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The Fall of Reach: Battle for Reach
Posted By: Bob 121<Elektron@wideopenwest.com>
Date: 14 April 2006, 1:09 pm
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Author's Note: Hi guys, this is my second Halo fanfic and the first one I've put up here. Just a quick notice to everyone, the into Memo thing was written by Erik Nylund for his book the, Fall of Reach, which I tied this story into. Reviews and constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated, thanks.
Chapter 1: Order of Battle
United Nations Space Command
Alpha Priority Transmission 04592Z-83
Encryption code: Red
Public Key: file /bravo-tango-beta-five/
From: Admiral Roland Freemont, Commanding Fleet Officer,
FLEETCOM Sector One Commander/ (UNSC Service Number: 00745-16778-HS)
To: ALL UNSC warships in REACH, JERICO, and TANTALUS systems
Subject: IMMEDIATE RECALL
Classification: Classified (BGX Directive)
/start file/
Covenant presence detected on REACH system's edge coordinates 030 relative.
ALL UNSC warships are hereby ordered to cease all activities and regroup at rally point ZULU at best speed.
ALL SHIPS are to enact the Cole Protocol immediately
/end file/
0400 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)
Reach Military Complex, 9th Division Garrison
Pvt. Ethan Campbell awoke to the screeching noise with a start. It took him only an instant to realize that what he was hearing was not reveille but in fact was the emergency sirens. He scrambled out of his cot half awake alongside the other men in his barracks that were similarly surprised and confused. What the hell!? What in God's name is going on here? he thought to himself. Ethan overheard two Privates nearby talking about a Covenant attack. His brain shouted out in denial to the two Marine's mutterings; The Covenant wouldn't attack Reach! Reach is the most heavily defended planet in this system! Besides we would have known about them long before they'd got here, it must be a drill. "Yeah," he said to himself, "its nothing but a drill."
0400 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)
UNSC Destroyer Argive en route to Rally Point Zulu
The Argive's bridge was engulfed in chaos; Capt. Anton Marshal's voice was barley audible over the screeching klaxons.
"Comms. I need a report ASAP! Tell me what the hell is going on out there!" The communications officer scrambled to fulfill the Captain's increasing demands. Anton Marshal was not a man that you would want to anger; tall, with a strong build and sharp facial features, the Captain was certainly an intimidating sight on the bridge as he prowled from station-to-station. "Navigation! What is our ETA?"
"Uhh, about 20 minutes sir."
Good, maybe then we'll be able to find out how the hell those Covie bastards snuck up on us. Marshal turned to the AI's holograph pedestal where the ship's AI construct; a semi-translucent holograph of a four-armed figure was standing; "Shiva, send out a tightbeam transmission to FLEETCOM and tell them our ETA is in 20 minutes, and while you're at it try to get us any intel you can on the enemy. I want numbers, classifications, positions, anything that we have I want it now." After a few moments the main NAV board lit up with data. Capt. Marshal stood there watching the data scroll by as if he had just been smacked across the face.
0400 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)
UNSC Carrier Belisarious near Rally Point Zulu
Greg Rowan tapped his fingers on his Longswords control panel as he sat impatiently. "Come on Ray, hurry it up!"
"Shut the hell up Greg! You wanna fuel your own bird?"
Greg Rowan was the leader of Halo flight and embarrassingly enough he was also the last one of his flight to leave the hangar.
"Hey you know what Ray? Never mind I think I'll just walk to the battlefield. Know where the nearest airlock is?" Ray, the middle-aged technician who had just finished fueling the Longsword let the pilot know by throwing a wrench at the cockpit, which instead hit the nose and bounced off back into the balding crewman.
"Hey Ray, I hope you're better at fueling than you are at throwing." As the Longsword pulled out of the hangar bay he saw the technician giving him a one-finger-salute and shouting profanities.
The FAC gave Greg clearance as he left the Carrier and moved Halo flight's coordinates.
"All right Halo flight, sorry I was late but you know how those techies are." The rest of Halo flight broke into laughter; there was a kind of tension between some of the pilots and their techs, even though they don't really hate each other they would poke fun at each other as a means of putting aside their nervousness whenever they were going into a battle. "We've been assigned to anti-fighter duty for the destroyer Argive. It hasn't arrived yet but will shortly, meanwhile run diagnostics through your systems then run em again, we don't want anything going wrong that can be avoided. We stick to the plan and we'll all come through this in one piece."
0423 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)
UNSC Destroyer Argive near Rally Point Zulu
"Notify Admiral Stanforth that the Argive has arrived" Captain Marshal barked, "Yessir" the Comm. Officer replied hastily. "Navigation, move us into position." The Comm. Officer turned to Capt. Marshall a few moments later; "The Belisarious has notified us that it has assigned Halo, Alpha, and Sierra squadrons for anti-fighter defense." Marshall nodded and without taking his eyes off the Nav-board he replied, "Send the Belisarious my thanks, Mr. Jansen"
The Argive was one of the last UNSC ships to arrive at the rally point and quickly moved into position. The Covenant Fleet was already moving in and would be within firing range in a matter of minutes. The backbone of the UNSC's strategy relied not on the considerable number of ships gathered around Reach but instead on the twenty orbital MAC guns that had been arrayed to combat Reach's assailants. Each orbital platform fired what was essentially a huge ball of molten ferric-tungsten that was magnetically accelerated to near-light speed. The Argive, and numerous other UNSC vessels, were equipped with a similar version albeit less powerful. The plan was the orbital defense platform's MAC guns would deliver long-range crippling blows to the advancing Covenant fleet and the UNSC vessels would move in for the kill. The only weakness in the plan is the fact that the power source for the MAC guns, fusion reactors located on the surface of Reach, were highly vulnerable and if compromised would render the orbital guns useless.
0425 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)
Halo Flight Squadron near UNSC Destroyer Argive
"All right Halo Flight move into position around Argive." Flight Commander Rowan brought his Longsword into a lazy loop along the length of the destroyer; 50mm cannons and Archer missile pods flashing past his cockpit. He was uneasy about the upcoming battle, he could see the Covenant fleet approaching; it was huge, from what he could tell there were hundreds of ships and that wasn't good. "Halo flight, gear up, we're gonna have company any minute here. Try your best to stay near the Argive and keep in contact with the rest of the squadron, I don't want any loners out there, that's the fastest way to die. One last thing; the Belisarious is nearby so if you need to rearm let them know you're coming in and try you're best to stay away from the Destroyer's cannons, they can't always be as discriminate between targets as we'd like." Rowan looked towards the oncoming fleet and for the first time in a long while, started to pray.
0428 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)
UNSC Destroyer Argive in position over Reach
Capt. Marshall let out a sigh, "Well, here they come." The fate of Reach could very well be decided in the first few minutes of the battle, a nagging voice spoke from somewhere in the back of his mind, he quickly squashed the thought and turned away from the Nav-board. "Weapons Control, give me full power to the MAC gun, I want the Archer missile pods ready and the 50mm's loaded." Anton Marshall was nervous, regardless of the multiple campaigns that he'd served in and the countless battles he'd been through the Covenant always made him uneasy. It's probably because they're so different, so…. alien. He'd heard the stories of how the Navy had only won battles against the Covenant when there were at least three-to-one odds in their favor, and even then the losses they took were horrendous. He wouldn't have believed it possible if he hadn't witnessed many of the atrocities first hand. It's those damn shields they have, we get hit by one plasma burst and we're out of the picture while we throw everything we have at them and they just keep coming. The weapons officer pulled him from his trance, "Archer's are hot along with the 50mm's and the MAC will be ready shortly. Marshall turned and looked out the viewport at the enemy fleet "Very good."
0436 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)
Orbital MAC Station Validus in orbit over Reach
Bridge Commander Miguel Alvarez stood at the Command/Control center of the orbital "Super" MAC Gun Validus. His job was to essentially "snipe" the oncoming Covenant fleet while at maximum range. Many naval officers referred to MAC guns such as the Validus as Super MAC guns because of the larger projectiles and greater force that they could produce. While a shipboard MAC could deliver deadly blows to enemy vessels they required multiple hits in order to completely incapacitate a Covenant capitol ship. The Validus, and the other orbital stations, required only a single hit to destroy their intended target thanks to the extra power provided by the groundside power plants.
Alvarez turned as a young lieutenant materialized behind him. "Sir, the Covenant fleet has moved into maximum range. Requesting permission to open fire."
Commander Alvarez nodded to the lieutenant, "Yes, you may open fire." There came a faint rumbling noise from the bowls of the station and then the deck suddenly vibrated as the station fired its main weapon.
Twenty super-heated spheres of metal sheared through the void crossing thousands of kilometers in just seconds. The projectiles finally found their mark, impacting their targets in two's and three's. The MAC rounds, though crude, were very effective, and one-by-one Covenant vessels died. A Cruiser, with its shields stripped by the force of the projectile's impact, shuddered as the ball of metal tore through its hull and hit it's reactor, causing it to go critical and explode in a ball of white-blue flame that engulfed another Cruiser, causing its shields to flicker and die. A MAC round tore into a Carrier, shorted out its energy shields penetrating its hull, and it continued on, carried by its momentum, into a picket ship, resulting in its complete destruction.
The Command deck of the Validus erupted in cheers as sixteen Covenant capitol ships and three support ships disappeared from the screen. Commander Alvarez looked over the screen as a wave of joy swept over him, it was quickly banished when the Covenant fleet returned fire on its attackers. Alvarez felt a wave of panic replace the joy as the uncountable plasma bursts came closer towards the human fleet. "Get that MAC reloaded NOW!"
0437 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)
UNSC Destroyer Argive inside Reach Battle Zone
"Evasive maneuvers! Get us out of their line of fire!" Right after the orbital station's initial volley the fleet had come under heavy fire. The Argive hadn't even gotten a chance to get a proper targeting solution with its MAC before coming under fire by three separate plasma rounds. Capt. Marshall braced himself against the computer terminal as the destroyer went into a sharp turn away from the plasma bursts. "I want a targeting solution for the MAC, target the nearest cruiser and open fire."
The Weapons Officer shouted across the bridge to Marshall. "Target locked captain, preparing to fire"
The whole ship shook as it unleashed its deadliest weapon; the MAC round sped through space and impacted on a Covenant Cruiser that was trading blows with the UNSC Destroyer Prometheus. The round impacted the Cruiser, stripped its already weakened shields, and continued on into the Cruiser punching through a good portion of the ship. The entire bridge crew cheered as the Prometheus finished off the wounded ship and then moved on to another target.
Even before the Cruiser was destroyed the com officer ran up to Marshall; "Sir there are Carriers moving in, FLEETCOM has ordered us to join the Lancer and Durus to move in and take them out" Damn! I'd hoped the Carriers would be preoccupied a little longer, if those Carriers get bombers close enough in our formation then we're in big trouble.
The tactical officer called out, "The Carriers are beginning to deploy their fighters!"
"Target the nearest Carrier, share our telemetry with the Lancer and Durus. I want us to fire as close as possible at the same time." The Comm. Officer relayed the message to both ships and an instant later all three ships opened fire almost simultaneously.
0437 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)
Halo Flight Squadron near UNSC Destroyer Argive
F.C. Rowan saw the tear-dropped shaped fighters pouring out of the Carriers. "Ok people we've got bogey's coming in fast so get ready. I just got word from the Argive that we're to target the bombers when they do come out but for now just focus on the fighters. A chorus of confirmations came over Rowan's earpiece as Halo flight spread out into attack formation; ahead of them Alpha squadron had already engaged the enemy fighters and were holding well, taking down two enemy fighters with no losses of their own. Seconds later Halo flight joined the battle alongside Sierra Squadron and tore into the Covenant fighters, cutting a swathe through the enemy formation, destroying or crippling a quarter of their number in one lethal pass. The initial pass was not a complete victory, however, Sierra squadron lost two Longswords and Halo six was crippled and leaking oxygen from a plasma hit to the cockpit.
Rowan brought his Longsword around in a tight arc and aimed his fighter towards Halo six's crippled ship. "Halo flight cover six until a shuttle can get him out" Rowan switched over to the Belisarious's CommNet; "This is Gregory Rowan, F.C. of Halo Flight, we have a crippled fighter out here and need immediate evac."
Rowan heard an almost annoyingly calm voice answer over his earpiece, "Negative Halo Flight, the area is too hot for our shuttles your man is on his own, sorry."
"Damn!" Rowan saw two Covenant fighters already heading towards the damaged Longsword, Six'll never survive out here in the middle of this. Rowan switched his comm. over to the squadron frequency.
"Halo five and seven stick with six and keep those fighters off his back. Make sure to watch out for…." Rowan stopped in mid-sentence as a red light began flashing on his control board accompanied by an incessant beeping, Rowan glanced at the radar and uttered an oath; a second wave of fighters, over seventy-two Covenant craft, swarmed from the bowels of the nearest cruiser headed straight for them.
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