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Task Force 168: The Silent Justice-Chapter Two
Posted By: Blue Jaguar<madsh33p@netscape.net>
Date: 17 December 2003, 5:48 AM
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CHAPTER TWO
April 17, 2547 1942 Zulu Time en-route to Tau Ceti
Captain Moss sat in his chair, strapped down so that he would not find himself floating in air through the bridge. The bridge was almost completely empty now, other than for the chief communications and navigation officers. Most everyone else was in cryo-stasis, which is probably where he should be, but he hated having to cough up that crap they put in him.
"Message from the Invincible sir." The comms officer reported.
"On screen."
On the main view screen the message appeared. "Rear Admiral Tajin to all ships, four hours until arrival at destination. Empty cryo-stasis in three hours and begin combat ready checks."
"What is our O2 status?"
"37% sir, we've got plenty." The Comm officer replied.
"All right, in three hours, send message to cryo bay and tell them to begin thawing our people out."
"Aye sir."
Moss unstrapped himself from his seat and pushed towards the bridge door. There wasn't much to do for now, so he wanted to get his last few hours of sleep in before the probably battle began. Besides, sleeping was his hobby.
April 17, 2547 2339 Zulu Time en-route to Tau Ceti
"Exiting slipstream in five, four, three, two, one."
Moss watched as the space around him flashed back to real space.
"Begin scanning area for Covies."
"Aye sir already on it."
Moss looked at the main screen. On it was the scanner, he watched as it sweeped back and forth through space, showing many targets, but were quickly identified as either planets, or asteroids.
"Nothing sir."
"All right, wait for instructions."
After a few minutes of waiting, their orders appeared on the main screen: Enter Low orbit over Tau Ceti Three and run silent.
"All right, break for orbit, make sure you have an accurate fix on the planets atmosphere, I don't care to burn to death in this tin can."
"Aye sir."
April 19, 2547 0639 Zulu Time Tau Ceti System
"I am sure sir, we decrypted it several times, each time we have the same result."
"And you checked with our maps? This map is accurate?"
"Yes sir, 100% accurate, Earth, they may not know that it is earth, but they are aware that there is an extremely important planet in the Sol system." The Intelligence officer said, which seemed to greatly disturb Tajin.
"Well it looks like we are heading back." Tajin replied.
"Hopefully they don't know what has happened, or havent sent ships to investigate."
"In either case, we are going, that ship must be destroyed."
Tajin left the CIC and walked down the hallway towards the marine barracks. He managed to catch Lieutenant Wallace just as he was leaving his office.
"Lieutenant Wallace." Tajin said.
Wallace spun around, he saluted and then replied. "Yes sir."
"I need to know right now, when you left the Silent Justice, were there communications working?"
"No sir they weren't, short range and long range comms were both inoperable, and to my knowledge, they would require quite a bit of work to fix. Is something wrong?"
"Yes, we have just learned the Silent Justice had info on the location of earth, we are going back, you will lead the strike team and blow the ship."
Wallace stood still for a few moments, completely shocked.
"You mean...that they know?"
"Did I stutter?"
"N-no sir."
"All right, get your marines ready for cryo-stasis, we will be arriving back in the Lambda Draconis system in 40 hours."
"Aye sir!"
April 20, 2547 2251 Zulu Time Lambda Draconis System
"Contact sir, enemy ship bearing one-eight-five mark zero one, they're right behind us sir!." The Sensors operator onboard the Invincible reported.
"What is the ship tiype and distance?" Tajin responded.
"Enemy Frigate sir, range.....two hundred and seventy thousand kilometres."
"All right, launch all fighters, have them intercept anything the frigate sends at us. Then have our fleet turn about and face the ship once the range opens to three hundred thousand."
"Aye sir, longswords are launching now."
The Invincibles Longsword fighters joined up with the fighters from the rest of the fleet, and began to head towards the Covenant frigate. The enemy ship had fielded fourty Seraph fighters, but they were no match for the 140 human longswords.
"This is Colonel Otena, engaging enemy fighters."
"Roger Otena, the enemy frigate is closing in towards you, make it quick or they will be right on top of your fighters."
"Roger."
On the CIC's main screen, the fighters were shown fighting the Covenant Seraphs. Half of the Seraphs were destroyed by long range missiles, and the remaining twenty were being wiped out by the one hundred and fourteen longswords that still survived.
"Admiral, range to enemy frigate is three hundred thousand kilometres."
"Good, bring the fleet about and lock in firing solutions. Bring us to the rear of the fleet, with the Royal Oak and Sovereign leading the way."
"Aye sir, moving now."
The entire fleet pulled a u-turn and headed back directly at the Covenant Frigate. As both ships came into range, the human ships prepared to fire. The Covenant frigate however, did something totally unexpected. Rather than face certain destruction, it jumped into slipstream and fled the system.
"Damnit!" Tajin yelled.
"Sir, no other contacts detected, shall we stand down?" One of the bridge officers asked.
"All right, stand down, where is our package?"
"....Its gone sir, must have escaped while the frigate had our attention."
Tajin slammed his hand down onto the arm rest of his chair. The soft cushion muffled the sound, so that almost no one on the bridge heard.
"Admiral, the marines bugged the ship during the raid, the Covenant may not be aware that they are in place, and with communications down, they may have no way to contact the rest of the fleet."
"How long till you locate the ship?"
"Well sir, we'll have to wait until she drops out of slipstream, or we could jump into slipstream and take a look, but if we are headed the wrong way, we could end up days behind her."
"All right. Well we can't stay here, hell knows when the rest of their fleet shows up. Send a message to Reach telling them of the situation, once it is sent, we are heading to the Harvest system, if the Covenant struck there first, then hopefully it is the closest place to their homeworlds, and could cut down the journey considerably when we do find that ship."
"Aye sir, sending message."
A few minutes later the entire squadron had loaded back up their fighters, and was in slipstream headed towards Harvest.
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