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Viper Squadron Chapter 1
Date: 13 September 2002, 4:00 am
Here is kind of a teaser for my next series. It kinda short, I know, so don't gripe. I will be writing this simultaneously with HELLJUMPERS. It was just a good idea I had, and I didn't want anyone to beat me to the chase. El_halo_Diablo, I know you started something like this. I haven't read it, so if some of my ideas are similar, I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to steal your ideas. So here it is. Hope ya like it. The year is 2559. the human race has averted total annihilation by the alien axis if evil, known as the Covenant. Human kind has colonized new worlds and has taken the fight to the covenant worlds. Instead of ending their existences in terrible nuclear winter, the UNSC has decided to take the covenant worlds and colonize them. Viper Squadron, an interceptor/bomber unit considered the elite among elites. They have fought in countless engagements on countless worlds. They have a success record like no other air unit in military history. This is their story, the story of how the covenant were beaten once and for all. Jake strapped into his longsword interceptor and keyed the main hatch shut. He strapped into his molded pilot's seat and looked over at his navigator/bombardier, Gaff. This mission is really going to be a kick in the pants he thought as he initiated the startup sequence. The engines rumbled into existence like a huge beast woken from a deep sleep. He released the docking clamps and deftly swung the large spacecraft around. Meanwhile, Gaff was radioing control to get launch clearance.
"Echo two-six-niner, this is Viper one-one-five. Requesting launch clearance."
"Viper one-one-five, this Echo two-six-niner, launch clearance granted. Get into the black, we need you out there."
"Roger Echo two-six-niner, we're outta here. Over and out." Gaff replied as Jake pushed up the throttles, edging toward the hangar doors. The rest of the squadron was behind us, itching for some fighting. The 458th Tactical Battle Group had been ambushed by numerically superior covenant forces. As per Standard Operating Procedure, they were to exit our carrier ship to minimize losses in the case that the ship got hit.
"Hangar depressurization complete. Opening hangar doors opening now." Announced Ghurka, the Bunker Hill's AI announced. The AI appeared in the holotank in between the pilot and copilot seats. It took the form of an ancient Ghurka warrior. Ghurkas were widely known and feared for their fierce and brilliant fighting abilities.
"Thanks Ghurka, we'll see you when we get back." Jake said.
The hangar doors slid open, revealing the battlefield in the darkness of space. Brilliant red flashes crisscrossed the void. Covenant ships firing on the fleet. Red hot MAC projectiles could also be seen speeding toward their targets. The 60 ships of the 458th were spread out over a few million kilometers. The covenant, with their superior numbers and little or no knowledge of complex battlefield tactics, charged right at the human ships. Jake slid on his flight helmet and plugged it in to the ship computer. His HUD flashed on before his eyes, and he pushed the throttle up to maximum, blasting out into space. Almost immediately, the radar picked up multiple fast moving inbounds. Seraphs Jake thought to himself as he ordered his squadron to spread out and engage the inbounds. On the radar, the friendly green blips dispersed, each taking a vector to a red blip. Gaff locked the fire control radar onto the lead Seraph, and released all the safety locks on the HEE (high energy explosive) Anvil II missiles. A red circle locked onto the incoming Seraph. A green diamond floated around the enemy ship, moving in for a lock. A loud continuous tone signified that the computer had achieved a lock, and was in range. Jake gave the trigger a double squeeze, and two plumes of fire shot out from under the wings, heading for the target. The missiles twisted and turned as the Seraph tried to dodge them. The first missile reached the fighter and the proximity sensor set off the 20 kilo warhead in a flash of silent light. The shields flickered and died as the second missile slammed into the alien ship, blasting it into a million fragments.
Gaff had already targeted another Seraph for Jake when the longsword shuddered violently. Red lights lit off all across the warning panel. The right thruster and stabilizer were out of commission, as well as the number three engine. The spacecraft spun out of control through space as Jake struggled for control of the ship. He finally succeeded in righting it. He vented the burning engine to the cold of space, and the lack of oxygen put the fire out.
Gaff retargeted the Seraph for Jake. He let two missiles fly. The corkscrewed into the alien fighter and it disappeared in a ball of orange fire. Gaff looked for more fighters, but there were none. Viper Squadron regrouped and headed once again for their main objective; the Covenant flagship.
As they drew within weapons range of the massive ship, more fighters streamed out to challenge the human bombers. The ship to ship missiles on the external pylons of the longswords had almost been exhausted. Before the covenant single ship fighters could get in range, Viper squadron volleyed off their remaining missiles to take out as many fighters as possible. Then they shifted, and targeted the capitol ship itself. The massive weapons in the longsword's weapons bays had an excruciatingly slow lock time. Before the remaining Seraphs could attack the bombers, a wing of Dagger fighters swooped in to take them out to buy the bombers the time needed to make a lock.
"Sir, we have lock on the target." Gaff's voice echoed through the ship's intercom system.
"On my mark, fire your missiles. Three...two...one... Mark!" Jake shouted through the squadron radio net as he depressed the trigger, sending four huge Mark XX Hellmonger anti-ship missiles toward the covenant ship. The rest of the squadron fired along with him, and 160 missiles streaked toward the target.
"Fire second volley...Now!" Jake shouted again as he squeezed the trigger again. A total of 320 missiles streaked toward the target. These missiles had huge 10,000 kilo warheads. The first volley would take down the covenant's ships shields, and second volley would completely annihilate the flagship.
Brilliant blue fire encased the covenant flagship as the first volley struck. The shield shuddered, expanded, and then collapsed, letting a few of the missiles from the first volley through.
The second volley followed right behind the first. 160 fireballs decimated the carrier, exposing all levels of the ship to the void of space. Shrapnel and fragments of the covenant ship expanded outward, taking out many Seraph fighters caught in their path. A dozen or so covenant ships nearby glowed purple as their shields took the impact of the hurling pieces of decimated ship.
Viper Squadron turned back to the Bunker Hill to rearm and go out again to aid the rest of the fleet in whatever way possible. The battle, as witnessed from Jake's cockpit, seemed to be turning in the favor of the human fleet. A dozen UNSC frigates and destroyers drifted, their shattered hulks littering the battlefield. For every destroyed UNSC ship, however, there were two or three covenant ships burning in the eternal night.
"Gaff, you get us back to the Bunker Hill." Jake commanded as he slouched in his seat. "I am going to check on the damage we sustained."
The longsword's engines glowed brighter as Gaff applied power to the engines to get them home. The Bunker Hill loomed at the center of the view screen. It appeared to be unscathed after its first battle. The ship was brand new, commissioned to active service after being completed at the Mars Shipyards. As Jake watched, the carrier shuddered and spit out twin bolts of molten tungsten from it MAC guns. They impacted in a covenant cruiser, taking out the shields and gutting the ship. The reactors glowed and then detonated as the MAC rounds expended their energy on the ship. What was once a proud covenant man-of-war, now only a blackened radioactive hulk remained. UNSC forces were slowly pushing back the covenant with new forces being built up over new colonies in a far away galaxy where the covenant could not find them. The tide of the war was turning, ever so slowly, in humankind's favor.
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