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Reminiscense
Posted By: RayZR<qingwei999@hotmail.com>
Date: 10 January 2006, 11:28 am
Read/Post Comments
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1330 Hours, September 16, 2552 (Military Calendar) /
just outside Cygnus Prime System
"Reactors redlining in five!" Second Lieutenant Martin yelled from the Ops Station. Sirens blared, emphasizing his point. "Power them down and fire the freon. We'll need them later." Captain Eric Michelin replied coolly. His outer attitude hardly conveyed the thoughts racing through his head. His heart beat like an assault rifle and a cold sweat dribble down his back. Those Covenant gave him a damn good scare. He started out the view port of the UNSC Destroyer Galileo. The extra metre or so of battle plating compared to the smaller frigate class starships comforted him no less. Those poor bastards at Reach had died just the same.
Less than 15 minutes ago, two Covie cruisers and five more of their smaller frigates exited Slipspace less than a million kilometers from his position. Shots were fired and both of the Galileo's escorts, the destroyer Holocaust and frigate Seventh Column were decapacitated. If the Covenant came for another fly-by, they wouldn't stand a chance.
"Don't let the reactors get too cold. We might need them soon. And keep everyone on battle alert," Michelin ordered. He preferred to explain his course of action, given the time. Surprised and alarmed soldiers mutinied, the last thing the UNSC needed on their hands. Lieutenant Hansen at Communications suddenly spoke up, "Sir, I'm getting an E-band transmission from Seventh Column. Their reactors can still run, but at less than 10% capacity. Their going to need a ride."
"Affirmative. Lieutenant Mitchell, plot a course to heading 0000231 by 9240112. With our side facing the Seventh Column," Michelin said, double checking his coordinates.
"Zero-zero-zero-zero-two-three-one by nine-two-four-zero-one-one-two, aye."
Galileo fired its thrusters and headed toward the target. The Galileo had left the naval shipyards of the now destroyed Reach less than three months ago, and an AI had not been installed.
Lieutenant Mitchell at navigations puffed the navigational thrusters. The Galileo turned, revealing it's broad side to the Seventh Column. One of the main reasons AIs were so useful was for maneuvers like this. Most UNSC ships made within the last 10-15 years had hardpoints so that another ship whose reactors weren't running could piggy-back to a repair dock. Without an AI to check the calculations, there was a chance that a miscalculation could cause the starships to collide into each other. Lieutenant Mitchell puffed the nav thrusters again until they were at a dead stop next Seventh Column. A compliment of repair probes that were busy sealing hull breaches on Seventh Column rushed over and began to connect the hardpoints. In a few minutes, Seventh Column was connected to the starboard side of Galileo.
"Are we getting any pings from Holocaust?" Michelin asked.
"Negative," Lieutenant Hansen replied briskly.
"Preliminary reports show that the bridge was hit by plasma fire," 2nd Lieutenant Martin added.
Michelin sighed. Another battleship gone. The UNSC was running dangerously low on operational starships. "Take us to orbital station 3 on orbit around Citadel for repairs and refit of Seventh Column," Michelin ordered, indicating the more populated of the two planets in Cygnus Prime the system.
Suddenly, a thought occurred to Michelin. He had been mulling over why the Covenant would run from a fight, especially while leaving Galileo with only a series of fatal hull breaches and a damaged reactor.
"2nd Lieutenant Martin, check the poles of Citadel and report any anomalies."
"Aye aye"
Michelin waited. One… two… three minutes. The bridge was deathly quiet. They all knew what Michelin was thinking. "Anything?"
"Negative"
Michelin exhaled the breath he was holding. He was silent for a moment, then instructed 2nd Lieutenant Martin to do the same on Tulieres, the second of the two planets in the system. Again, silence.
"Sir! I'm getting multiple dropships over Tulieres!" Martin suddenly shouted. A display opened on his tactical display, showing enough dropships to easily carry a battalion of Covenant troops. Tulieres, although not very populated by most standards, was still home to just over three million people.
Michelin swore loudly. "Mitchell, run the reactors at 110% toward Tulieres and get us in orbit. Martin, Get all Longsword pilots to their ship and load up the Pelicans. We can't stop all those dropships." Michelin paused then turned to the Weapons Station. "Lieutenant McDonald, ready Archer missile pods F and G and fire at will toward the dropships."
The chances of the Archers destroying enough dropships was astronomical. He was over six million kilometers away and the dropships would see it a mile away.
Again, Captain Michelin cursed the lack of an onboard AI. All anti-craft guns were automated and controlled by an AI. The Galileo's compliment of 23 anti-small craft guns were completely useless.
"Strange," Michelin whispered to himself, "Tulieres isn't a a tactically superior planetoid, nor is it a significant producer of metals or other production materials."
Archer missiles streaked pass the front view port. It would take them over half a minute to reach their targets. Considering he was being weighed down by Seventh Column, it was all he could do. Ditching Seventh Column would take more time than he could afford. Longswords streaked past the forward view port, followed by the slower Pelicans, loaded with Marines, Scorpions, and Warthogs. The fight was going groundside.
"Slipspace rupture quarter of a million km to port!" Mitchell yelled, obviously alarmed, "the runners are back!"
Michelin frowned. The two Covenant cruisers and five frigates that ran earlier must have been watching. Seeing their dropships under attack must have caused them to scramble back.
"Mitchell, go heading 3233412 by 1253232."
"Straight towards the cruiser?"
"Affirmative. Hansen, get FleetCom. See if they can spare any nearby ships. McDonald, arm Archer missile pods H through M and ready a heavy MAC round. Get a firing solution so the MAC round hits just after the Archers. Fire at heading 3233412 by 1253232. Martin," he paused. "Key the fail safe for the reactors and ready the lifepods."
There was silence in the bridge. They had all taken an oath when they joined the UNSC. And it was almost guaranteed they would die at the hands of the Covenant. The best they could do was take as many as they could with them, and everyone knew it.
"Firing solution ready."
"Fire at will"
There was a dull thump as a ton of super-depleted uranium was fired from the MAC cannon. Lieutenant Hansen suddenly piped up, "FleetCom says they have three frigates and a destroyer inbound. They'll be here in about 10."
"Dammit. We won't last more than five." Michelin knew the window of opportunity was shrinking. He had to get the Galileo in there fast if he wanted to be able to key the fail safes.
Just then, the Covenant ships opened fire. Rays of super-heated plasma streaked through space toward the Galileo. "Evasive maneuvers!" Captain Michelin shouted. The emergency thrusters fired and the Galileo lurched to port. The Archers fired just before a distant explosion rocked the ship as the plasma impacted Seventh Column. The frigate exploded violently and Captain Michelin was thrown to the ground. He stumbled back to his feet, coughing. "Damage report."
"Seventh Column is gone," Lieutenant Martin reported, "blew clean off. I'm reading multiple hull breaches."
"Seal them off"
"Aye, sir"
Just then, Galileo had reached it's destination. "Full stop," Michelin ordered.
"Full stop, aye"
"Get to your lifeboats"
"Sir?" Martin said, unsure.
"I've got it covered. We don't have an AI and they could blow the ship before the reactor goes if we countdown." Michelin loved the men and women under him. He loved them too much. And he refused to see them die. Why do men die so bravely, but refuse to see others do the same? It was simply part of human nature.
He checked his tactical display. The cruiser he fired at was hit dead on. The Archers killed the shielding and the MAC round gutted it. The other Covenant ships fired, taking lifepods out. Locke went to Nav and forced a head on ram into the last cruiser. Locke then went over to Ops and strapped himself down. It was twenty seconds before there was a screech of metal as the two ships collided and the front view port exploded into a millions of shards of foot thick glass. As the atmosphere vented, he felt that he had given enough time for the lifepods to get clear. He detonated the reactor.
As the distant rumbling explosions reached the bridge, all Locke saw was his wife, smile down on him. He was going to join her, and let nothing stand in his way. Fire engulfed his body. He sucked vacuum, feeling his lungs ache for air. His brain shut down and his heart slowed. And the Galileo destroyed itself, a cruiser and frigate going to hell and further down along with it in a fiery blaze
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