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Desecrating Providence (Prologue Part 2)
Posted By: Marty<duffym@gmail.com>
Date: 16 January 2004, 11:14 PM
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Desecrating Providence (Prologue Part 2)
This story follows a contingent of Marines who escape a second assault on Sigma Octanus IV, and, not wanting to lead the Covenant to Earth, or the remaining inner colonies, follow the footsteps of the Pillar of Autumn by cruising towards the star formations illustrated on Sigma Octanus' rock formations.
Comments'd appreciated, but I'm not demandin'. ;)
Colonel Murray could not imagine why the Covenant sent ground forces down to the planet. Sigma Octanus IV's atmosphere was transforming to a pale orange, and Murray knew why. Massive Covenant plasma bombs were falling from space. This place was going to be a glass ball soon. But not before I'm out of here Murray thought to himself.
What was normally a short drive to Alpha HQ's airfield was taking quite some time for the Colonel. Every thirty seconds Murray pulled the Warthog over and manned the vehicle's LAAG for several minutes, just to be safe. He saw a full squadron of SkyHawk jump jets scream overhead, and he wondered if those planes were from the airfield, or if they were reinforcements from another base.
With the airfield in sight, Murray was greatly relived too see that the rear of the base littered with undamaged Pelican transport ships, and even a dozen Longswords. The gigantic space-superiority fighters dwarfed the Pelican dropships, and that was for two very important reasons: The Longswords needed to be large enough to be armed with Archer anti-starship missiles, and they were fitted with cryo tubes for both pilots. The colonel would have to run a Covenant blockade, power down, and glide towards a human installation. However, the multi-month trip would seem like an hour for the officer because he would be cryogenically frozen within the cryo tube. Murray flinched at the painful thought of such a long dry freeze.
Air raid sirens rang loudly just as Murray reached the field. Such a sound could mean nothing but trouble and the Colonel couldn't help but wonder where those SkyHawks were if there really was an incoming raid.
There was no soldier manning the front gate of the airfield, there was, however, an entire fleet of Warthog attack vehicles in perfect formation at the far side of the base. A hell of a battle was about to take place.
"Yeah," Muttered the Colonel, "where were you when your C.O.'s base was being bombed?"
There wasn't much time; the Colonel needed to get to a fighter. Just a few hundred meters and he would be home free. The nearest Longsword was waiting for him; its black titanium hull seemed to shine like a gate to heaven.
Battle began to rage at the far end of the airfield. Murray could see hundreds of Covenant Banshee attack flyers bombarding a long row of Warthog LRVs. There were so many of the purple stubby-winged flyers attacking the Marines that at regular intervals, two or three of the planes would suffer mid-air collisions and fall to the ground in flames. Anti-Air rounds tore through dozens of the Banshees and sent them crashing down in a heap. The insect-like Banshees were swarming SkyHawk jump jets making their second pass over the airfield. Not only could the nimble flyers outmaneuver the SkyHawks, they could outrun them as well. Murray watched as two of the jet fighters had their armor completely striped by hundreds of plasma hits. One SkyHawk, however, engaged his afterburner, destroying two Banshees that were snapping away behind the larger fighter. 50mm cannons from another jet ripped through the main group of Banshees, knocking down dozens of the flyers, but crushing some Warthogs with debris.
Pelican drop ships were also in the air, using their chin-mounted auto cannons and Anvil IV missile pods to aid in the fight. Wave after wave of the covenant flyers entered the battle, and all hope seemed lost. The maneuverable Pelicans were managing to score dozens of hits, but as they ran low on ammunition, they simply had no choice but to eject or pancake into the surface of the planet.
Colonel Murray finally reached a Longsword fighter. The officer was baffled and wondered what man could possibly be coordinating the airfield's defense. As he was marveling the suprisingly strong Marine resistance, Murray started to regain his senses and notice the massive plasma bombs smashing into the planet on all horizons. The whole colony was going to be glassed; time to survive.
"Lieutenant! There's too many of 'em!" Yelled Sergeant Hanley, her hands were bleeding from firing a Light Anti-Aircraft Gun for so long, and the normally bottomless ammunition supply on board her M-12 LRV was running low.
Lieutenant Julian Galvin knew that the battle, overall, could not be won, but if what he heard from one of the SkyHawk pilots was correct, there was a Prowler-class stealth ship hidden in the jungle somewhere that needed to be protected from Covenant data theft. The Lieutenant was aware of a full squadron of Longswords parked in the rear of the base, and had planned to get his men off the planet in those ships, but now he couldn't do it until the Prowler was secured.
Banshees were relentlessly attacking the Warthogs on the ground. Even as Pelicans and SkyHawks cut their numbers in half within seconds, they still concentrated their fire on the ground vehicles.
"They think we're easy targets" said Hanley, her voice full of anger.
"Prove them wrong, Lieutenant." Galvin simply stated.
"Yes sir!"
Human forces relentlessly cleared their guns into the skies above them. Many Banshees were taken out of action, but they simply weren't taking them down fast enough. Ammunition was dwindling and the Warthogs had lost formation.
Galvin knew that the Covenant fliers were trying to force the Humans to waste their ammunition chasing targets, but the officer had other plans in mind.
"Sergeant"
"Sir?"
"Hanley we're wasting ammunition, we need concentrate our firepower effectively and kill them all."
Hanley felt the company commander had stated the obvious.
"Any ideas?"
"Contact the fly-boys; I want you to coordinate all firepower on a single plane, with all air units flying parallel. No targets, just full automatic fire from all units."
The young officer didn't understand her superior's orders, but once she started coordinating the effort, it was clear to her: Galvin wanted to build a wall of fire.
Firing automatic weapons in salvos was too much for even the mighty Covenant to handle. Banshees were falling from the sky by the dozens as Sergeant Hanley's coordinated firepower from both air and ground created a virtual "wall" of projectiles. The maneuverable Banshees that were making their strafing passes for the nth time were flying directly into Galvin's wall and were rattled with bullet holes. As the remnants of the Covenant air attack were being dealt with, Lieutenant Galvin observed the carnage from atop his plasma-scarred Warthog.
Almost all of the Marines were wounded or dead, a good portion of the LRVs were disabled, destroyed or out of ammo, and the air support was in just as bad shape. Four jump jets remained and their torn up hulls somehow managed to land on the airfield without falling apart. It seemed like all the Pelicans were destroyed or landed - permanently - during the engagement, surviving pilots were limping towards the Warthog phalanx.
More hideous then the Human casualties though were the Covenant casualties: with a quick look Imam guesstimated that no less than two thousand wrecked Banshees littered the airfield and the surrounding area. At least a dozen of those Banshees collided with Warthogs on their return to the surface. Not a single Covenant pilot appeared to survive the ordeal. Visibility in the entire region was terrible. The black smoke rising from the smoldering Banshees and Warthogs blocked the vision of the entire group.
But the Marines had bought time to find the Prowler.
Galvin tried the radio to make sure the area was clear before sending the survivors into the jungle to find the Prowler.
"Can anyone see anything?"
"Sir! Ghosts!" crackled a Marine's voice.
Plasma fire ignited and engulfed multiple Warthogs. Covenant hovering attack vehicles were pouring heavy suppression fire into the smoky ruins of Alpha HQ's airfield. The Covenant had wasted scores of Banshee attack flyers neutralizing the human position and now they were throwing the land-based Ghosts at them. The aliens were hell bent on raiding the Human Airfield.
Those suckers think the Prowler is in the airfield. The Lieutenant realized.
Galvin could hear the unmistakably thunderous sound of a Longsword fighter taking off from the airfield. Thinking that air support was on its way, the officer unleashed his cohorts and ordered them to emerge from their defensive positions. At first, the Marines surprised and nearly overwhelmed the tenacious Covenant cavalry units with their daring attack. However, Lieutenant Galvin frowned in horror as he saw the Longsword interceptor ascend and accelerate on a space-bound trajectory.
Murray could see it all from the cockpit of the Longsword fighter as it climbed the atmosphere: dozens upon dozens of Covenant ghosts were simply firing blindly into the smoky remnant of the Marine position; it was only a matter of time before the soldiers were all dead and the planet was annihilated. As the large fighter climbed Sigma Octanus' atmosphere, the Colonel wondered what dangers awaited him in space. He, like most, had heard countless stories of Covenant supercarriers unleashing hundreds of Seraph fighters. While the small vaguely piscine space fighters were on equal terms with their Human counterparts, their vast numbers could simply overwhelm Longsword fliers.
All the officer could see above him was fire. He couldn't understand what was happening, but the automatic targeting computer in the Longsword did: the frigate Alliance was tumbling into the atmosphere. Murray acknowledged the fact that the starship was going to slam right into the area that the Marines were defending, but he was more concerned with the fact that the star ship was going to knock his fighter out of the sky. Unable to alter the Longsword computer's escape velocity course, Murray made a quick reaction and contacted Alliance's shipboard AI.
Boru, the class B AI on board the Alliance was puzzled that he, personally, was being hailed. It was unnatural for the Woad Warrior-impersonating Artificial Intelligence to negotiate with the enemy. The proud AI attached an image of a decapitated Grunt to a profane text message, and quickly replied to the source of contact. Systems on board the star ship were failing, and the artificial Celtic warrior was ready for his imminent death.
With a second glance, however, Boru flushed as he realized the contact was from a friend. With this realization, he listened to the Longsword pilot's channel.
"Alliance AI, be advised that your current freefall places you right over a mass of UN personnel. If possible - reorient your crash in order to avoid Human casualties." The pilot stopped speaking as he silently observed Boru's text message. "What the? Boru AI, please respond."
Boru replied with fury in his voice. "Longsword Knife seven-four, I shall fight to my very last breath to protect my countrymen."
Colonel Imam and his fire-team finally located the ONI Prowler. The ship was partially submerged in warm jungle water; vines and moss concealed the jet-black hull.
The mission was accomplished: the would-be-heroes of the battle successfully cleared the navigational database on the Oedipus, it was decided - unanimously - by the group of soldiers that no one should try to escape on board the faster-than-light capable star craft; they would have had to risk running the Covenant blockade, and if the Covenant disabled the Prowler, they would have been able to dissect and study the ONI stealth ship, its components, Rock's AI algorithms, and possibly even restore purged data.
Even with Earth's secret location preserved, victory was not on the minds of the Marines. The soldiers simply leaned back against the Oedipus and looked up. Rock informed the Colonel that the frigate Alliance was falling into the atmosphere and was expected to collide near Alpha HQ, thus enveloping the entire region with a nuclear detonation. Imam couldn't believe the misfortune: of all the places to crash, it had to be here. This unfortunate turn of events disappointed the Major who had, before he found out about the crash, planned on getting his men off the planet on Longswords at Alpha HQ's airfield.
Imam looked up, and saw the fiery outline of the UNSC frigate tumbling into the atmosphere.
Hanley and the seven other surviving Marines were completely exhausted. Lieutenant Galvin was severely wounded by a shrapnel explosion, but thankfully, the Covenant hovercrafts halted their attack, turned around, and quickly withdrew. None of the Marines understood what had happened, but a low rumble prompted some of the soldiers to look up at the wrecked UNSC starship that was tumbling into the atmosphere. The Sergeant was saddened, but also thankful that the digital data on board the Prowler would be vaporized by the coming crash.
"The bards shall tell the tale of my bravery for a thousand years!" yelled Boru on Covenant communication channels. The AI felt he was committing the ultimate sacrifice in the memory of the former pilots of the Alliance. The AI briefly materialized in Alliance's half-destroyed holotank, just to look into the lifeless brown eyes of the now deceased General Niccoli. The AI's holographic body was a half-naked and muscular man. Though covered with war paints and battle scars, the artificial construct managed to shed a tear. Boru extended a holographic hand towards his former commander and hopelessly tried to shut his eye lids. He had befriended the General as well as his command crew during his three month period of service aboard the frigate. Boru flickered off the holo tube and returned to the task at hand. He tried to use the last of the ship's functioning engines to maneuver the descent towards an ocean, but friction forces were relentlessly keeping the warship at terminal velocity.
With only one alternative remaining, Boru analyzed his morality algorithims and pinged a search in the Alliance's computer network for "the value of one life vs. the value of many." Nothing was available in the now defunct computer libraries, and Boru's own subroutines placed only universal selflessness as a logical being's greatest moral priority. Boru processed information for three full seconds, and then decided his course of action. The Longsword pilot would like his decision, but nonetheless, the construct began overloading the Alliance's fusion engines.
Murray was sweating; the frigate was going to collide with his fighter in thirty seconds. His worry subsided momentarily as he managed to reopen his communications channel with the Alliance's AI.
"Boru! Move that ship, now!"
"Unable to comply, sir." howled the battle-crazed AI. "Fear not, however, for our deed here and now shall prevent the deaths of those brave warriors on the plains below us!"
Murray was confused. A spike of radioactive energy on the Longsword's sensors began to paint a better picture, however.
"Boru, don't!"
A flash, and the two ships were gone.
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