Saber in the Sky - Part I
Posted By: mplacki<mplacki@yahoo.com>
Date: 12 July 2005, 10:58 pm
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0500 Hours, July 18, 2552 (Military Calendar)
UNSC Leviathan, military staging area around Sigma Octanus IV
Admiral Stanforth surveyed the wreckage around Sigma Octanus and shook his head. Around him in orbit lay dozens of shattered UNSC and Covenant vessels, lifeless shells floating in lazy circles around the plant. Plumes of smoke rose from the planet itself, marking what had once been the city of Cote d'Azur. All that was left of the city was a radioactive crater, courtesy of the nuclear bomb that had detonated there.
Nevertheless, it was a victory. In a war that had yielded only a tiny handful of victories for the UNSC, this had clearly been their most decisive one yet. And it was a victory the UNSC desperately needed. Morale had been sinking for months, as the UNSC forces suffered defeat after defeat after defeat.
Now, Sigma Octanus and its 13 million inhabitants were safe. UNSC forces had obliterated the Covenant armada, and the Marines on the ground – aided by the enhanced abilities of the SPARTAN II soldiers – had been able to hold off the groundside Covenant forces. Even better, they had managed to capture some Covenant technology – including plasma weapons and energy shields. And both the Marines on the ground and the crews of the ships in the fleet were feeling great.
"Great" didn't even begin to describe the change the victory had brought to the UNSC forces. Admiral Stanforth had seen thousands of cases of problems come up in the ranks – insubordination, dereliction of duty, deserting, to name but a few. In nearly every case, the problems were the result of soldiers who had seen one battle too many, who had simply given up after seeing planet after planet reduced to a ball of broken glass and watching comrade after comrade fall under the fire of Covenant troops. Now, he had seen troops doing the most boring and routine tasks snap to attention with a firmness and crispness that was heartening and refreshing. Crews were alert and ready for anything, confident in carrying out their various orders. The results of the battle of Sigma Octanus were one of the only bright spots on a horizon that had never been darker.
There was one other bright spot on the horizon, the only thing that had kept the forces moving on so far. The SPARTAN IIs had completely and utterly defeated any Covenant ground forces they encountered. Fast, deadly, and seemingly unstoppable, the mere knowledge that they were working alongside the other UNSC forces on a mission was sufficient to give people the confidence they needed to fight. Their achievements were broadcast throughout Earth and her colonies, giving people hope for the future,
Unfortunately, there was a major problem with the Spartans. As tough as they were, and as good as they were, they couldn't carry their battles into orbit. For every major victory they had on the ground, they suffered an even larger defeat in orbit as Covenant forces glassed the planet they had fought on. Their superhuman skills and MJOLNIR armor were useless in space combat.
Admiral Stanforth had a plan to change all that.
It was, in essence, very simple. There was only one problem the UNSC faced in orbit – they lacked the technological superiority of the Covenant. The MAC guns on the UNSC ships packed a major punch, but the Covenant ships had energy shields that limited their effectiveness. At the same time, the UNSC ships had no shielding systems to soften the blows of the Covenant forces. Any hit by a Covenant weapon instantly damaged or destroyed a significant portion of any UNSC ship – and there were very few misses.
It was often felt that energy shields were the biggest problem the UNSC faced. If UNSC ships had the shielding technology of their Covenant counterparts, they would be on an even playing field. However, while shields had been developed for the MJOLNIR armor, adapting them to ships had proven to be very difficult. So far, all attempts had ended up with either shields that were so weak that they served no useful purpose, or shields that were strong enough but drained a ship's power to the point where the ship didn't have enough power to fire their MAC guns or missiles.
And so, while the tests of shielding systems for capital ships continued, hope on those systems had been given up. And the UNSC was back at the same problem – how could they hold their own in space combat?
As if a light bulb had suddenly flipped on, they realized that there was a simple solution. A painfully obvious one. One that didn't rely on shielding the UNSC capital ships, one that could be implemented immediately, and one that could turn the tide of the war. All that was needed was 12 ships – and 12 of the finest pilots in the UNSC armed forces.
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