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Spartan IV # 4: Rifles and Real-Estate
Posted By: Master Chief Spartan-117<MCSHavok331@aol.com>
Date: 20 February 2006, 6:47 pm
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"Captain Gould, we're nearing the target; preparing to exit slipspace in T minus thirty seconds."
"Understood Lieutenant, get the firing technicians ready to charge. I want those guns ready to fire the minute we're out of Slipspace." ordered Captain William Gould. If the Prosecutor encountered resistance once they exited slipspace Gould wanted to be able to meet resistance with several thousand tons of tungsten ferric.
"Yes sir! Ferric or compost shells sir?"
"Load cannons A1 through B3 with the ferric shells. B4 through C12 with compost shots." ordered Gould. The compost shells were made from the original tungsten ferric HE shells which were now obsolete with the invention of a better design. When three hundred of the obsolete shells were packed into the size of one, it made one devil of a shell. Normally, one of the new Orihalcon-class cruisers wouldn't have had more than two or three sets of guns but the Prosecutor had undergone drastic alterations when it was refit at Sanction. An additional set of cannons had been mounted to the top of the ship. Also, the bottom of the ship had been expanded. It held two sets of cannons, more commonly known as MAC racks.
"Exiting slipspace now, Captain!" shouted Lieutenant Yun. Captain Gould barely managed to buckle himself into the command seat as the ship decelerated into normal space.
"Open the plasma converters to the cannons. Don't let the plasma burn out in deceleration. Ensign Berumen, anything that resembles the target on optics?" ordered the captain.
"Nothing sir; wait, I think I'm getting something. There's a dark spot on the radar. Nothing shows up about million kilometers behind us. Switching to aft cameras now." replied the ensign.
As the holo-screen in front of Gould flickered into life, he saw the target… and something else.
"Congratulations crew, we found Twilight's Executor. And a fleet of Covenant cruisers, and let me tell you, they really went all high tech with the paint. Yun, I want firing solutions ten minutes ago! Ensign, switch all available cameras to that fleet. Nichols, it looks like the ship on the far left is the most vulnerable. Flank it." said Gould, his voice rising to a yell.
"Oh god, not again." muttered Master Chief Petty Officer Lance-331. The hostile-proximity-alarm was going off. Again.
"My Thane, the humans have taken the bait. They're moving towards the ghost ships"
"And so the animal chases the shadow." replied Thane Roka Oramee.
"And the boarding parties, are they ready to launch?" asked the Arbiter, from his small, shadowed, alcove in the wall.
"Do not worry Liberator. My Sangheili will not kill anymore than necessary." replied the Thane.
"They will not kill at all!" roared the Arbiter.
"Noble Liberator, do not question me. I don't think the Patriarch sent you to command my fleet! You're not even supposed to be alive! You wouldn't want that secret to accidentally slip now would you?" the Thane roared back.
"If you wish to keep all four of your mandibles then I strongly suggest that you speak of this no more. I'll have you shot for every human killed. Better yet, I'll shoot you; with a Lipikeu." as he finished speaking, he stepped back into the alcove and disappeared into the inter-ship teleporter matrix.
"Remember, you are not to kill any of the humans; even if they attack you. If it is absolutely a necessity, neutralize them, but not fatally." ordered Core Master Kryn Soramee as the Phantom rapid drop ships flew towards the three human ships.
"For the Patriarch!" barked the Thirteenth Core as they slapped their fists against their chests as a salute.
"Captain, sensors indicate multiple Covenant boarding craft on approach."
"Yun, rewrite firing solutions to match the boarding crafts trajectory; hit them about halfway to the ship. Initiate the contact-sensors on the airlock discharge mines. Ensign Nichols, send word to Delta squad and Sigma Company. Tell them to get to the bridge A.S.A.P. I'm initializing the A.I."
"Yes sir!" acknowledged Nichols.
Cerebaton, the ships A.I., was a refined copy of the other A.I. on the ship, Cortana. Essentially, Cerebaton was Cortana with a slightly different personality and a faster processing matrix. With Cerebaton online, the Covenant wouldn't stand a chance.
"Sir, they've somehow disabled the airlock defenses!"
"Damnit Yun, what are you talking about?"
"Sir… I'm not getting any signals from the MAC racks," interrupted Ensign Nichols.
"Then we're defenseless. I want all of you working on those guns! Get the firing systems rebooted! Do anything! Just get our guns running!"
"Captain, should I alert Combat person-"
"Where's the Covenant fleet?"
"What do you mean sir?" asked a puzzled Berumen.
"The Covenant, their ships… their gone." Barely before the Captain had finished talking was he cut off. An Elite faded into visibility behind him. Judging by what he could see in his immediate vision, Gould counted twenty more. No telling how many were behind him; let alone the rest of the ship.
"Before you embark on some desperate attempt to kill some of my Sangheili along with yourself, hear me out; no matter how much you wish not too." It was the Elite behind Gould that had spoken.
"Give me that staff and I'll show you how to be diplomatic!"
"Shut up human. We do not wish to make a bad "first impression". The Thanes had hoped you would listen peacefully, to our message." growled the Elite. He let go of Gould and shoved the Lipikeu into Gould's arms, knocking him into a nav-console. "Now, you have my weapon, kill me if you wish but I guarantee you, my Sangheili will make it quite true that none of your crew will take another step without being pulverized by force bolt."
"Ok Scaly, let's talk. "I'm guessing real-estate?"
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