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The Revelation of War, Chapter Five: Part II
Posted By: russ687<russ687@hotmail.com>
Date: 28 September 2004, 1:26 AM
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1515 hours, September 19, 2552 (Military Calendar)
Aboard UNSC Destroyer Melbourne
Imbari System, in orbit around planet Imbari V
Baker watched the primary viewing screen closely as the two bright balls of plasma arched toward them in the blackness of space. His hopes of defeating the enemy were higher then usual, after seeing the three MAC rounds fired by his ship and the nearby Triton rip through the first two ships, causing severe but not lethal damage to the alien vessel closing in on them and the planet behind.
"Captain, enemy torpedoes are less then fifteen seconds away," Cmdr. Grover said, his voice controlled but portraying obvious anxiety.
Baker nodded and clenched his fists as he gripped the Command Console on the bridge. He had done this maneuver many times before, but there was never a one-hundred percent certainty that it would work.
Baker's perception of time slowed down. He gazed into the primary viewing screen and thought back to how many times he had stared down into the face of death. How many times he had seen the Covenant up close and personal from the mild safety of his ship, from the time he had to defend his first command many years ago when his ship was boarded. He had fought against greater odds then these, but he felt a crawling feeling in his stomach that told him this was it.
This was the final battle he would fight for Humanity.
The three Cruiser-size Covenant vessels plowed forward at them, and their hot projectiles neared as they filled up the primary viewing screen. Baker looked at his XO as he tightened his grip on the console.
"Mark! Fire the starboard aft emergency thrusters!" Baker said. The ship groaned as it lurched forward as the explosion rang out from the emergency thruster at the rear of the destroyer. The ship shot past the two incoming balls of plasma and headed directly towards the incoming trio of enemy vessels at a high closure speed.
"MAC One and Two are both ready for one more shot each." The Weapons Officer announced as he regained his stance over the Weapons Console Station.
"Target the first and second enemy vessels and fire," Baker ordered. "Relay third target to the Triton..." Baker stopped and looked down at the console, the Triton was at condition red, meaning they had taken a major hit but was still serviceable.
"Open a link to the Triton." Baker waited a second while it up-linked; a slightly static view of the bridge on the smaller ship came on the secondary viewer.
"Baker, our Reactor is at critical," Scorzio said, his face grim and dimly lit by the emergency lighting on the bridge. "We're evacuating now, but I can give you all my Archer's and one more MAC round. A.I. tells me I have four minutes to get out of here."
Baker cursed under his breathe. "We're forwarding you the third target..." Baker paused as the ship rumbled as his own to Cannons fired. "Fire all available weaponry at it and get out of there. Good luck."
Scorzio nodded, and the link went dead.
They were running out of options. "Where's the Valiant Knight?" Baker asked.
"No Sensor contact, sir. They're out there somewhere--" Grover replied, not before being cut off.
"One MAC hit! Second round grazed the target." The WO announced.
Baker looked at the displays and ran a quick analysis of their first target; it was dead in space, having received two MAC rounds, but not destroyed. The second target was still fully functional with only minimal damage, and the third was untouched. He watched as the single MAC round raced by them as headed for the third target, followed by a volley of Archers.
The round impact the ship and its shields flared, but held.
Baker plotted a quick trajectory to the second target, they were about 30 seconds out. "Helm, set course 120 by 342, full speed. Weapons, fire all Archer missiles at the second target."
"Yes, sir." Two bridge officers replied in unison.
They would need to make this quick, before the plasma turrets recharged. The Melbourne turned onto an intercept course that would take it right into the bow of the enemy ship. Baker watched in awe as nearly a hundred Archer missiles sped past them, their rocket flames sending a line of smoke in the black space as the missiles tracked the third contact, now behind the second.
Baker's own ship vibrated as its own Archer missiles launched toward the second target. In the distance he could see the plasma turrets heating up; they were running out of time.
"Archer's from the Triton are impacting the third target, sir. Shields holding...no, they just failed, Archer's impacts scattered across the port side of the ship." Grover said. "Damage is mainly to their turrets on that side, minimal crucial damage."
Baker nodded. It was a shot.
"Captain, our own Archer's are impacting the second target, having no effect against their shields." The WO announced.
Baker nodded, but let his head drop. He thought for a second, then looked up again at the primary viewing screen. They just needed to stop them.
"Captain, collision imminent." Grover said, staring into the primary viewing screen, now completely filled with the purple ship of the same size of their own.
"Brace for impact!" Baker yelled as the screen flashed.
The Melbourne's bow plowed through the shields, causing them to fail, and continued into the hull of the Covenant ship. The combined trajectory from the engines and the recent use of the emergency thruster sent the UNSC destroyer tearing through the hull of the enemy ship, biting into the decks of both ships.
Baker's mind froze the second the impact happened. His life flashed before him as he recalled all the major events in his life that defined him; all those special moments in his history that created and molded him into the man he was today. He thought of his divorced wife, his two young girls who had hadn't seen in eight years, his brother who was killed in action one year after joining the UNSC, his parents, his friends...
And the realization of how short life really is dawned upon him. It made him mad to waste his entire life fighting a crazed alien foe just to defend the life of humans; it made him mad all the times he had neglected to see his family, his daughters, missed them growing up.
Captain Jonathon Baker, UNSC, watched as the light in front of him, the light that everyone standing near him was seeing, opened up and engulfed them. He felt the quick flash of warmth, then the instant feel of free falling as he closed his eyes.
The fight for humanity was not lost upon him. He knew it all too well.
In death.
1530 hours, Deptember 19, 2552 (Military Calendar)
Aboard UNSC stealth frigate Valaint Knight
Imbari System, near Imbari V
Captain Rayford cringed at the display as the Melbourne plowed head first into the second enemy cruiser, causing a massive chain reaction of explosions that rippled through both ships. He didn't know what caused it, but it evidently began consuming both warships.
The Melbourne was destroyed, and not far away from the battle zone the Triton sat abandoned, with heavy damage to the reactor but still not overloaded. These once magnificent ships of the UNSC fleet were nothing more then scrap; their crews lost forever.
Rayford sighed. It was down to one on one. His small ship verse a mildly damaged Covenant destroyer. Normally, Rayford would skip such an encounter, seeing that his own ship had no Cannon, but it was time to finish this fight here. He couldn't let that ship, no matter how damaged, get to the planet or exit the system for help.
It needed to be destroyed right here and now.
Rayford watched silently as the stealth ship maneuvered into position behind the much larger vessel. Its' shields were down, and the entire port side was rubble, but it still had a single turret at the ready, which was more then enough to do his own frigate in. The only way to destroy this enemy ship was to hit their reactor, from behind.
"In range," the WO said softly, as if they could almost hear him.
Rayford nodded. They would have to get close enough that the point defense wouldn't have time to take out many of their Archer's. The Valiant Knight loomed closer to the vessel, its black hull masking it from visual sightings and its specialized design keeping it hidden from electronic sensors.
It was only a matter of time, though, before they picked up the few emissions the vessel gave out. The crew knew this, and their nervousness showed.
"Sir, Covenant ship has detected us!" his XO said.
Rayford nearly jumped to his feet. "Fire all archers, aimed at the aft section! Turn 180 by 90 left and hit flank speed."
The ship shuddered as the Archer's exploded out of their tubes and tracked the large target ahead of them. The small frigate then turned left hard and accelerated.
"Missile Impacts in 5 seconds." The WO said. The countdown read down to zero. Rayford looked at the primary viewing screen as the screen flashed bright white, then blue as the unshielded reactor got one hundred tons of high explosive charges rammed into it. The shockwave shot out, creating and growing sphere that was followed by the explosion fragments of the ships former hull. The Valiant Knight rolled violently as the shockwave passed, but regained its attitude quickly as the crew compensated.
His XO looked over with a smile. "We got him, sir."
Rayford didn't smile. At such a price? Was it worth the sacrifice? He looked down at the command console.
His XO's smile quickly disappeared as the outer edge of the system filled up with contacts. He quickly ran a diagnostic check to make sure everything was working, then cursed loudly, his words echoing throughout the armor plated bridge.
"The enemy has arrived, sir, this time in force."
Rayford looked at the display. The count was nearing triple digits.
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