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The Croton Chronicles: Prologue
Posted By: Earl Hershberger (Funkster) & Trevor White (Boxer[subnova])<twhite1721@hotmail.com>
Date: 26 February 2004, 6:32 PM
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-The Croton Chronicles: Prologue-
1527 Hours September 14, 2554 (Military Calendar)/
UNSC Frigate Spirit of Sol, location orbiting the planet Croton.
"Six months and no Covenant activity, something's up" Sgt. Mikhail thought to himself.
It had indeed been six months since the UNSC had detected the Covenant, in space or planet side. To most it seemed like this day would never come, but a few still held suspicions that the Covenant were merely biding their time.
0423 Hours September 16, 2554 (Military Calendar)/
UNSC Frigate Spirit of Sol, Location: orbiting the planet Croton.
A crewman knocked on the door of Capt. Ambrose's quarters.
"Sir, here's night watch's report." the crewman said briskly.
"Thank you son, you may go." replied Ambrose.
Capt. Ambrose had spent most if not all of his adult life in the UNSC. He had trained with the now legendary Capt. Keyes back on Reach and was one of a few men that could claim that they had been friends.
The captain sat reading over the night watch's logs, nothing unusual, some space dust, a rogue comet, a few clusters of stray atoms. Nothing worth even reporting, but Ambrose was one of those few who doubted the Covenant had just given up and gone home. As he was getting ready to go to the bridge; the ship's main alarm started. Ambrose sat for a second and tried to recall if there was a drill scheduled for today and he drew a blank. He decided call up to the bridge to find out what was going on. Just as he keyed the COM button; the floor below him seemed to lift up and lurch sideways with a force that could have only been caused by the impact of plasma weapons.
"Bridge, this is Capt. Ambrose, report" he yelled into the COM.
"Sir, they just came out of nowhere" the voice on the other end of the COM answered. "Six, no seven, Covenant CSS-class ships just came out of hyperspace" the crewman continued in a panicked voice.
"Initiate Cole Protocol, ready all weapons, and scramble all fighter crews" Ambrose exclaimed.
"Yes sir" the crewman replied.
Just as the Capt. had released the COM button the ship lurched again, this time with considerably more force than it had previously.
"Saxon, what's our status" Ambrose asked the ship's onboard AI.
"Well, I've got good news and not so good news" Saxon responded.
"Cut the crap Saxon" the Capt. yelled.
"Sorry, According to my readings 5 of the 7 Covenant ships the emerged from slip-space have reentered slip-space. So, according to basic arithmetical processes, that should leave...processing...2 ships" Saxon said in a rather pompous tone.
"You don't say...give me the readouts of the 2 remaining ships."
"Both ships are Covenant frigates; the CCS-Hallowed Oath, and the CCS-Righteousness and Might."
"Sir, according to UNSC reports, both of these frigates just fled from a battle over the planet Adeona VII."
"Saxon, charge MAC gun capacitors and activate the point defense cannons, I want firing solutions for both ships according to the Keyes Loop."
"Already working on it Sir."
"Sir, are you sure you want to risk attempting the Keyes Loop, we do outnumber the Covenant 7 to 2."
"Well if that's the case I want you to send each ship the coordinates, and make sure you correct each set of coordinates so that they correspond with their respective ships."
"We don't need anybody 'bumping fenders' out there" Ambrose finished.
"Alright Sir, it's your battle group" Saxon said.
In the Spirit of Sols' launch bay marines and pilots were scrambling about.
"Move like you got a purpose marines" Sgt. Mikhail shouted at his team.
"Alright ladies we're about to go planet side. Now I know some of you have never seen combat, but that's no excuse."
"You either fight the Covenant or I'm gonna kill your pansy butt, you get me" he shouted.
"SIR, YES SIR" the marines shouted in unison.
"Good, now I want everyone on the drop-ship" he shouted.
Outside in the empty vacuum of space the battle with the 2 Covenant frigates was going frighteningly well for the UNSC battle group. The UNSC ships had only sustained minor damage; King's Rapier had taken two plasma torpedoes to the port side but was still functional and The Pallid Dusk had lost main power after taking a plasma torpedo in the stern. After about five minutes of fighting the Covenant crews began abandoning their ships heading for the planet's surface.
"Sir, hundreds...no thousands of drop ships are heading for the planet" a crewman reported.
"Good, we've got'em on the run. Ensign, patch me through to the launch bay" Capt. Ambrose stated.
Ambrose's voice boomed throughout the cavernous launch bay.
"Alright men, it's your job to beat those Covenant bastards on the ground. Remember, you're the best of the best and I want you to let the Covenant know that, God-Speed."
"You heard the man, let's go kick some Covenant butt" Sgt. Mikhail shouted to his troops.
Mikhail spotted Sgt. John Renner across the launch bay.
"Hey Renner, you got a second" Mikhail shouted.
"Sure, what you want" Renner asked as he made his way over to where Mikhail's drop-ship was sitting.
"I'll bet you 20 bucks my squad gets more confirmed kills than yours does" Mikhail said
with a smirk
"You know you're one crazy SOB" Renner responded and then ran back over to his drop ship.
After all of the squads had been loaded into their Pelican class drop-ships, they lifted off from the docking bay and began their decent towards the surface. During the decent the Covenant, who had apparently brought anti-aircraft plasma turrets with them opened fire on the drop-ships...needless to say a few drop-ships never made it planet-side, including the one that carried Sgt. Mikhail and his squad (but it's ok because he was a real ass and all of his troops were umm...well yeah, there you go).
"Sir, we've lost Drop-ships 449, 726, 989, and 435" Shandor, Renner's spastic radioman yelled over the roar of the drop-ship's engines.
"CALM DOWN SHANDOR" Renner snapped back.
"Alright marines we touchdown in 5" Renner yelled to his troops.
"First squad's on me, second squad you're on Gearhart."
Two minutes before the drop-ship hit the ground explosive bolts fired and sent the back hatch flying off, this was to make sure that the marines wouldn't get bottle-necked at the back of the drop-ship. The drop-ship touched-down and tens of thousands of marines piled out of their respective drop-ships only to find that the Covenant weren't any where to be found.
"Where in the hell are they" Renner thought out loud.
"Sir, all platoons report ZERO Covenant activity!" Shandor responded.
"GOD DAMNIT SHANDOR, I WASN'T TALKING TO YOU" Renner yelled at the diminutive radioman
"Why's that boy so damn obnoxious?" he thought to himself, this time making sure it wasn't out loud.
"Alright men, I want a command post up and running in 15" Renner yelled to a group of privates who had been milling about.
"Shandor, I want you to radio in and get me eight Warthogs up here pronto, and make sure at least two of them are Pumas, we don't need a repeat of Sephor III" Renner said with a smirk.
During the fighting on Croton the Covenant mounted a multi-front counter attack against the UNSC's other military command colonies; Grab, Parasprea, and Ehrtos IV. The entire UNSC fleet would become engaged in the largest space battle since to assault on Earth; causing a temporary cessation of all supply lines. The marines on Croton would be without re-supply until the Covenant were beaten back. They were in for a long wait.
It had been approximately three days and still there had been no major Covenant counter attack, some believed it would never come. The marines had been dumped on Croton, the epitome of a cold and barren ice planet, over a month ago. The events that had led up the marine's deployment on Croton were odd, at best. There was something seriously strange about the space battle that had taken place in orbit above Croton just before the marines made ground fall. The Covenant task force was small, too small; only two frigates. The UNSC had shown up with two destroyers and five frigates. During the course of the battle tens of thousands of Covenant troops abandoned their ships and landed on the planet. The UNSC dropped in tens of thousands of marines to eliminate the Covenant forces that had made it planet-side. At least the marine's had one thing going for them; they weren't going to get glassed.
After two days of intense ground fighting the ships were called away on some priority alpha 'bull crap', every thing was priority alpha now. Anyway neither Covenant nor UNSC vessel had returned in over a month and it seemed as if the marines would be stuck on Croton forever.
The ground engagements on the surface of Croton were the fiercest and bloodiest since the fall of Reach. Nothing could have mentally or physically prepared the marines of the UNSC for what they were about to face.
"Ensign, patch me through to the launch bay" Capt. Ambrose stated.
Ambrose's voice boomed throughout the cavernous launch bay.
"Alright men, it's your job to beat those Covenant bastards on the ground. Remember, you're the best of the best and I want you to let the Covenant know that, God-Speed."
"You heard the man, let's go kick some Covenant butt" Sgt. Mikhail shouted to his troops.
Mikhail spotted Sgt. John Renner across the launch bay.
"Hey Renner, you got a second" Mikhail shouted.
"Sure, what you want" Renner asked as he made his way over to where Mikhail's drop-ship was sitting.
"I'll bet you 20 bucks my squad gets more confirmed kills than yours does" Mikhail said
with a smirk
"You know you're one crazy SOB" Renner responded and then ran back over to his drop ship.
After all of the squads had been loaded into their Pelican class drop-ships, they lifted off from the docking bay and began their decent towards the surface. During the decent the Covenant, who had apparently brought anti-aircraft plasma turrets with them opened fire on the drop-ships...needless to say a few drop-ships never made it planet-side, including the one that carried Sgt. Mikhail and his squad (but it's ok because he was a real ass and all of his troops were umm...well yeah, there you go).
"Sir, we've lost Drop-ships 449, 726, 989, and 435" Shandor, Renner's spastic radioman yelled over the roar of the drop-ship's engines.
"CALM DOWN SHANDOR" Renner snapped back.
"Alright marines we touchdown in 5" Renner yelled to his troops.
"First squad's on me, second squad you're on Gearhart."
Two minutes before the drop-ship hit the ground explosive bolts fired and sent the back hatch flying off, this was to make sure that the marines wouldn't get bottle-necked at the back of the drop-ship. The drop-ship touched-down and tens of thousands of marines piled out of their respective drop-ships only to find that the Covenant weren't any where to be found.
"Where in the hell are they" Renner thought out loud.
"Sir, all platoons report ZERO Covenant activity!" Shandor responded.
"GOD DAMNIT SHANDOR, I WASN'T TALKING TO YOU" Renner yelled at the diminutive radioman
"Why's that boy so damn obnoxious?" he thought to himself, this time making sure it wasn't out loud.
"Alright men, I want a command post up and running in 15" Renner yelled to a group of privates who had been milling about.
"Shandor, I want you to radio in and get me eight Warthogs up here pronto, and make sure at least two of them are Pumas, we don't need a repeat of Sephor III" Renner said with a smirk.
During the fighting on Croton the Covenant mounted a multi-front counter attack against the UNSC's other military command colonies; Grab, Parasprea, and Ehrtos IV. The entire UNSC fleet would become engaged in the largest space battle since to assault on Earth; causing a temporary cessation of all supply lines. The marines on Croton would be without re-supply until the Covenant were beaten back. They were in for a long wait.
It had been approximately three days and still there had been no major Covenant counter attack, some believed it would never come. The marines had been dumped on Croton, the epitome of a cold and barren ice planet, over a month ago. The events that had led up the marine's deployment on Croton were odd, at best. There was something seriously strange about the space battle that had taken place in orbit above Croton just before the marines made ground fall. The Covenant task force was small, too small; only two frigates. The UNSC had shown up with two destroyers and five frigates. During the course of the battle tens of thousands of Covenant troops abandoned their ships and landed on the planet. The UNSC dropped in tens of thousands of marines to eliminate the Covenant forces that had made it planet-side. At least the marine's had one thing going for them; they weren't going to get glassed.
After two days of intense ground fighting the ships were called away on some priority alpha 'bull crap', every thing was priority alpha now. Anyway neither Covenant nor UNSC vessel had returned in over a month and it seemed as if the marines would be stuck on Croton forever.
The ground engagements on the surface of Croton were the fiercest and bloodiest since the fall of Reach. Nothing could have mentally or physically prepared the marines of the UNSC for what they were about to face.
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