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The Revelations of War, Prologue: Part III
Posted By: russ687<russ687@hotmail.com>
Date: 13 July 2004, 7:21 AM
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1900 hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)
Aboard UNSC Destroyer Melbourne
Alpha 1265+90 System
Baker checked the displays and rubbed his eyes; this single Covenant ship possessed the same amount of fire-power as the three smaller frigates they had just engaged combined. They were finished.
"MAC status?" he asked. They could still go down with a fight.
"Eighty-eight percent, sir."
"Close enough, target the enemy cruiser and fire. Any remaining Archer missiles are to be fired as well. Standby to fire Shiva Beta one." Baker said.
The crew worked frantically to realign to the new threat. Baker watched in near disbelief as the large ship's plasma turrets glowed and launch doors opened and out poured legions of fighters. The only ship that would have a realistic chance against this thing was a UNSC Cruiser.
"Sir, the enemy ship has fired three plasma torpedoes, impact in twenty-seconds." Grover said. "Sensors detect ninety Seraph's inbound on an intercept course."
Baker sat back and thought quickly. The MAC rounds should be able to do something to it, but they needed to get rid of those fighters; the Longswords were all busy with the remaining enemy fighters from the frigates and would not be able to help. He sighed. Drastic times called for drastic measures.
The ship vibrated as the two cannons fired in unison, sending out two balls of fire toward the cruiser. The few remaining missiles fired a second later, their smoke tails disappearing into space as they followed the MAC rounds toward the large ship.
"Set the Shiva Beta to detonate at these coordinates," Baker said, then called out a positions roughly between them and the enemy cruiser.
The Weapons officers and Operations officers looked at their Captain, questions etched across their faces. "Sir, that will do nothing to the enemy ship and the EMP will knock us off-line at that close range."
Baker nodded. "I know. Set the coordinates and fire the Shiva Beta."
His crew hesitated for a second, then followed his orders. A red warning light flashed on his console, showing him that a nuclear launch was in progress. He hit the authorization button then typed in the code. A second later the fat missile launched from its bay and headed out towards its specified coordinates.
Baker turned his attention back to the incoming plasma balls. The impact timer read down to six seconds. "Prepare to fire the starboard aft emergency maneuvering thrusters on my mark." Baker waited a second. "Mark!"
The ship lurched forward as they used their second and last maneuvering thruster. They accelerated pass the first two plasma torpedoes.
"Sir, third plasma torpedo has cut the corner and is on an intercept course, impact imminent!" Grover yelled.
Baker grabbed the arms rests of his seat and held on as the plasma round impacted the ship squarely in the side-center. The force kicked the ship sideways and combined with its new velocity from the emergency thrusters, sent it back at an alarming rate. The Melbourne spiraled slowly out of control as it pitched back, then rolled over.
"Systems on decks four through twelve are failing, hull breaches on those decks!" Grover said, stumbling to his feet.
"Damage control parties report to your stations." Baker announced over the ships comm. He then turned to his XO. "Status of enemy ship?"
Grover checked the displays that flickered on and off. "First MAC round was absorbed by the cruisers shields, second round penetrated and impacted the ship towards its nose. Missile impacts scattered across causing minimal damage. The ship is still fully functionally as far as I can tell."
Baker clenched his jaw. He wished they could have done a little more then that. The looked at his own console and noticed the nuclear countdown.
One second.
In space, the soundless bright explosion emitted. At the very epicenter it looked as if a sun had appeared, then forming around it was a shockwave the departed quickly in all directions, creating an enlarging sphere of destruction that shot out in every direction. The swarms of Seraph's heading for the wounded UNSC ship were met head on with a hot blast of destruction.
The blast wave began to slow and subside, but the EMP wave did not. It shot out with incredible speed, and hit the enemy cruiser seconds after the detonation. The blast reached Baker's ship a mere second after that and all the electronic system flared and ceased.
The Longswords and Seraphs still battling over the wreckage of the frigates ceased as the small crafts lost all power. The shockwave then reached the enemy cruiser, the Melbourne, and then the fighters, creating a thick turbulence the rattled and even damaged some components.
"Status?" Baker asked, slowly getting to his feet in the dark after being thrown out of his chair by the ensuring shockwave.
He heard the shuffle a few around him but couldn't see anything. He felt his way to the primary console and hit the restart button, but to no avail. They were now dead in space, with an unknown amount of casualties and damage to his ship.
The dull red lights on the ceiling sparked to life, casting a dark eerie glow across the bridge. He looked over and found Grover slowly getting to his feet after initiating the emergency auxiliary systems. A stream of blood ran from his forehead as the officer looked around in disarray.
Baker looked down at the console as some lights came to life. He reached over a hit the restart button again. The console lit up and came to life, and the main displays went blue. Not a good sign.
"Central Computer offline." Baker said dryly.
Grover sighed and touched his head. "That means the AI is too."
Baker nodded. "Can you get external cameras online and the ships comm.?"
Grover grunted in pain as he felt the wound on his head. "I'll try, sir."
Baker waited and moved awkwardly over to some of his crew. Most were moving and looking around slowly, but some remained motionless. He moved over to find his chief operations officer unconscious. The secondary viewing screen flashed to life, then sparked out of existence.
"Switching to primary." Grover said.
The primary screen lit up and went through a short static burst, then the picture of the outside world came on. Baker looked intently at the view; the ship was slowly rolling continuously and moving slightly away from the three wreaked frigates. Surrounding the frigates were tiny specks, all of them immobile and floating dead in space. Baker walked carefully over to the Operations console and took manual control of the cameras.
He panned the camera and zoomed in to its maximum scale at the Triton. The destroyer was probably in the same bad shape as themselves, with a burning hole in its side. There were still running lights active, meaning the ship had survived the EMP blast.
He panned the camera to see the enemy cruiser. It was venting atmosphere and fluids from the massive hole in its side from the single MAC round that did penetrate. It was, however, able to limp slowly towards them, and the rear plasma turret was heating up, unusually slow, but nonetheless less still formidable. He sighed and thought about it; the enemy ship had time on their side, and the charging rate would soon fully power the last turret; one more hit would take the Melbourne out completely.
Baker looked around the bridge. His officers were getting back into their positions and beginning what rebooting process's worked. He noticed that there were several still unconscious, but they were already being attended to. He looked toward the rear of the bridge and spotted the ONI officer, leaning against the wall, barely discernable in the dull red light the tried to illuminate the bridge. He appeared to be fine.
He turned back to face his XO. "Options?"
Grover shook his head, watching the primary screen and the enemy cruiser close in. "I don't know sir."
"Weapons status?"
Grover checked the console again. "Offline, we still only have basic emergency functions such as life support and apparently some limited electronic functions."
"What system do we have?" Baker asked, desperate to find anything.
"Doors and lifts are working, emergency lighting system, communications, not much sir."
Baker sighed and stood there in the red darkness. They had done their best, they had held off the Covenant and almost defeated them, but it was ultimately brought back against them. He looked up at the primary viewing screen and watched as the single working plasma turret on the enemy cruiser lit up to a deep red. It was almost time.
"Covenant launch imminent." One of his Operations Officers said.
Damn. And they were carrying this ONI precious materials too, the Covenant would discover them after his ship fell to pieces. Not only would they lose a good ship, but also some highly important resources. He turned and looked at his XO. Grover shook his head slowly and looked back at the view screen.
Baker was about to walk off the bridge when a bright flash caught his eye on the view screen. He turned around and looked, along with everyone else on the dark bridge, as the space behind the cruiser shook, then tore apart. A black ship exited from slip-space behind the massive Covenant cruiser and disappeared into the background.
The crew watched in silence as the object maneuvered expertly behind the enemy ship, then small sparks lit up from the ship. The small dots flew the short, unguarded trip and impacted directly into the engines and rear section of the cruiser. Bright explosions and secondary reactions dotted the hull of the cruiser as it began a slow turn away from them towards the unknown attacker. More dots launched from the black ship craft and quickly impacted into the cruiser, causing even brighter explosions from the unshielded craft.
Suddenly, the core reactor of the Covenant cruiser erupted in a bright explosion, and the entire half of the cruiser turned white hot. Then a blue shockwave shot out in all directions as the cruiser exploded again, shining brightly like a star. The bridge crew watched, not sure what to do, as the enemy cruiser vaporized into fragments.
"Shockwave impact in eight seconds, sir." The Operations Officer said, doing rough calculations in his head.
They braced as the blue shockwave shot out towards them, losing force along the way. It moved up on them quickly and the front camera went to static. The ship rocked and vibrated heavily, but it did not put the ship into a sharp spin or roll. The crew looked back up after the turbulence stopped at the screen. Several large fragments of the cruiser remained, along with millions of smaller ones.
"What just happened here?" Baker asked to no one in particular.
The bridge staff stood still and silent. Whatever did that had just saved their lives, and the lives of the thousands of crewmen aboard the Melbourne.
"Sir," the Communications Officer said, "incoming transmission."
"Put it through," Baker said.
The visual properties of the transmission would not show, most likely due to their own damages, but the audio worked clear and flawlessly.
"To all UNSC ships and personnel: This is the Valiant Knight."
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