The forgotten war
Prologue:
The
space held such great hope for humanity. In the year 2291, Tobias Shaw and
Wallace Fujikawa developed the Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine and the great expansion into the
space had begun. Although it was unreliable and crude, it propelled the mankind
into the vastness of space with not yet seen speed. After that, the golden age
had begun. The humans prospered and flourished and started to colonize the
distant worlds far from the cradle of their home planet. In the year 2317 a new unity on Earth
had formed. The Slav Union. The SU was founded
to once again restore the might of the Slav people.
The most noteworthy among
the founders were the Czech, the Slovaks and the Russians. The SU was formed by
the 21st century Slav countries that wanted to regain the power they
once had. They wanted to depart, leave everything behind and build a nation
they desire. They wanted peace, prosperity and independence from the rest of
the humanity. Few years after the founding of the SU, they begun on the
construction of huge colony ships, measured in kilometers in length and
hundreds of tons in weight. The SU had constructed 5 of these colony ships,
each for one of the major Slav group, with an appropriate name for them. The
ships names were Praha (Czech capitol), Bratislava
(Slovak capitol), Wrocław (Polish capitol), Zagreb (Croatian capitol) and Москва (Russian capitol). . Little did they know what was waiting for them in the far-eastern
part of the galaxy. In the year 2340, these ships had begun their pilgrimage into the
unknown lands of the eastern galaxy.
Part 1: the new beginning
The
fleet had arrived to the eastern sector in the year 2440, it took them over a
hundred years, but the voyage was fruitful. Many hospitable worlds were found
and there were even solar systems where multiple planets were habitable. The
eastern sector greatly exceeded the expectations of even the most optimistic
minds. The colonies were constructed by dismantling the ships and so the first
worlds were colonized and the founding stones of the great Slav Empire were
laid. Many raw materials and rich mineral fields were found on the planets and
the manufacturing process followed shortly after. In the year 2444, scientists
from the new Czech capitol, Vyšehrad, had found strange artifacts in the wastes of the deserts on their
planet of Bohemia.
These artifacts were left there by an ancient, far superior, race that could
travel waste distances in a matter of days. Thanks to these artifacts great
advancements in the branch of health service, space travel, mining, land-based
vehicles, computers, construction materials and weapons including shield
systems for ships and cities were made. In the year 2502 the Slav union was on
its peak, they had colonized nearly a hundred worlds and their technology was
advanced hundred times more than when they arrived here. Some people wanted to
return back to Earth, to tell other humans about these technological
breakthroughs, but then they realized that would be in conflict with one of
their fundamental rule that made them come here "Free ourselves from the rest
of the humanity."
In the year 2508 a new race had arrived. A brutal and
fanatical race they were, they called themselves the Covenant and wanted to
obliterate the humans. They did not know however, that we were more advanced
then they were. We had better weapons, ships, shields and propulsion system +
we had a few more little tricks in our sleeves. But there was one advantage
they had against us and that was their sheer weight of numbers that outnumbered
us greatly. Most of the conflicts were fought by 5 Covenant ships against one
Slav ship. Many worlds have fallen to the covenant onslaught. But the war was
not over, no, not yet; a major battle is to be fought to ensure the survival of
the Slav people, and that battle was about to change the face of the universe
forever.
Part 2: The plan
Today
is the year 2511, the war is stretching on and the end is nowhere in sight.
Many Slav systems were completely annihilated with plasma bombardment, also
known as "purging". Some planets in the outer sector are still relatively
intact thanks to its powerful defenses, but they will not survive for long
without their gotten-used-to supply ships and therefore, will fall to the
covenant sooner or later. This desperate situation requires an immediate action
and so, a high command reunion was called.
The
lights inside the conference room blinded me when I stepped inside, but my
improved eyes had tuned quickly and I could concentrate on the people sitting
around a round table. There were 3 generals of the SU, one was still missing.
At least I didn't come last. The three generals were: 4 star general Pawlov of
the Russian army, 4 star general Lakatoš of the Slovak army and the 2 star
general Groznyj of the Croatian army. The Polish general was still missing, so
I took seat and made a short hand signal to the other generals.
"Where
is Petrov?" Groznyj asked.
"He
had better show up fast, Ondra was late enough." Pawlov answered
I
have made a silent hum and continued to watch the door, hoping to see Petrov.
Suddenly Petrov flew through the doors, wet dropping from his forehead. He
exhaled quickly and started to speak in very quick Polish.
"Hold
on Petrov, we can't understand a word you say!" It wasn't about I couldn't
understand his language, but fluency of 200 words a second is hard to
understand in any language.
"I
am sorry, but the traffic jam above Vyšehrad was too great, even with my
privileges."
"All
right, just sit down and let's get started already."
Petrov
took a seat next to me and stared at the table still exhaling from his run to
the conference room. This is a good time to describe the officers. Pawlov was a
sturdy man, more of a bear than a man, his face was filled with scars which he
owed to a frag grenade that exploded just a few centimeters from his face,
miraculously, he didn't lost neither of his eyes and only the scars remain to
give proof of this incident. On the other hand, Lakatoš was rather a squirrel
compared to Pawlov, small and rather weak man, but what he lost in body he
gained in mind. His strategies were sound and mostly resulted in devastating
destruction of the enemy, but not even this guarantied a victory thanks to the
insurmountable numbers of the Covenant forces. General Petrov was rather plump
and his strategy was to shoot first and ask questions later. General Groznyj
was a man of faith, he believed, as well as I did, in our god that the people
used to worship on Earth and so we always took god's interventions into account
in connection to truly fortunate outcomes of some battles that seemed
completely with no chance of success. All of these generals had something special
about them and when we have agreed on something, it was (in most cases)
something what you would call "full-proof plan".
"Gentleman..."
Pawlov started
"One of our planets in the Ural sector is besieged by the
Covenant forces for three months and if we won't do something, we will lose
it. And this, gentleman, is not an option! We have many factories on the
planet's surface that produce tanks and other weapons at high rate and even one
dock for corvettes and destroyers. So, I propose we send in the 3rd
fleet of Vyšehrad under the command of general Ondra with his flagship Marigold.
Michael, are your men prepared?"
"Of
course Anton, we will depart as soon as possible. But there is also another
reason why I called you to Vyšehrad..." I took and deep breathe and continued.
"The planet of Plzeň was lost to
the covenant 2 days ago."
Silence
filled the room for ten seconds, after that, Groznyj spoke with a slow but
forceful voice. "Do you realize that Plzeň is just
68 light years from here? We must retake the system as soon as possible."
"All
right, the Russian 18th fleet and the Slovak 7th fleet
will take care of this, what are the enemy numbers?" Pawlov asked.
"We
have confirmed at least 72 cruisers and 12 carriers" I answered "If you are
willing to pull these fleets from their systems then be my quest, but be
careful not to let your guard down while on the mission."
"Don't
worry Michael. We have no enemies in the surrounding sectors, so we should be
fine, plus we have very strong defenses on the ground in these sectors." Lakatoš explained
"I
hope you are right, Peter, I hope you are right. This conference is over, get
to your fleets and lets get it done."
We all stood up at the same time and went to the
doors, this was the last time I saw Peter in my life.
Part 3: The Marigold
As I
was making my way to the spaceport, I could see thousands of refuges from the
western and eastern sector. Thanks to our excellent intelligence corps, we are
able to monitor Covenant movement and therefore evacuate the world before they
arrived. Many refuge camps were built even in space which could accommodate a
great number of them. The city itself was on full alert. Anti-space batteries
were raised and prepared to fire on the moments notice. Radar stations and
other detection gear were working at full capacity and troops were boarding
transports and then went to space to take part in the liberation of the Ural
system. I was nearly at my space shuttle when I noticed a familiar face among
the crowd. It was Nathan! Nathan Turnbull!
"HEY,
Nate!" I shouted into the crowd.
He
immediately recognized me and a smile appeared on his face as he was making his
way to me.
"Yo,
what up, Mike!" Nate, as well as I, was glad that we see each other before the
attack. Nathan is a captain of the heavy assault cruiser, the Excelsior, the
third most powerful ship in the 3rd fleet. He is well build and
participated in many campaigns against the Covenant in the northern sector. His
greatest strength as well as weakness is that he never leaves anyone behind.
"I
hope you are ready for those Covenant SOBs." Even greater smile appeared on
Nate's face.
"You
can count on that, and you?" Nathan asked with enthusiasm.
"What
do you think? I only hope that the Marigold is loaded and ready."
We
started to laugh at the same time, rising spirit of the people around us.
"Ok,
that's enough Mike, let's hit it. See you in space."
I
made a simple gesture of acknowledgment and went to the shuttle.
The
trip to space took only a minute and I could finally look outside. The
surrounding of the planet was totally crowded. Refuge camps, refuge ships,
refuges everywhere where you looked. The landing corridor was full to the last
docking port and there was virtually no way to get to the surface without a
high rank clearance. High above the orbit were armed space stations with laser
turrets, ion cannons and plasma guns. These heavy weapon platforms were hard to
destroy, because each plate of nano-steel could be ejected, and with 10 layers
of these plates it was difficult to do any damage to it at all. Many
battle-cruisers, frigates, destroyers and stealth ships were massing at a
single checkpoint to prepare for the jump to the Ural sector. The most
remarkable among these were; the heavy assault cruiser Excelsior, frigate 1st
class Ticonderoga, heavy assault carrier Poťempkin and the Kirov super star destroyer.
Suddenly
a huge subspace portal opened and a colossal ship emerged from it. It was the
Marigold the most powerful space faring warship ever constructed. Spanning over
6 kilometers
from bow to stern, the Marigold has taken over 20 years to complete. 5
Excelsior class heavy assault cruisers can fit within its massive hull. Its
state-of-the-arty weaponry includes, 140 laser turrets, 50 flak guns, 40
missile batteries and 40 beam cannons. The Marigold wields more firepower than
15 Covenant capitol ships combined. 60 fighter and bomber wing are housed in
its waste hangars and its crew numbers over 30 thousand. The SU now wages war
on multiple fronts, Ural system, Blaník system, Moscow
sector and around the most strategic position, the Vyšehrad. The Marigold, once
deployed into these sectors, will bring these systems back into our control.
Immediately after I boarded the Marigold I went to the bridge.
1st
lieutenant brought up a salute "Good to see you commander."
"Likewise,
Martin. Is the Marigold ready?" I asked
"Of
course, sir. And the entire fleet reports that they are ready for immediate
departure."
I
took my place in front of the window on the bridge. "Give the order, Martin. We
are departing."
"Aye,
sir. Slip space drive engaged, jump in 3...2...1...jump."
The light around our ship deformed, planet
disappeared and we went into the slip space.
Part 4: This is...
Slipspace,
a world beyond. It is a place, where nothing makes sense; laws of physic don't
apply here, at least the ones we are so familiar with. I never liked the
slipspace, it is so, unnatural. But where would we be without it? On earth and
nowhere else.
Finally,
I could make out lights illuminated by the stars in the Ural sector. There are
two stars, to be precise, one larger orange and one much smaller blue that is
slowly transferring its energy to the larger one by a beautiful track of blue
gas. And there it is, the only inhabited planet in this sector, Екатеринбу́рг (Yekaterinburg). The Covenant
fleet was already orbiting the planet and I could see that they made some
pretty nasty piece of work on the planets surface. But the planetary defenses
were still operational, that was obvious the moment one of the Covenant ships
blew up.
1st lieutenant Martin begun to
talk "Sir, we have arrived in the Ural sector and the fleet is awaiting
orders."
"All right then..." I continued "Connect me
to the 3rd fleet command frequency."
"Aye, sir." Martin pressed a button on the
control panel and on the main screen faces of all captains appeared, along with
the names, armament, docked fighter/bombers, personnel and hull and shield
integrity of their ship.
"To all SU ships, this is the Commander
Ondra, our orders are simple, engage the enemy and clear this sector of
Covenant space forces. All ships have green light to engage and carriers are
authorized to launch as many fighters and bombers as they can. All stealth
ships engage "cloack" mode and sneak behind the enemy fleet. Use long range ion
canons to disable the enemy ships before engaging them directly."
The captains all nodded in approval and begun
to issue orders to their lieutenants.
A voice of 1st lieutenant Martin
broke the momentary silence.
"Sir, gunnery control reports that the
Covenant vessels are within range of our ion canons."
I turned around to face Martin "Understood,
patch me through."
A face of our weapons specialist appeared on
the screen instead of the captains.
"Yes, sir?" Jonathan asked
"Jonathan, give me a firing solution on the
Covenant fleet with our ion canons."
"Yes, sir, data send." Near the screen was a
holographic display of the Marigold and
its 5 ion canons highlighted, each featuring a line towards single Covenant
ship. The enemy had 50 cruisers, 12 carriers and dozen destroyers. The Marigold's ion canons were all
aiming at the enemy carriers. I pressed a button and all the SU ships tracking
lines appeared, revealing that most Covenant ships were targeted by the ion
canons. Fighters and bombers were already launching from hangars of our
carriers and stealth ships were moving at flank-speed to encircle the enemy,
from where they could launch kinetic missiles into the most vulnerable rear
portions of their hulls.
"Everything is AOK, Martin, give the order to
engage."
Martin pressed the button on the panel
"Gunnery control, open fire."
Suddenly a terrifying sound of thousand
banshees rumbled through the entire ship as the 5 ion canons fired. The other
SU ships followed suit immediately.
The ion canons are non-lethal, but
strategically the most valuable weapon. They were extremely expensive and hard
to manufacture. They require a tremendous amount of energy to fire and they
took 30 minutes to recharge. "Standard issue" ships were equipped with one of
these, sometimes lacking them entirely. Once fired, the "projectile" traveled
at 99.7% the speed of light; therefore, the possibility of missing the target
was very unlikely. After the firing sequence was completed, the gun retracted
itself into the hull of the ship, to protect it as much as possible. The
results after the hit were nothing less than fascinating, the ship was
completely disabled for 2 minutes and this included weapons, engines, life
support, communications and all other systems inside the ship. The shots were
hardly visible; the only thing left behind was a thin bluish line that
stretched from the gun to the target.
"Sir, all ion canons managed to hit their
targets, what are your next orders."
I
hesitated only for a second and in that negligible time I came up with only one
reasonable strategy.
"Move in and engage the enemy at will, kill
them all ASAP."
Part 5: ...dead space
Destruction.
Death. Space. Combat. Those were the things that mattered to major Dilensky,
the Red Devils squadron leader. She was elite among the S.U. pilots and also
the only one who had 1000 confirmed kills in space combat. She was also known
for listening music during combat and right now she had a mix of calm
orchestral and heavy-metal songs.
"So,
let's get this show on the road!" She shouts in the radio. "All pilots, report
in."
She had to make sure that ALL of her pilots
are ready for actions and also to distract them from the stressful silence.
"This
is red 2, standing by." Pavel Antoniovicz was her second in command and also
her most faithful friend that fought along side of her for a number of years.
"Red
3 standing by." Paul Satinczki, an ace, which had the best skill with missiles
in the entire fleet.
"Red
4, standing by." Martin Koudelka, another ace of the S.U., an outstanding pilot
concerning his skill with electronic warfare strategies, such as, ECM, EMP and
other. Only four were left, but still enough to kick some Covenant butts.
"All
right everyone, stick to attack pattern "Lima",
we have orders to intercept any bombers and heavy fighters on approach vector
to the Marigold, that means we are
not to stray too far from her, ok?" Acknowledge voices sound through the radio.
"So, that's done, wait... I've got contacts moving towards the Marigold. Let's go
and give them a warm welcome." A cheer came in from other members of the Red Devils
squadron. Suddenly, a monitor in front of Dilensky turned on and the face of
commander Ondra appeared.
"Major,
we are detecting hostile bombers on course to the Marigold, your squadron is to intercept and destroy."
"No
worries commander, we are already on them." A smile appeared on Dilensky's
face, she always liked commander Ondra, maybe, even more than just liked him.
"Excellent,
I knew I could count on you Catherine." The monitor turned off and major went
back to the thing she excelled at. She plotted the best intercept trajectory
into her battle computer and then sends it to the rest of the squadron.
The
bombers were getting close, their designation was cockroach.
"They
will surely live up to their name, in a matter of being crushed to dust."
Dilensky though. She pressed the button reading "master arm" and fired a salvo
of hornet "swarm" missiles towards the bombers, spinning in the process to make
the rockets turn and therefore hard to intercept by phalanx fire, not that the
bombers had any, but it was a great fun to do it anyway. Other pilots engaged
the same tactics and send a wave of hornets towards the target. The bombers
didn't start to evade soon enough and therefore paid the price for it in their
lives. The bombers were vaporized in a matter of seconds and the only evidence
left by them was a blue stream of gasses from the hornet missiles.
"Good
job guys, but don't get cocky just yet, we have a wing of fighters on our six."
Dilensky switched to active sensors which disabled her "cloaking" system but
gave her a precise location of enemy fighters which were ordered to protect the
bombers.
"Red
Devils, I am sending coordinates of hostile fighters, intercept and destroy." A
set of acknowledgment lights winked on. She made a steep turn towards her
targets. The enemy fighters were designated Capricorn and were closing in fast.
"This
is red 3, firing a cluster missile." A bottom cover of red 3's ship opened and
a significantly larger missile than the hornet "swarm" missile detached itself
form the ship and flew in the general direction of hostile fighters. The
missile harmlessly passed the Capricorn squadron and then it released its
contents, specifically a 200 micro missiles that were "invisible" on the
sensors. Right after that the entire Capricorn squadron gone up in flames and
then disintegrated.
"Nice
job Paul, keep it coming."
"Any
time, major." The voice of red 4 broke the momentary silence.
"Hey,
check it out, the Marigold is in
attack position and it's preparing to fire.
"Lieutenant
Marin, patch me to fire control." During the time I was talking, I took a look
at the sensors and saw that Cockroach bombers and Capricorn fighters were out
of the game. I must say at least thanks to Catherine after this one.
"This
is fire control, awaiting orders, sir." I raised my head from the tactical
holograph. "Jonathan, arm the beam cannons and target carriers Beast and Lilith.
These two carriers were harassing our bomber squadrons with their fighters for
long enough."
"Understood,
canons 2 to 8, charging and......" A rumble similar to the one when the ion canons
were preparing to fire echoed within the ship. ".... FIRE!" A terrible screams of
thousands hungry souls resonated all around me and outside I could see an
extremely thick fulgent beam cut the space in half that vaporized the enemy
carriers. First, the beam went right through the ship and then the impossible
heat and energy literally boiled-off the ship from the dark blanket of space.
The same fate which most Covenant ships will share if they dare to attack the Marigold and her fleet. But the
other ships were not lagging behind, every ship had at least 2 confirmed "kills"
with the Marigold, Excelsior, Ticonderoga and other huge ships exceeding the 2 kills average
considerably. Once the stealth ships engaged from behind the Covenant
realized their odds were heavily against them and made a run for it.
"Commander,
the enemy fleet is in full retreat." Said Martin and a tiny smile appeared on
my face.
"Excellent
news Lieutenant, send it to the rest of the fleet." A cheer came in through the
radio, shouting "We got ‘em", or "We showed them who's the boss" I took a look
at the final report. 89 Covenant ships destroyed or incapacitated and 4 S.U.
ships destroyed and 12 requiring repairs, now this is what I call a victory,
even though a "true" victory would be without firing a single gun.
"Sir,
you have general Pawlov on the line." I stopped dreaming about perfect world
and how it all should be and went back to the real world. "Patch him through
then." An old bear's face appeared on the monitor.
"Michael, I see you have liberated Ural system, we
have achieved similar results at the Plzeň and the Covenant are open to negotiations!
We need you at new Москва ASAP!" That's strange the Covenant never
even talked to us, so why would they start now, they have probably lost most of
their force and they don't know what to do, even though we have like 7 worlds
intact by war. "Understood, I will be there soon."
Ok guys, this is my first FF and i would like to add one thing, i am not from an english speaking country so take that into acount if there are some mistakes.
http://www.halowars.com/forums/thread/247503.aspx
The Forgotten war , my image was a link :((
gamertag: mcz117chief