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Harvest Campaign Chapter 6
Posted By: Fleet Admiral<lifethreat2003@yahoo.con>
Date: 15 June 2004, 2:33 AM


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1540 Hours February 2, 2527 (Military Calendar) /
UNSC HQ, Lambda System/
UNSC Yamato- class Cruiser Tyrant, Flagship of Rear- Admiral Kennedy


Kennedy looked at the video feed from the probe they sent to Delta squadron's coordinates.

He saw 18 Covenant warships; frigates, destroyers, 2 cruisers, and a carrier. That was a lot of firepower against him. He had seen what a Covenant carrier could do; they lost 12 capitol ships at the Battle of Thule in Harvest because of one Covenant carrier. Her 13 launch bays let out hundreds of fighters.

He turned away from the screen and looked at Captain Lauber, "Captain, prepare to deploy the fleet."

"Aye, aye sir," Lauber replied.

"And get Captain Gearhart to the bridge," Kennedy ordered.

***

Captain Gearhart looked at the flight roster for tomorrow when the alarms for general quarters came on.

"We are at combat alert alpha," the intercom said. "All hands to battle stations. Captain Gearhart to the bridge."

He got up, buttoned his uniform, and walked out the door toward the turbo lift.

***

Kennedy looked at the fleet as it came together, this would be a difficult battle. He was heavily out gunned, but he had orders to secure this system.

The turbo lift doors opened and Captain Gearhart walked out. He walked up the Kennedy and saluted, "Sir, Captain Gearhart reporting as ordered sir."

He saluted him back, "Captain, we are going toward the Covenant fleet in this system; and they heavily out gun us. They have a carrier with 2 cruisers, plus destroyers and frigates. We have to take out the carrier first so the fighters don't launch. So, I will be bringing the fleet in a broad formation. We will try to take out the carrier first, but if we can't then you're going to have a lot of company to deal with. Report to your fighter."

"Aye, aye sir," he said. He saluted and walked off the bridge.

1630 Hours February 2, 2527 (Military Calendar) /
In rout to Covenant fleet, Lambda System/
UNSC Yamato- class Cruiser Tyrant, Flagship of Rear Admiral Kennedy

Kennedy's fleet of 15 ships moved toward the Covenant fleet. He had 7 frigates, 6 destroyers, a carrier, and his flagship.

He had to be the one to fire first, if the Covenant fire first they will destroy his fleet.

"Sir, Covenant fleet in view," Lauber said.

"On screen," he ordered.

The screen showed the Covenant fleet in a rough delta formation.

"Liz, get a firing solution on the enemy fleet and put the fleets MAC guns on the timer," Kennedy ordered. "I want the carrier taken out first."

"Aye, aye sir," the AI said.

"Have the rest of our ships fire on the rest of the heavy class ships," he ordered.

The UNSC fleet stopped, the timer decreased. "Prepare a Shiva," Kennedy ordered.

The timer kept going, 3... 2... 1. The Tyrant shuttered as her 4 MAC guns fired. The hot red projectiles flew toward the Covenant fleet.

The Tyrant's first 3 MAC rounds hit the carriers shield, it shined bright hot silver; then it popped, and went out.

The Tyrant's last MAC round hit the covenant carrier; it righted it self and carried on. Then the Chicago's 2 MAC rounds blew into the carrier's center bubble, the massive ship blew in two.

***

Gearhart saw the Covenant carrier blow into flames, the fighters from the 2 Covenant cruisers came at them.

"All fighters engage the Covenant fighters," he ordered. He pushed his throttle all the way forward to full speed and headed strait for the Covenant fighters. He saw that they were Seraph- class fighters.

He was almost in range. "I've got your six sir," Lt. Dorman said.

"Good son," he replied. "Now, let's kick some Covenant ass." He pulled the trigger on his stick and his twin 120mm guns opened fire.

The rounds started to bounce off the Covenant fighter's shields, but soon the shield collapsed and the rounds blew into the hull and it exploded. He locked a pair of ASGM-10 missiles onto the next one and pushed the firing button when it locked.

The missiles flew true. The first one hit the shield and it collapsed, then the last one hit the hull of the fighter and it blew into a ball of fire.

He saw that his squadrons were also in intense dogfights with other Covenant fighters, and had already lost half of a squadron. "Tighten up," he ordered. "Watch out for each other."


***

"Timers at 20 seconds," Liz reported. "Covenant plasma weapons will launch in an estimated 18 seconds."

"We have to get off another shot, decrease the timers," Kennedy ordered.

The timer changed on his tactical screen from 15 seconds to 8 seconds. He was firing from the hip, and he hoped his shot would hit.

The UNSC fleet fired its second salvo, "Break formation NOW," Kennedy ordered.

The UNSC fleet broke apart just before the red plasma torpedoes launched from the Covenant warships.

The MAC rounds hit the Covenant fleet, most were clean misses; but 2 destroyers and a frigate blew apart. One of the Covenant cruisers shields were down.

"All ships attack before they can power up their plasma torpedoes," he ordered. "Captain, fire the Shiva."

The nuclear missile launched toward the Covenant fleet. "Eat this you bastards," he said and pressed the detonation button.

The white flash engulfed the Covenant fleet, when it was gone only 9 Covenant ships left.

The cruiser with the downed shields was now a burning radioactive debris field. That left 1 cruiser, 5 frigates, and 3 destroyers were left. The carrier, cruiser, 3 destroyers, and 4 frigates were burning.

The remaining Covenant ships plasma torpedoes launched at the UNSC ships. Two destroyers and 3 frigates blew apart, 4 other ships were hit and backed off with heavy damage.

The Covenant fleet had broken their lines, missiles and lasers fired every where.

He knew with the bulk of his fleet damaged he would never win this battle, and these ships were all he had to take back this system.

"All ships retreat, activate random exit vectors and return to Lambda HQ," Kennedy ordered.

***

"All fighters retreat," Gearhart ordered. "Get to your ship and dock as fast as you can. We're getting the hell out of here." He turned his fighter around and headed back to the Tyrant.

***


"Sir, plasma torpedo coming for us," Lauber reported.

"Evasive, evasive," Kennedy ordered, but it was too late.

The red ball of fire blew into the Tyrant. Alarms sounded and the bridge got extremely hot.

"Report," he shouted over all the noise. "Report!"

"Heavy damage sir, I can't figure out what is going on below decks," Lt. Hugo reported.

"Are our slip drives still on line," Kennedy asked.

"Yes sir," Hugo replied.

"Go into slipstream," Kennedy ordered.

The Tyrant jumped out of the battle area, he would destroy this Covenant fleet if it was the last thing he'd ever do.


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