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Skirmsih at Sol by ncspartan
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Skirmish at Sol Part I
Date: 2 November 2005, 1:08 am
The Covenant had found the coordinates of Sol and therefore had found the coordinates of the human home world; Earth. After the fall of Reach, humanity was left with only 6 Inner Colonies, three of which were huge civilian metropolises. Kilox, Tezetha, and Roddum could fend for themselves as they all had orbital MAC guns and military complexes on their surfaces. The MAC guns had been updated since the attack on Reach and their fusion generators on the surface had been upgraded to send three times the power; consequently, these guns were able to accelerate three MAC shells at a time and could still reload in under five seconds. Beside these securities, they also harbored nearly invincible retreat facilities for the people left on the surface, if the Covenant got that far before they obliterated by the Super MAC guns. These facilities were eight kilometers beneath the surface, protect by at least four kilometers of hardened titanium and concrete. The bunkers could withstand a direct strike from a 180 megaton nuke and had been constructed at the time of the first meting with the Covenant so they had plasma-resistant coatings. The only way in these bunkers as through a series of twisting roads and dead ends that acted as a huge maze. The roads were just wide enough for a Warthog to come through so the Covenant wouldn't be able to bring any serious firepower with them. These bunkers were deemed the safest place to be on the surface of Kilox, Tezetha or Roddum.
But there were three other inner colonies that weren't bolstered with these defenses. These were Iegnub, Gor, and Nova. These were major cultural and economic centers that had arisen prior to the first contact with the Covenant. They lacked defenses for Covenant star ships and drop ships. There were only primitive bunkers on the surface that the plasma weapons on a space vessel could easily infiltrate and kill the people inside. And if alien troops got on the surface, there would be no chance of survival. They had military installations but they were not even close to the scale of those on the other three Inner Colonies. The orbital weaponry was severely outdated and wouldn't even be able to puncture the shields of even the smallest Covenant warships. The admiralty had decided that these planets were not strategic positions and held no valuable military compounds or natural resources so it was decided they would waste no ships guarding these regions. One upside to this was that those three undefended planets were on the outer edge of the Inner Colonies and therefore the Covenant would have to stop there first to attack and would give time for Kilox, Tezetha and Roddum to prepare.
All ships had been called back to defend the three important Inner Colonies and Earth. Since ONI had predicted the Covenant would want to come with a large fleet, the UNSC had time to refit all of their ships as well as build 230 new ships. Of the new ships, twenty four were carriers, the largest most powerful ship known the humanity. These new ships featured the best weapons and armor available. Four MAC guns were located throughout, each with their own fusion reactor so they be independently charged and operated. There were 25 columns of Archer missile tubes, and each column contained 20 Archer missile tubes. Each tube held 200 missiles so all together. 500 missile tubes with 200 missiles each; the Covenant had better watch it. Instead of the normal one fusion reactor like the on the Pillar of Autumn, there were three of these reactors, effectively allowing the engines to function at a combined 900%. The Shaw-Fujikawa slipspace drives were also tweaked to offer slightly better accuracy as well as a greatly reduced charging period. The armor on the ships was the newest ONI had created. The three and a half meters of titanium A, plasma resistant armor had been computer and physically testes to the best of ONI's ability and had shown that three pulse lasers were necessary to cut through the tough armor.
Among the other vessels produced were 95 destroyers. These ships were smaller than carriers but dish out and receive a tremendous beating. Three meters of plasma resistant titanium A armor was the main protection on the starship. Its armaments included three MAC guns but these MAC guns fired three shells at a time. Although the shells were smaller, the first one would puncture the shielding and the second two would incapacitate the ship. Like the carriers, the ship sported more than one reactor to move it. These ships had two reactors so their net power would be 600%. They were also armed with five Titan nuclear bombs. Unlike the Shiva warheads of old, the new Titans were clusters of five nuclear warheads. When the first one exploded, the fusion reaction that ensued would increase the power of the next explosion by ten. Then when the second one went off with ten times the power of the first, it would set off the third with ten times the power of the second and one hundred times the power of the first. It would go like that until it reached the fifth warhead, which would go off with 100,000 times the power of the first one. These would easily be able to knock out all ships in a 25,000 kilometer radius of the explosion.
Of the remaining 111 remaining ships, 100 were frigates. These ships sported two MAC guns and a newly designed plow in the front for ramming into the smaller Covenant ships. The armor toward the front would be five meters where as towards the rear would be only three. These ships only carried one reactor but instead of speed, the reactor would output 45 times the amount of power as the reactors on the other new ships. This would help the frigates when they rammed the enemy ships because they could keep going using the power boost.
The final 11 ships were of a new breed of ships. These ships were smaller than stealth corvettes but amazingly fast. Using only a very small reactor that could power the ships to .75 the speed of light, almost an unheard of speed without entering slipspace, these ships were used to dart into the enemy formation and latch onto the hulls of the Covenant ships when their shields dropped to fire the plasma weapons. They would sit there and then release a tracking device and a tiny nuclear mine, about the size of you palm, and then when the ship fired again, they would dart out and go to the next ship. They are so fast and stealthy, they can't be picked up on our own advanced tracking systems. Their speed even confuses some AI's that work point defense. These could be even more powerful and influential than the biggest of carriers.
By now every living person knew of the fame of the Spartans. Although only John, Kelly, who had been returned by Dr. Halsey, Geoff, who had been fighting at Victon Xe during the attack on Reach and had been too far to come in time, and lastly Paul was still alive after having been in a remote planet about a trillion kilometers away from Reach. Of course, all four super warriors knew each other incredibly well and felt like family, as all the Spartans had. But now these Spartans were even closer because the rest of their family had been killed in a way that none of them could help to stop. They only thought about getting revenge on the Covenant and saving Earth.
The Spartans, like the rest of the UNSC, got armor and weapon upgrades. Sine their Mark V Mjolnir was now out of date, they were refitted with Mark VIII Mjolnir armor. The new armor now had shields that were twice as strong as their old ones and could recharge at double the speed. The new armor also had thrusters built it for fighting zero gee atmosphere. Their reflexes were now eight times faster than the old Mjolnir, making their reaction times almost non existent. Like before, their suits could recycle air and hold an AI. All of the super humans had a "smart" AI like Cortana implanted in their nervous systems. New weapons had been developed especially for the Spartans. First, a new pistol that incorporated the shield draining technology of plasma as well as the flesh destroying ability of bullets. These new pistols were capable of holding 20 such rounds in a single magazine. The next new weapon developed especially for the soldiers was an automatic close range rifle that used a combination of plasma spray and bullets to easily tear apart shielded Elites. There was a small, laterally curved opening on the underside of the weapon that would release the spray of plasma while the bullets were concentrated in a line like all other human weapons. The Covenant energy sword had also been reproduced and improved by ONI. The swords now would replace the stand combat knife as they could be activated as a four inch dagger blade of a three foot plasma sword. The blade could cut through anything and immediately overloaded shields using a concentrated EMP blast. The sword was now the primary weapon against the Covenant hunters as the sword could cut through the 8 inch armor on their bodies, but could not cut through the 18 inch armor of their shields. Also, when the weapon was at dagger length, it could be thrown accurately up to 70 feet. One last weapon was designed that would be mainly used against the flood. It was a shotgun like gun that shot a web of titanium pellets that would easily tear through the soft "skin" of the flood and sever the spinal cord of the host, immediately rendering the host useless and killing the infection within. Because of the Spartan's newest improvements and weapons, they were valued higher than all but a UNSC Super Carrier. And even that level of value was debated by some.
Now that the UNSC had geared up to defend the last remaining human colonies, they had to predict when the Covenant would come. This was left up to ONI. Within three months of receiving the order to predict the time of the Covenant invasion, they had a 98% chance of being correct that the Covenant would attack in the next 1-2 months. They were right. Humanity would have to defend itself for its very existence.
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