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And Thus Is Your Epitaph- The Battle for Beta Gabriel
Posted By: Gavinus<gavster59@hotmail.com>
Date: 3 February 2006, 9:11 pm
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0525 Hours, September 9, 2552 (Military Calendar)
UNSC Frigate Condescendence on patrol in Beta Gabriel System
Orbiting Beta Gabriel
"Steady as she goes, Lieutenant."
"Aye aye, sir"
Commander Alan Miles turned from his navigation officer, Lieutenant Bales, and glanced at the viewscreen. Beta Gabriel's moon, Hebe, was edging its way around the brim of the planet as the ship continued on its patrol.
"Engine status?"
"Both cores operating within acceptable levels." Ensign Leang responded, her long, graceful fingers pecking at the console in front of her.
Condescendence sported multiple pods of Archer ship-to-ship heavy missiles, as well as its primary weapon; the MAC gun. The MAC (Magnetic Acceleration Cannon), consisted of a series of superconducting electromagnets, which charge in rapid succession to 'slingshot' a 600 ton ferrous-core tungsten slug at a fraction of the speed of light.
Commander Miles observed the tactical display of the system, noting the dozen waypoints left on their patrol, "Good." He turned and sat back in the commander's chair.
He continued reading the report on the new Virgo Anti-Capital ship mines. ONI had commissioned these just before Reach was destroyed. The Virgos were still experimental, but they were designed to crack a capital ship's armour. No doubt impressive, but hopefully he wouldn't have to test them.
"Continue on course, we'll change shifts after this is done. No doubt you could use some R&R on the surface."
"Amen to that, sir." Lieutenant Bales murmured, pinching the bridge of his nose.
Commander Miles smiled and said nothing. Most commanders in the UNSC would groan when ordered to patrol a system such as this. Miles' heart nearly jumped up his throat when FLEETCOM requested him to do this.
Miles himself was born and raised on Beta Gabriel, a little-known slice of paradise only 14 million kilometres from where Reach . . . was. Beta Gabriel is now an island in the middle of a no-mans-land that was once powerful UNSC-controlled space. Ever since Reach fell . . .
Reach. The thought haunted Commander Miles. Unbeknownst to the civilian population of the handful of colonies left, Beta Gabriel was the farthest colony, now, from Earth. The reality of the situation was terrifying. The Covenant were winning. Humanity was losing.
Miles pushed the thought from his head, instead redirecting his thoughts to the beautiful planet below, where his wonderful wife lived, his beloved son. She raised their son by herself on the planet, with Alan constantly on duty against the Covenant. Now he has the chance to see her again, and his son . . .
"Lieutenant Janson." Miles said to his weapons officer.
"Sir?"
"If I remember your record correctly, you're from Beta Gabriel also?"
"That's right, sir. Born and raised, like you." Janson said with a smile
"You have a family there?"
"Yes, sir. A wife and a son. On the western continent."
"How old is your son, Janson?" asked Miles, leaning forward.
"He'll be 1 year old in a month, sir."
"Is that so?" Miles smiled to himself, "My son, too, will be 1 soon. We own a small island on a lake. I one day wish to teach my son to swim there, to teach him to throw a ball and to run."
Janson looked up at the commander with admiring eyes. Surprisingly young to be a Commander, but by no means inexperienced, he thought.
"As I recall, you have a brother in the Navy, Janson?"
"I . . . I had a brother, sir." Janson looked away.
"I'm sorry, Janson. What happened?" Miles asked gently.
Janson looked at his hands resting on the keyboard. "He was serving aboard the Herodotus. A munitions engineer. He was killed by the Covenant at Reach."
Commander Miles sighed wearily. "So many were." He said almost to himself.
"Commander, we've reached the next waypoint." Lieutenant Bales reported
"Understood. Continue to the next, lieutenant."
"Aye aye, s-" Lieutenant Bales was cut short by Ensign Leang.
"Commander, we have an unidentified vessel exiting slipspace two hundred thousand kilometres to our starboard."
"Jesus, that's close." Miles muttered "Identify."
Ensign Leang turned to him, her eyes wide. "It's Covenant, sir. Frigate class. Looks like a Covenant Assault Reconnaissance. Scans tag it as 'A Prospect of Truth' "
Commander Miles jack-knifed from his chair, staring at the new red blip on the TAC display.
"No!" he hissed.
Miles stared at the red triangle on the Tactical display for a moment, horrified. He shook his head. "Red alert! All hands to their battle stations! This is not a drill!" Miles said over the announcer. Klaxons blared and the bridge dimmed into a blood red glow.
"Ensign Leang, purge our navigations database and remove the safeties on the reactors. Generate random slipspace coordinates, and stand by."
"Aye, sir." Leang responded with a level voice.
"Lieutenant Janson, I want our MAC charged 5 minutes ago, heavy round. Prime all Archer pods and unlock the safeties on our Virgos. Bales, Cut main drives and engage manoeuvring thrusters, bearing 082. Warm up our engines. We may have to make a quick exit" The crew jumped to their tasks. Condescendence continued on its course but was now pointed at the new threat, A Prospect of Truth, in effect 'strafing' the enemy ship.
"Commander, MAC gun fully charged and Archers primed and ready. Virgos standing by for deployment." Janson reported.
"Nav database purged and triple-screened, sir. Both fusion core safeties removed. Standing by."
"Excellent," Commander Miles said "Give me a targeting solution for the MAC and the Archers. I want them hitting at the same time. Fire Archer pods A1 through B7, fire MAC when ready."
"Aye, sir. Targeting solution acquired. Archers away, MAC gun standing by"
The deck above them rumbled as the missiles launched. Miles watched them race towards the apparently inactive Covenant ship. Moments later, a loud thud resonated through the deck, and a streak of white shot towards A Prospect of Truth.
"Commander, detecting increasing energy levels from the Covenant frigate." Ensign Leang said, her voice still as level as if she were telling the time.
A Prospect of Truth flickered with light along its purple hull, a silver bubble flashing around it. It turned towards them.
"Enemy ship closing in, sir." Lieutenant Bales said, and true enough, the red blip on the TAC display slowly slid towards the green dot representing Condescendence.
Moments later, before it could manoeuvre, the dozens of Archer missiles impacted in utter silence along A Prospect of Truth's nose. The MAC round sailed straight and disappeared amongst the explosions.
"Yes! Direct hit!" Lieutenant Janson whooped. The crew sighed and smiled to one another.
"Wait." Ensign Leang whispered. The fire and light cleared, pushed aside by the scarred purple nose of the Covenant frigate. A Prospect of Truth continued inexorably towards them, a huge trench gouged along its prow from the MAC slug. It continued forward, nimbly swivelling 90 degrees, pointing its broadside at Condescendence.
0548 Hours, September 9, 2552 (Military Calendar)
UNSC Frigate Condescendence currently engaging Covenant Frigate A Prospect of Truth
Orbiting Beta Gabriel
"Craps!" Bales moaned
"Bales, bring us around! Heading two-four-eight! Push the engines as far as you can!" Miles shouted.
"Heading two-four-eight. Aye commander." Condescendence spun left and the deck filled with a faint roaring as the ship's massive engines came to life. "Engines answering flank speed!"
"Guns, deploy all of our Virgo mines! We'll see how well they perform." Miles ordered. Hopefully we'll live long enough to give ONI a report, he thought to himself with a twisted smile. New blue dots appeared on the Tactical display, a little cluster of mines. They floated for a moment, and then slowly began making their way towards A Prospect of Truth.
"Commander Miles, detecting energy surges from the Covenant vessel" Ensign Leang stated gracefully.
"Starboard camera!"
The main viewscreen clicked to the right-side view. A Prospect of Truth still surged towards them, its broadside now speckled with bright blue flashes.
"Pulse lasers." Miles growled. Moments later, the hull on the right sizzled and popped, several bangs sounded through the ship and the starboard viewscreens hissed with static then winked out.
"Sections 1 and 3 breached, sir. Sealing bulkheads. Hull integrity of sections 2, 4 and 5 below 40%" Ensign Leang reported.
"We're approaching the planet, sir." Lieutenant Bales said. Commander Miles was hit with a sudden stroke of inspiration.
"Move us closer to the planet, Lieutenant Bales. I want us inside the ionosphere."
Lieutenant Bales turned to face him. "Sir?" Then he slowly nodded, understanding. "A shield. Aye, sir! Moving now, engines continuing flank speed."
Condescendence banked left slightly, and Commander Miles' gut jumped inside him as they entered the gravity well. Miles planned to use the electromagnetic field produced by Beta Gabriel to protect Condescendence from the Covenant weapons. It wasn't much, but it was all they could do.
"Increasing levels of beta radiation detected in Covenant ship, sir." Reported Ensign Leang, a slight frown creasing her usually smooth forehead. The lateral side of A Prospect of Truth surged and pulsed with bright red light until it grew painful to look at. The build-up of light along the frigate peaked, and with a crimson flash a plasma torpedo belched from its side and raced towards them.
"Lieutenant Bales, continue on this course. Keep us inside the atmosphere, son."
"Aye, commander. It's difficult at this velocity. The gravity plays hell with our course."
"Do your best."
The frigate's plasma torpedo continued towards them, adjusting its trajectory to track them.
"Impact in 10 seconds, sir." The bridge held its breath "Four, three, two . . ."
As the torpedo closed in, it suddenly swerved, and the superheated gas exploded outwards, as if it was a balloon that just popped.
Sweat trickled down Commander Miles' neck "Damage report!" he barked.
Ensign Leang scanned her console. "Damage was . . . superficial, sir. They blistered her hull. Contact, another torpedo being fired, sir."
Lieutenant bales turned to the commander. "Orders, sir?"
"Continue on this course, Lieutenant." Miles responded "On second thought, belay that. Adjust our course by zero-two-four degrees. Push our engines to 150%"
"Zero-two-four. Aye, sir. Engines answering 150%. Reactors redline in 20 seconds. Are you doing what I think you're doing, sir?" Bales turned to look at him. Commander Miles was pecking at his keypad, numbers flashed on the screen.
"Yes." He growled.
Condescendence turned to the right slightly, heading straight for Beta Gabriel's moon, Hebe.
"Where's that torpedo, Ensign?" asked the Commander.
Ensign Leang clicked a key on her console, and another flashing red blip appeared on the TAC display. "11 seconds until impact, commander."
"Steady as she goes, Bales." Miles' hands tightened on the arms of his chair.
Condescendence roared onward towards Hebe, with the plasma torpedo lazily tracking them and closing alarmingly fast. A Prospect of Truth stopped its forward movement and it rotated itself about face. It began moving back the way it had come.
"Gunnery, fire the rest of our Archers! Pods C1 through E7!"
"Aye, commander! Solution acquired. Missiles away!" The deck rumbled with thunder once more as the last of Condescendence's Archers streamed from the ventral hull.
Miles leaned forward. "Stand by to execute manoeuvre, Lieutenant Bales"
"Aye aye, sir. Thrusters standing by." Lieutenant Bales nodded to himself, counting off seconds.
"Now, Lieutenant Bales! Ensign Leang, shunt primary drive coolant and cool the reactors! Disengage engines!" Miles shouted as Condescendence closed on the moon. A bang thudded from her port side, and she blasted to the right. Not a sound came from below as the huge engines turned off. Half of the smaller view screens suddenly filled with grey as Condescendence curled her way around Hebe. The plasma torpedo followed her course, but the ship had already disappeared behind the moon, and the torpedo splashed into the surface of Hebe, leaving an angry red glow where it had hit.
"It worked, commander, the torpedo impacted into the moon!" A smile broke across Ensign Leang's face. Commander Miles slouched back and let go of his chair, his hands drenched with sweat.
Lieutenant Bales relaxed his arms. "Whew. That's twice so far, commander. Somebody up there is smiling on us"
Commander miles grunted "Humph. Somebody up there's doing something on us, but it ain't smiling. But we bought ourselves time to think. How long until our slingshot orbit fires, Bales?"
"Another twenty seconds, sir."
"All right. We'll-"
"Um, commander?" Lieutenant Janson cut across. "We have a problem"
0605 Hours, September 9, 2552 (Military Calendar)
UNSC Frigate Condescendence currently engaging Covenant Frigate A Prospect of Truth
Executing slingshot orbit of moon, Hebe. Beta Gabriel System
A snag. Everybody in the military hated snags. They were so intrusive and bothersome.
Miles sighed. "What've you got for us, Janson?"
"It's complicated, sir. But the lowdown is our MAC gun is damaged. The super-conducting coils have been frazzled by the plasma and the electro-mag interference from the planet."
"What're our options?"
Lieutenant Janson frowned. "Well, sir. I think we can get off another shot. But firing any more after that will warp the shaft of the cannon, and cripple the ship."
Commander Miles closed his eyes and leaned back. "We'll have to take the risk, we need the firepower. Lieutenant Janson, charge the MAC. Ensign Leang, I want a power reserve stored and standing by. Coordinate with Janson, you're going to dump it to the MAC to give us another shot immediately after the first."
The crew hesitated. "Aye, commander." They both replied.
"Commander, exiting slingshot in five, four, three . . ."
Condescendence blasted from the shadow of the moon. A Prospect of Truth was almost dead ahead of it.
"Commander, MAC fully charged, reserved charge standing by for dump." Lieutenant Janson said.
"Acquire solutions and stand by to fire. Lieutenant Bales, fire the engines to 100%"
Ensign Leang said "Commander, reactors still hot from our initial burn. Permission to dump secondary coolant to reactors?"
"Granted"
Condescendence once again rumbled with raw power as her engines blazed to life.
"MAC still hot, commander" Lieutenant Janson reminded.
"Understood, stand by to fire" Commander Miles stood in front of the depression in the centre of the deck where his junior officers sat at the four consoles, and held his hands behind his back. This would either work, or it wouldn't.
Miles smiled to himself "There we go". The tail end of the Covenant ship blossomed with flame as the blue dots representing the Virgo mines connected with the red dot on the TAC display.
Janson's fingers hovered over his controls "Commander?"
"Fire, Janson" Miles said. The deck rumbled once, and immediately groaned loudly as a white-hot tungsten round rocketed from above. "Dump reserve and fire again, Janson"
Lieutenant Janson didn't hesitate at his keyboard, as a second MAC round launched from the cannon. A deafening clang sounded from above, then a thud, and the entire ship screeched and shook violently. Commander Miles fell forward onto the railing.
"Big gun destroyed, commander!" Janson shouted, his hands flying across the controls. Commander Miles' eyes were fixed on the Covenant ship, as three lances of blood-red flame streaked from its side.
Ensign Leang shouted "Contact! Contact! Three torpedoes inbound!" The tail end of the Covenant frigate once again lit with fire, as the Archers fired earlier had finally made contact. One of the tear-drops of plasma exploded outwards and sizzled into a cloud of red gas that turned yellow then blue, as its electromagnetic shell broke and the light frequencies blue-shifted through spectra.
"We've destroyed one of the Covenants turrets, sir. The tracking and containment controls have been disabled for one of the torpedoes." Ensign Leang reported. The two other torpedoes still raced towards them, one leading the other, like fingers of fire reaching across space.
The two MAC rounds and the two plasma torpedoes sailed past each other not more than five thousand kilometres apart. Miles made the calculations in his head, velocity, distance and time. They would hit before the MACs did.
"Emergency thrusters to port! All hands brace for impact!" Miles shouted. A sonorous bang resonated from the right side of Condescendence and she violently dodged to the left. The leading torpedo sailed past them, but swerved at the last moment and splashed astern of the ship.
"Impact! We have impact at starboard-aft! Sealing decks and depressurising!" Ensign Leang called, venting the atmosphere from the affected decks to starve the plasma fires of fuel.
Condescendence pivoted clockwise from the glancing impact and consequent explosive decompressions. The second torpedo surged furiously forwards and slammed Condescendence port amidships. Commander Miles was thrown back and crashed into a wall.
Meanwhile, the two MAC rounds continued onwards. A Prospect of Truth was struggling to regenerate her shields and maintain her critically damaged engines. A feeble silver sheen flickered slid around the ship. The black space around her frothed and boiled in greens and blue. An electric blue bubble surged at the nose of the Covenant ship as it rolled slowly onwards.
The first tungsten slug smashed into A Prospect of Truth amidships and was deflected downwards by the shield, which immediately flashed white and popped. The round continued on at an angle down through the lower decks of the frigate, gutting it from port to starboard and sailing out the other side in a wake of debris and atmosphere.
A Prospect of Truth sailed forwards, barrel-rolling counter-clockwise from the impact. Its scarred prow was now surrounded by an electric cloud as space bubbled and smeared around the ship. The second MAC rushed in a white streak and struck the ship at the vulnerable port-aft. The round ripped clean through the now tender tail of the frigate. The purple hull warped and bent at the back, already weakened from the mines and missiles. The momentum from the slug caused the tail end of the ship to tear itself apart under its own weight, severing the engines and sending the entire ship spinning.
But it was already too late. The frothing light around the rest of the ship built up, until there was a bright flash, and a blue-white tear appeared in space in front of it. A Prospect of Truth continued forward on its own inertia and gently slid sideways through the light, and into Slipstream Space.
Darkness.
Miles opened his eyes. The darkness endured.
"Commander." The voice whispered. Miles blinked, groaning at the throbbing pain in his head.
No. That was good, wasn't it? You don't feel pain when you're dead, surely?
Dim red light filtered through the prevailing darkness, and the concerned face of a medic slid into focus.
"Come on, Commander Miles. You've had quite a bump on the head." Miles sat up, also noting the pain in his lower back that added to the growing stockpile in his brain.
"What . . . what happened?" Miles muttered.
Lieutenant Janson stood next to him and offered a hand to help him up. "We took one hell of a beating, Commander. We were almost destroyed, in fact. Thanks to you, however, we're still in one- . . . well, we'll live for now." He smiled warmly.
"Did we . . . get them? The Covenant?" Commander Miles hissed "Did we kill them?" he said more urgently. The crew exchanged glances. Miles looked at them. "Well?"
Lieutenant Bales smiled eagerly at him "We hit them, Commander. We hit them pretty damn hard." Ensign Leang stepped forward, her unwavering eyes locked onto his.
"We did. But . . ." She glanced at Janson and back again "They . . . they got away Commander." Her gaze dropped to the deck.
Miles fell back, landing heavily in the soft grooves of his command chair, his eyes stared at nothing.
"No . . ." Miles leaned forward and placed his face in his hands. Lieutenant Janson looked at him with eyes full of sadness. He understood.
"But we got them, didn't we Chief?" Bales turned to Ensign Leang, his voice breaking, "Didn't we, Jun?" She didn't answer him.
Commander Miles lowered his hands, his eyes tight shut, tears blazing tracks down his face.
There was nothing they could do.
"Commander?"
Miles looked up at Lieutenant Janson, tears still sliding down his cheeks.
"I'm sorry" Miles whispered "I'm so sorry."
Janson looked at him with fearful eyes "Commander Miles?"
There was nothing they could do now but wait.
Wait for them to come back and destroy their planet. His planet.
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