectiles at hyper-sonic velocities, the cannons were a serious threat to small ships, such as boarding craft or Seraph fighters. The battlecruiser, however, would simply laugh at the cannons hitting its shields. The lieutenant knew this, however.

            “Computer. Hold fire on 4428965AG… Re-designate target 4428965AG as CCS-001. Begin charging power for M68 A,B,C, and D. Fire only on Covenant dropships that are in range. Notify of any changes in power for CCS-001.”

            “Affirmative. CCS-001 is charging pulse lasers again.” The computer responded.

            “Very well computer. Sergeant Sherman! Get your squad set up by airlock 2. Computer, magnetically seal airlock 1. If plasma torpedoes are in firing position, notify immediately.” The lieutenant said.

            “Come on your dumb Covenant basterds. I got a present for you…” Sherman said as he tapped the safety on his rifle.

            “Pulse lasers won’t be able to take us out quickly, so we’ll only duck for the pod if we see plasma torpedoes. Computer, station status.” O’Connor said.

            “Reactor running at 113% to charge guns and mag-seal doors. Armor in all sections at 100%. Station rpm at 5.0012. Standing by.”

            Five purple shapes then appeared to separate from the battlecruiser and move towards the station. All of the men immediately knew what it meant. The Covenant wanted to capture, not destroy the Doughnut. The five dropships, no doubt brimming with enemy forces, would easily overwhelm the few defenders. That is, if all five ships made it to airlock 2.

            “Computer. Permission to fire granted. Go Ahead.” The lieutenant said with a grim smile.

            “Affirmative. Opening fire.” The computer said, robotic as always.

            Ordinarily, the M68 rounds would have bounced harmlessly off of the dropship’s shields. However, these dropships were not expecting a communications satellite to be manned, much less armed. The panels moved backwards slowly with a loud, grinding noise. The computer manually targeted all 4 of the cannons onto separate dropships. Simultaneously, four bolts of lightning erupted from the surface of the Doughnut. One missed wide left of its target, instead hitting the battlecruiser, who’s shields flickered silver. Three other dropships, however, were not so fortunate. The M68’s depleted uranium rounds packed a serious punch. 415 pounds of solid uranium punched clean through the cockpits of the dropships. A bright flash and clouds of vapor was all that remained.

            “Hot dam! That’s three of the bastards!” Sergeant Sherman exclaimed.

            “Excellent. Prioritize final two dropships and fire at will computer.”

            CCS-001 did not take kindly to its dropships being turned into dust. It immediately loosed its charged pulse lasers at the Doughnut, taking 2 of its gauss turrets offline as the energy beam sliced into the interior of the weapon’s pod. One of the beams, however, had the unfortunate effect of punching into the station’s reactor. The instrument panel lit up with all sorts of warnings, but then died for lack of power.

            “Dammit! All hands, abandon ship! Sherman! Set the charges, we’re getting the hell out of here!” Lieutenant O’Connor bellowed out.

            “With pleasure! Those Covenant basterds are gonna get one hell of a surprise” Sergeant Sherman responded. The sergeant had at his disposal 10 cubic inches of C-12 shaped charge, which would convert the station into pulp in about 2 seconds.

            The rest of the men quickly hurried into the escape shuttle, which was a standard UNSC Bumblebee escape shuttle. Sergeant Sherman was the last on board, after setting a remote detonator on the explosives. As the next round of pulse lasers slammed into the station, the shuttle blasted away from the side of the Doughnut. The bumblebee raced towards Dresden as one of the dropships broke contact with the Doughnut and gave chase to the lifepod.

            “This is going to be an interesting flight gentleman. We’ve got a war to fight once we’re on the ground.” O’Connor said.

            The bumblebee raced towards the ground at hundreds of m/s.

            That’s fast.

            The dropship was faster.

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Praise the Lord

i like the story but it seems that the story is about to end.

 

im in suspense i want to know hat happens and where your gonna take this..

---

my account (my brother made the name)
Tanmanksu1000

My brothers acount i use
Topgun1017
27TS 1v1
33TS 2v2 random
15TS 3v3random
ever seen me ingame send me a msg tell me how i did or how the match went! ;)

Location: Telenovus system / Colony: Dresden / ONI observation station 661-Escape Pod 001 / 0325 hours / September 22, 2541

 

The single plasma turret under the hull of the dropship fired twin purple blasts of lightning in the direction of the Bumblebee. The first volley missed wide left, but close enough to where the ambient temperature of the escape pod rose by 5 degrees.

“Dammit that was too close! We need to get down to the planet fast!” Lieutenant O’Connor yelled.

“I’ve got her wide open sir!” replied the pilot.

The Bumblebee-class escape ship was designed around the same time that the Doughnut was. Both were 24^th century relics, and this particular pod was held together by the spit and prayers of the pilot, who had maintained it for years. Engines screaming, and probably overheating, the Bumblebee was flying towards Dresden at hundreds of m/s. The only problem was that the Covenant Dropship had advanced engines that were far beyond the capabilities of the Bumblebee’s. With no weapons, and old, inferior engines, the Bumblebee was a sitting duck. As if to punctuate that point, the Dropship fired it’s plasma turret again. Knifing into the hull of the ship, the lasers grazed the bottom of the armor plating, setting off numerous warning lights.

“Main maneuvering thrusters disabled! We are slowly venting atmosphere, too! Sir, I don’t know if we’re gonna make it through the atmosphere!” the pilot screamed over the roar of venting atmosphere.

“Everyone! Pressure helmets now!” The Lieutenant barked out.

The men complied, and in a few seconds, all 12 of them had on pressure helmets. In another few seconds, the pod took another crushing impact. This one hit the cockpit directly, melting the heatshield on the top of the pod. The Lieutenant was not about to go down like this, however.

“Dresden Orbital Command, this is Lieutenant Bryan David O’Connor. We are in a Bumblebee-class escape pod coming towards Dresden. We have been engaged by a Covenant Dropship. Need immediate assistance!!” he pleaded.

Over the roar of the overheating engines, venting atmosphere, and groaning of the pod’s structure, the radio blasted out. It was a happy sound to all the men.

“Bumblebee-001, we copy. Stand by for orbital support. We are locking onto your coordinates. Stand by.” The robotic voice responded.

By this time, the Bumblebee was in the atmosphere, and heating up fast. The dropship would’ve continued pursuit, but ran into an unfortunate encounter with a UNSC Archer Missile. Dresden Orbital Command had noticed the situation immediately, but needed time to respond. Consisting of only a handful of ships, based on the Lieutenant’s count, the Orbital Command could only repulse the most minor of Covenant attacks. The flagship of the fleet, UNSC Inadequacy loosed a few of its missiles as soon as it saw the situation, but it had taken over a minute for them to reach the target. However, the dropship was completely and utterly obliterated by 2 of the missiles. All that remained was space dust, as the dropship eerily disappeared silently.

The damage done to the Bumblebee was irreparable. The pilot had no maneuvering thrusters, and the heatshield had been badly damaged. Screaming towards the surface of the planet at almost 1,000 meters per second, the ship would likely break up due to its seriously damaged hull. Nonetheless, the pilot kept the ship in its proper track with just the airbrakes.

“Hang in there gentlemen. I’ll see if I can land this sucker in one piece!” The pilot yelled, barely audible over the roar of the wind around the pod.

At 10km above the surface, moving at 500m/s now, the pod automatically deployed its airbrakes fully. The ship jerked with such intensity, that all 12 men in the cockpit blacked out, unconscious. The ship then began to spin into a death spiral, rapidly descending towards the ground towards certain destruction. It all depended on the pilot’s modifications now.

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Praise the Lord

saints:

i like the story but it seems that the story is about to end.

 

im in suspense i want to know hat happens and where your gonna take this..

There's definately going to be at least 8 chapters. Probably more. I'm going to wait and see how much interest is generated.

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Praise the Lord

Location: Telenovus system / Colony: Dresden / Dresden Orbital Command / 0340 hours / September 22, 2541

The plight of the escape pod did not go unnoticed by Dresden Orbital Command. The space stations and fleets it had in system were capable of repelling all but the most serious of Covenant attacks. Now, with the loss of the Doughnut, their only long-range communications array had been destroyed, and the commander of the battlegroup was not having any of it. Admiral Gregory Scott, in command of all defenses of Dresden at this time was more than a little pissed at losing his main link to the rest of humanity. From his command at the bridge of North Station, he immediately set about the process of destroying the invading Covenant ship. Scott’s thick accent permeated throughout the station, as well as South, West, and East stations.

            “All hands, this is Admiral Scott speaking. We’ve got us a kill to make. A Covenant CCS-Class battlecruiser has entered the system and destroyed our long-range communications array. Emancipator will go and take it out. I want all ships on alert with MAC’s primed. Odds are, we’re gonna see a few of his buddies in an hour or so. We’re gonna blow the sumbitch to pieces.”

            And Admiral Scott could make good on this threat. Ever since the arrival of reinforcments a few minutes earlier, he had at his disposal the entire Dresden Orbital Command (DOC). DOC consisted of 8 Mark V orbital SuperMAC guns, 4 Halcyon-class crusiers, 6 UNSC Frigates, 2 Marathon-class cruisers, and the Supercarrier, UNSC Emancipator. The Emancipator alone could impose the will of the UNSC on any Covenant fleet she wished. Not a carrier in the traditional sense, the Emancipator had almost all of its interior space consumed by the massive weapon systems that ran the length of the ship. She had three MAC guns that could fire a slug ½ the size of the ones fired by the SuperMACs. At the Siege of the Atlas Moons, the Emancipator had taken on a Covenant Supercruiser and won. This CCS-class would be a walk in the park.

            All 5 of Emancipator’s massive fusion reactors powered up, consuming a prodigious amount of fuel. Admiral Scott himself was commanding this behemoth, with the aid of his AI, Sarah. With all 12 of its engines blazing, the Emancipator moved sluggishly out of the docking gate.

            “Sarah, get us more speed from our engines. I want to catch the *** before he gets out of the system.” Admiral Scott said.

             “Sir, Emancipator needs some time to warm its engines before going to flank speed. I can speed up now, but it’s pretty rough on some of the hardware down in Engineering.” Sarah responded.

              “Affirmative, give us 90% power on the engines, proceeding to 105% as soon as safe.”

              Sarah began running through the weapons diagnostics. Checking every nut and bolt on a ship as massive as Emancipator was quite a chore.

               “All 3 MAC’s are primed, loaded, and charged. We are ready to fire. Guidance control computer is online. 98% of Archer Missile pods are filled and ready. EMP jammers and electronic warfare devices (EWD) are online and ready to go.”

               “Very well. Get us to that ship. I want him dead.” Admiral Scott said emphatically.

                The Emancipator neared the edge of the asteroid field. Despite being so massive, the ship was more maneuverable than it first appeared. While she would never challenge a frigate for speed, it was still capable of speeding ahead of some of the older UNSC ships. With her 10 meter thick Titanium-A armor, bouncing through house-sized asteroids would be a walk in the park.

                 “Target has moved behind that asteroid. We are moving at 104% on the reactor to move around the asteroid.” Sarah reported.

                  The Emancipator screamed around the side of the asteroid at over 1000m/s. Coming around the edge, Sarah and Scott saw the threat at the same time. The CCS-Class cruiser was there, lurking in the shadows. She appeared to be doing something with the wreckage of the Doughnut.

                   “Sarah, you have permission to fire all 3 MAC’s. Follow up with Archer missiles if necessary.” Scott ordered.

                   “Roger that. Firing all MAC’s.” Sarah replied.

                    When Scott ordered the MAC’s fired, neither he nor just about anyone in the UNSC knew of the complexity of the massive weapons. The UNSC Magnetic Accelerator Cannon fired a solid Uranium slug at hundreds of meters per second. When the slug hit the target, it carried with it a tremendous amount of kinetic energy. Getting the slug that fast required a massive amount of power along with precise instruments. The slug would first sit at the back of the long metal barrel of the MAC. The tube was lined with electromagnets, and when the first set was powered on, the slug would be attracted to them. When the slug reached that set of magnets, they were powered off, and the next set of magnets was powered up. In this way, the slug would accelerate down the tube, exiting towards its target.

                      The unfortunate Covenant ship, however, had no idea what was about to hit it. Certainly, it had never seen a UNSC ship as big as the Emancipator. What came next was utter chaos. The Emancipator fired all 3 of its MAC’s at the enemy ship. When the MAC’s hit, the Covenant ship’s shields immediately collapsed, and it took moderate armor damage. The second MAC round gutted the ship from stem to stern, severing all of the power connections to the engines. The third MAC smashed the bridge and clipped the reactor. The ship caught fire in all sections, and began to drift slowly towards the asteroid that it had been hiding behind.

                       “That’s not complete revenge. But I’ll take it. Let’s get back to Dresden, and get ready for their counterattack.” Scott knew just how hard the Covenant ship would hit Dresden.

                        He just didn’t know when.

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Praise the Lord

The show's on now: I have a pretty good feeling that the crippled ship is still going to kill the whole Dresden fleet.

Nice work!

Location: Telenovus system / Colony: Dresden / Dresden Orbital Command / 0404 hours / September 22, 2541

While Emancipator’s guns had not completely destroyed the Covenant ship, all hell had broken loose on board the alien warship. The ship, named Righteous Fury, wasn’t going anywhere. All major power systems were down, and 80% of the ship’s compartments had vented atmosphere. The ship automatically released its plasma cells as a safety precaution for the crew. The cells fired out like cannon shells deep into the black vacuum of space at a speed that no ship could catch. Armor in most sections had been breached, and the ship was slowly drifting aimlessly towards a large asteroid. But most seriously, the second MAC round had smashed 5 out of the 6 cooling tunnels to the reactor. With over 80% of the cooling destroyed, the Righteous Fury’s reactor began to become dangerously unstable. The ship’s emergency management systems had emptied their reserves of auxiliary coolant into the reactor, but were unable to shut it down. Even from the bridge of Emancipator, Admiral Scott could see the center of the Covenant ship glowing cherry red.

            What happened next was a scene of pure chaos. As the Covenant’s pinched fusion deuterium reactor reached 50 million degrees at its core, the pressure surged to 10 times what the reactor containment vessel was intended to hold. The self-sustaining reaction spiraled out of control, far outdoing the design specs on the Fury’s reactor vessel. From the viewpoint of Emancipator, Admiral Scott and his bridge crew watched as the Covenant ship simply disappeared. In its place, a blindingly bright, massive blue sphere of energy pulsed outward. The Supercritical reaction consumed all the fuel in the reactor in about 1/100,000 of a second, releasing more energy than most suns do in a day.

            The energy shockwave vaporized the huge asteroid nearby, as well as the wreckage of the Doughnut. Massive EMP and Gamma waves emanated from the blast, wreaking havoc on any unprotected electronic circuitry. Emancipator lost no time in deploying its electronic countermeasures to protect itself, and took minimal damage. When the blast had dimmed to safely visible levels, Admiral Scott remarked:

            “Damm. One more victory like that and we will lose this battle.”

            “Admiral, Slipspace probes are detecting incoming ships. Unknown energy signatures!” Sarah reported

            “Charge all MAC’s! Sarah, get us back to Dresden. All hands on deck, we are under attack!” Scott barked out.

            “That’s affirmative Admiral. We’re going home.” Sarah said.

            At the edge of the Asteroid field, a blending, wavy, distortion of usual space began to take place. Small sparks began to appear, and then massive, crackling bolts of lightning. A jet black hole appeared, and out came a Covenant Reverence-class cruiser. Behind it, a dozen other Covenant ships appeared out of slipspace. The crews of the UNSC ships held their breath.

The Battle was on.

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Praise the Lord

Location: Telenovus system / Colony: Dresden / ONI observation station 661-Escape Pod 001/ Talomar Desert /0450 hours / September 22, 2541

A lightning bolt, no, perhaps a sledgehammer. Yes. That was it. Or maybe a jackhammer. Whatever it was, Lieutenant Bryan David O’Connor’s skull was its unfortunate victim. Or, at least, he thought.

“Lieutenant! Lieutenant! Lieutenant O’Connor! Wake up sir!” Sergeant Sherman yelled.

A hazy picture faded into view, like a scene from hell. Lieutenant O’Connor couldn’t see anything other than a blurry picture of Sergeant Sherman screaming in his face, and fire and debris.

Sherman was having enough of this. Shot down and marooned in the middle of the desert with only him and the Lieutenant alive. Maybe not for long, though. His patience wearing out, Sergeant Sherman grabbed hold of both of O’Connor’s shoulders and shook him violently. Lieutenant O’Connor responded with a mumble.

“Aw Hell! Wake up you ONI spook, you!” Sherman tried shaking again. Suddenly, O’Connor snapped out of his little fantasy. He coughed up blood and winced as he felt his head.

“Ha! I knew you’d be around soon.” Sherman grinned as he sat down on a chunk of metal.

“Sergeant…the dropship…the others… the pilot…” O’Connor seemed incapable of structuring a sentence.

“We’re in a bad situation, sir. The Covenant shot down our dropship out here in the middle of Dresden’s main desert, the Talomar. They’re gaining control of the space above Dresden fast, and have begun to make small commando raids on Dresden’s surface.” Sherman explained.

“What about our dropship? And the others?” O’Connor inquired.

Sergeant Sherman hung his head low for second, then gestured at the smoking wreck. O’Connor had seen Bumblebee crashes before. A long rooster tail of plowed ground, then the dropship, more or less intact at one end. That’s not what happened with this particular instance. The dropship had come down, more or less vertically, slamming into the ground. Charred bits of metal and smoking debris were all around. The trained eye could see that this had, at one time, been a dropship, but now all that remained was a miniature junkyard.

O’Connor rubbed his head. “Well, Sergeant. I suggest we find the nearest UNSC base and tell them about the Doughnut.”

“And get our asses the hell out of this desert.” Sherman added.

“That too, Sergeant. That too.” O’Connor said as he scanned the horizon.

 Location: Telenovus system / Colony: Dresden / UNSC Capital Ship Emancipator /0455 hours / September 22, 2541

Another Covenant ship popped like a balloon when hit by the Mark V SuperMAC. Admiral Scott chuckled. This was like a Turkey Shoot. Covenant ships’ shields were usually down on the instant that they emerged from Slipspace. With the advanced scanners on the Emancipator, Sarah was able to detect where the enemy ships would appear based on radiation readings. And that an ODP MAC round was right on top of them as soon as they emerged from the otherness of Slipspace.

The Reverence-class cruiser that was, at least Scott assumed, the flagship of the Covenant fleet had been disabled immediately upon the start of the battle. DOC had taken some crippling losses. Of their armada of ships, only 25% were still undamaged. But now the Covenant were making the first of their stupid mistakes, thought the Admiral. Throwing in a ship every few seconds rather than all at once, as was their norm. Something isn’t right, thought Scott. Why piece mail, one at a time, and not multiple ships at once?

The Emancipator shuddered as one of its three massive MAC’s rattled off another shot, this one hammering a CCS’ engine cluster. Flames shot out of the massive breach, and the ship began, almost comically, spinning in slow circles.

“Admiral, the Reverence-class cruiser has begun moving in the direction of Dresden itself.” Sarah informed him.

“Crash site?” asked the Admiral.

“Talomar Desert, sir. Nothing out there to hit.”

“Good. Proceed with spearing these fish-in-a-barrel.” The Admiral smiled. This attack had gone better than expected.

 

 

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Praise the Lord

Bump/Necro

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Praise the Lord

isint there any more D: i had just gotten into the swing of this covenant-smashing tale

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Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.

it is sweet and honourable to die for ones country