Halo 2: Operation Dream Knife (Chapter 1: Orbital Gun)
Posted By: System Failure<haloknight2003@aol.com>
Date: 28 April 2004, 11:01 PM
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0540 Hours, September 20, 2552
Outside Earth's Space Defense System
Orbital Gun Platform 3, Defensive Sheild
Sweat streamed down the face of Chief Tim Jacobs. The seraph fighter in his sights cut back and forth, trying to shake him. Tim jammed his finger on the trigger. His longsword shuddered as the 50mm cannon spit hot lead at the enemy craft. A round hit something vital and the seraph blew into a cloud of plasma and jagged fragments.
Tim banked his longsword hard right. His quick maneuver caused him to narrowly miss several plasma bolts. Glancing down at his radar, he saw that there were two seraph fighters on his tail. Pulling off one evasive maneuver after the other Tim couldn't shake his attackers. Suddenly he had an idea. Smiling he pulled his fighter into a 180.
Targeting the enemies, he fired off two missiles. They sped towards their targets. The enemy fighters peeled off, trying to lose the missiles. Tim turned his fighter back around. He reached over and tapped on the aft cameras. Seconds later the cameras came on-line. The view screens showed one seraph being followed by two of the missiles. Seconds later two explosions filled the view screen. The second seraph disappeared in the fireball.
The remaining seraph emerged from the cloud of plasma and debris left by its wingman. Tim cut off his view screen then spun the longsword around. He accelerated his fighter too full speed, keeping his sights centered on the enemy craft. The seraph fighter followed suit. Tim and the seraph opened fire at the same exact time. Tim set his craft in a rapid barrel roll, shooting off rounds into the enemy. After a few dozen rounds hit the teardrop shaped seraph, it exploded.
Tim eased off the throttle. He wiped the sweat of his brow with his shirtsleeve. Looking out Tim saw a huge space raging or, distorted by the guns energy shield. A bright flash blinded Tim as the gun fired. In the distance he saw at least ten assorted covenant capitol ships get torn apart.
He pulled out his canteen and took a long draft. After taking a deep breath, he turned his fighter around. In the distance was a sea of boiling plasma, missiles, metal and fire. And in the middle of this was a ravaged Orbital gun platform.
He accelerated his longsword to top speed, trying to get back to the gun before it was too late. He tapped a button on his view screen. The longsword pilot roster for Platform 3 popped up.
"Damn," said Tim, pounding the panel. Of the 45 pilots that fought today only 26 were left. He looked outside at the battle going on. Now every pilot would be needed more than ever.
"We've got contacts coming in from all angles," blasted the com. "All remaining longsword pilots of Platform 3 intercept and engage all enemy contacts, I repeat engage all contacts."
Tim sped towards the gun. He came up to a large pocket of burning wreckage. Tim weaved back and forth through the explosions and battered remains of human and covenant fighters and other ships. All he could see were purple, orange, blue and red blobs, any individual object indiscernible from the burning masses of light, fire and death.
Suddenly, it became dark again. Tim was now 400 meters from the Orbital Gun; and from there he could see feathery wisps of smoke. He tapped on the magnification for his view screen. Now he could see that the smoke was coming from the covenant soldiers EVA thruster packs. When he saw the hundreds of soldiers streaking towards the gun his heart froze. For a second he even thought of running.
Then he saw earth. Behind all the fighting, the last human held world stood out. Its cool whites and blues contrasting against the harsh reds and oranges of the space battle. It was outlined as the orbital gun fired again. For a moment he thought of the billions of people living or Earth. Then about the extinction of the human race if earth fell. The thought cleared his head.
Tim maxed out the thrusters and sped towards a line of covenant dropships. He targeted the lead ship and fired a missile. The missile streaked towards the ship, curving slightly to match its target's trajectory. The covenant vessel spit out hot gobs of plasma at the missile but missed. The missile impacted the nose of the drop ship. A second later a bright white flash engulfed the drop ship and turned it into a fireball.
A pair of friendly fighters burst from the middle of the cloud of debris. They fired missiles right over Tim's longsword. Seconds later he heard the explosions of two covenant ships.
"All pilots of Platform retreat ASAP," said the com.
"Aye, aye to that, sir," said one of the pilots.
The longswords streaked back to the launch bay, moving down hundreds of covenant soldiers on the way. Seven longswords near the launch bay door laid out covering fire. Missiles blew up covenant ships and rounds killed covenant troops. This left the ships coming in to attack any enemy between them and the and the launch bay.
Tim held down the trigger for his nose cannon. The 50mm rounds devastated the barely shield soldiers, single rounds killing 5-6 troops each. He carved a path in the covenant invaders to the launch bay.
About 100 meters from the bay, the orbital gun fired again. When his vision was coming back, the collison detector in Tim's fighter sounded. Suddenly his veiw came back. A covenant drop ship was coming at him head on. With inches to spare, Tim rolled tom the left. As he passed the drop ship he took a closer look at it. OLny the front half of the vesssel remained intact . Small patches of purple could be seen under the scorh marks.
Tim straighten up his longsword and guided it inside of the bay. The last of th longswords flew close behind him. As he and the others got in, the massive doors slid slowly shut. They spread out and went back to their seperate docks. Smoke filled the bay as the pressure equalized.
Suddenly the alarm flared. The orbital started to rumble and shake. Not like when it fired but as if were being shoved into a meat grinder. The lights cut off pitching the bay in complete darkness. Explosions caused the bulkheads to bend and buckle. All the electronics on Tims fighter cut off. His engine went with them. Being high above the bay floor, it was a long way down. Tims longsword picthed forward and plunged into the darkness.
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