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Unexpected Surprises Part 5
Posted By: JediKnight114<Jediknight114@aol.com>
Date: 7 May 2003, 3:22 AM
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The master chief dazed a little still, proceeded to the bridge where he met Lewis. He spoke quaintly "John get the rest of your team ready incase this gets ugly, oh yea you're the new platoon leader for the Spartans, that is all, dismissed"
John nodded stiffly and exited as one of the tech officers shouted he had picked the frigate up on their scanners. And that their comm. system was haywire almost as if a virus and crumbled the entire ships system network of sensory and communication equipment.
The ship was in total disarray it seemed. The Aquarius was ready, her fighters, or what few fighters she had left were out in full force. Unfortunately this number was no more then 136 strong. The crew on the other hand was near 100% as far as occupancy of a ship goes about, all of whom were capable of using an assault rifle if need be.
Lewis asked for the communications system be routed to the holopad so he could have the ship's AI now Coranta patch an image to them as well as post the message real time on the data screens on the ships bridge. "I want a message sent to them, "Centurion this is the Aquarius what the hell are you boys up to?"
The comms. officer made sure to ping it, as to hit the frigate on all frequencies to give them a chance of hitting an operational one. After a brief pause a response did come in the holo pad projected the ships commanding officer. He did not give his name but did however smiled in a way that would make most men think to be a grimace, and merely laughed as the ship slipped away into light speed. The Aquarius followed immediately tracing ionized energy particles left by the ship. Soon they found themselves upon a vast solar system apart from UW territory. Everyone saw the horror, an armada of UNSC ships from battle cruisers to small shuttles it was all here, another base. Two much larger ships hung about boasting a very large array of Mark VIII MAC cannons. They sat quiet and motionless. The Aquarius' entry seemed un-noticed for that small window of time, then, was hit by a sudden barrage of missile fire and other projectiles. Littering space with no sound but only hundreds of thousands of small rounds ripped though the empty space inflicting a surprising amount of damage to the Aquarius
"Shields !" yelled the captain and then shouted once more, "deploy counter measures recall our fighters we have to hold our position until they can return I'm not leaving them behind !" instantly the shield came up and the shimmer was quick to follow as the bullets slammed into them.
"All fighters report back NOW do not engage repeat do not engage, do NOT fire unless fired upon!" came a shout over the comm. by O'Malley. The fighters reacted quickly in breaking off their pursuit if in one and scurried back toward the ship.
"Sir shields holding at 65% if we keep taking fire like this we can be more laxed about the time strain here... SHIT, they fired, they fired a ...a.... Dwarf Star class Nuke!" the tech officer did his best to keep the horrific truth to himself and almost cracked but brought himself back together.
"All hands evasive maneuvers evasive maneuvers!" the crew reacted fast and with the help of Cortana they swung about and stared down at the nuke. "open the front access grate on my say, I have an idea" said Lewis calmly, the front access grate was a large 12x18 foot automated door to allow engineers to reach the MAC cannon housed in the bow of the ship.
One of the men on the bridge yelled almost incoherently "Captain!? Are you mad that will kill us all we can't take a hit like..." the captain interrupted
"Ramirez on my mark I want you to angle the ships bow downward at a 48 degree angle"
"Got it" he replied.
"Bolster shields down" said the captain, He apprehensively complied
The captain then spoke to Cortana "Cortana in tune I want you to depressurize the compartment understood?"
"Aye captain" came her response there they sat motionless as the captain had ordered. By now the crew thinking he had finally lost it, but they were loyal and if were to do down with anyone they'd gladly pick him instead of the painful plasma burns they would probably receive otherwise. The nuke tore closer and closer with every second. Tension choked the air about the ship; no one knew exactly what the captain had up his sleeve. The weapons tech counted
"800M..........400M...........200M sir 3 seconds!"
"Open the doors" squawked the captain
"NOW!" yelled the captain Cortana and the crew acted in unison the ship pitched just right as its emergency thruster was used by Ramirez. The depressurization caused by Cortana completely stopped the nuke just long enough for the ship to emplace itself at such an angle. The entire crew braced as the nuke righted itself.
"Shields up now do it now!" screamed Lewis.
The shields instantly sprung to life and the nuke contacted at just the right position and slipped. Its perpetual motion changed so it was heading down as it slid off the Aquarius' shields without detonating. Meanwhile the fighters had managed to regroup and headed away form the battle, knowing all well enough they'd be picked up by their captain. The crew cheered their captain; shouts came all across the bridge as Cortana took the responsibility of taking back control of the ship and positioned it to leave.
"Damn it man..." O'Malley said under his breath he eyed the captain and realized the amount of sweat that had appeared on his face in the last moments.
Lewis almost direly said "Cortana repay these assholes for me, take out as many as possible and get us out of HERE!"
Cortana delighted to finally do something armed all the PCRG's (Particle Charged Rail Guns). They sprang to life erupting enormous flashes marked by the expulsion of super hot particles. Cortana painted the enemy fighters just ahead of their flight paths, the velocity of the beams did the rest Hundreds of mini explosions popped up as longsword after longsword broke into large flaming wrecks. The opposing ships then started to move in a massive confused formation. Ramirez saw something; a tiny light was heading straight up the middle of where the ships had been, it took very little time to realize it was their nuke they had launched. It had somehow re- engaged its targeting sensors and apparently found its home, all the ships were moving to avoid certain death
"Hahaha there ya go a present for you guys hahaha bastards!" came O'Malley's shout
"How are the shields" asked Lewis.
"Back to 46% it would have been 60 but the blunt hit form the nuke took em a little lower" answered the weapons tech
"Are we good for a dwarf class Nuke?" asked Lewis
"NO sir, I say we get the hell out of here" said the tech officer
"Ramirez take us out of here, don't forget our squadrons"
"Aye Sir"
He boasted, as the Aquarius fled at top speed a blinding white light filled the space around them. Then a ripple that seemed to be miniscule sped towards the ship and upon impact took out the shields in a brilliant display, the shields buckled but clung to the shockwave as it hit the ship. The shields vaporized without a constant energy source and the Aquarius took a major blow and began to tumble end over end. Cortana did her best and exclaimed
"Captain we are in big trouble operational systems are down to 42% we have lost all weapons and most the propulsion systems. Sir we are going to have to put this ship down" Lewis braced and held himself, he strained a short nod
She thought quietly to her self, ah no not again. Meanwhile the chief was woken by the sudden jostle; he hurried to get into his armor which was squared away next to his bunk when the captain came over the PA
"This is it boys we are going down, however we are not jumping ship I'm taking her down with Cortana"
John swore under his breath and checked his weapons and slung his rifle and shot out the door. He bolted his way at top speed to the bridge and as he arrived saw the extent of what was going on.
"Cortana use the last of our emergency thrusters to stop this tumble, and see if you can give me coordinates to the nearest safe place to land" Lewis said
"On it" she replied stressfully John stayed out of the way as he watched the bustle of the crew. He felt his stomach lurch upwards he grabbed the top of the bulk head and braced himself. As awkward as it felt he was glad the AI was able to supply enough counter thrust to sufficiently stop the tumble.
"For Christ sakes Cortana" shot Lewis, Cortana cut in
"Sorry I did my best, my calculations called for it, I managed to pretty much stop the ships tumble but we still need a place to settle. Scanning, she paused a whole 2 seconds and then blurted, there this planet seems to be stable, its similar to earth but form what I can access it's uninhabited" she said as she brought a picture up on the half lit battle screen.
"Good take us in" said Lewis. The ship moved at an odd angle as a result of less then half her engines working. More or less you could have called it a controlled lob as it carried itself toward Cortana's designated path. Sensors chimed as the planet came within proximity.
"Ok here's your test men lets take her down gently". With Ramirez at the helm it was without doubt they would be ok, Lewis knew that. There was a sense of despair accompanied by panic as the ship plummeted toward the Planets surface. The crew kept it together as the still air and overall serenity of the sky was suddenly torn apart by the large object. Clearly the Ship wasn't built to spec on atmospheric maneuverability. Cortana had a hell of a time keeping them stabilized on their final approach; their designated landing strip was a high desert plateau. The ship dropped lower and hung heading straight on target when, Cortana yelped
"We're going to lose here, Sir I can't......" she paused under strain. Lewis swore sharply under his breath as he was powerless. Ramirez grunted and fought harshly to keep the Ship from doing an extravagant Crazy Ivan into the plateau. The Aquarius came down in a thunderous roar and demolished the front edge beginning the plateau. Large boulders toppled outwardly as dust kicked up, the titanium polymer hit with a spine tingling crunch and laid the ship down on its belly carving hard into the ground. Small explosions dotted the hull as the ship slid roughly forward. Everyone inside however was thrown and jostled, and every once in a while a bone jarring shake would transit the length of the ship. The ship caught itself a time or two but slowly stopped and settled leaning over to its port side, it remained for the most part upright.
Lewis brought himself to one knee, winced and coughed up blood. Great he thought, though it did go MUCH better then he planned. "report!" he yelled. The rest of the crew on the bridge either dusted themselves off or helped with wounded. Cortana came up on the holopad very fuzzy but as able to make her appearance and exclaim
"20% casualties and from what I can make out, thankfully, our engine room is still good to go and our communications grid works, not a scrap of anything else"
"What about our inventory and our fighters did they make it?" asked Lewis who by now was able to stand on his own and service a wound on his left fore arm. John had also stepped in unscathed as his shields took the blunt of the damage.
Cortana chimed in, "our troop inventory is still checking in. she let a sigh out, So far we are squared away that was one impressive landing we undertook I must say even against the odds we did fair, as for our fighters I'm picking up only 110 on our communication channels". Dust settled as one of the planets multiple suns was beginning to set, casting an offset shade to the planet's surface and the Aquarius remained stable. "radio chatter is light coming from the fighters, from what I can see they will do just fine, and are one their way ETA 36 minutes sir" remarked Cortana. Lewis gazed blankly outside the clear panels to catch a glimpse of the place he and the rest of his crew would be calling home for the next few days.
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