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Defense of Fire Base Epsilon Ch.4 Pt. 2
Posted By: S7NN3R<janet.johnson8@comcast.net>
Date: 23 April 2005, 1:23 AM
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"Duck? Where?"
Rear Admiral Christopher Caldwell sat down in the command chair of his ship, the Gates of Damascus.
"Lieutenant Miezko, status?" He asked.
Lieutenant Josef Miezko, the ships operations manager. The lieutenant was slight of build, blond hair, long gangly arms that went down almost to his knees. The lieutenant addressed him without looking up from his station. "Sir, engine status nominal, no anomalies. Weapons at the ready. No new messa-," he paused. His terminal blipped, and a message appeared.
"Lieutenant? There a problem?" Caldwell inquired.
"Sir, a message from Fire Base Epsilon, Zama Military Complex, Zephyrus Colonies," he paused again, examining the message. "Sir, you'd better take a look at this."
Admiral Caldwell got out of his seat and moved to Lieutenant Miezko's station. He leaned over the terminal. The lieutenant tapped a few controls, and a box popped up. The lieutenant clicked it. A deep, gruff voice came out.
"This is Brigadier General Gunter Black, authorization code Bravo Sigma Seven One Three, calling from the Zephyrus Fire Base Epsilon. The Covenant have infiltrated this station and we require assistance. Over and out,"
The message ended.
"Sir," Miezko said. "What should we do?
"Do? We're going to go help them, because it's our duty," Caldwell said. He approached the ship-wide comm. system. "This is Rear Admiral Caldwell to all hands, prepare for battle. All hands to battle stations," he ordered. He turned to the navigations officer. "Lieutenant Alp, set coordinates for the Zephyrus system.
"Aye aye, sir," she said.
"Lieutenant, how long till we enter the Zephyrus system?"
"Exactly four hours, sir,"
"Very well, Lieutenant Miezko, I'll be in my quarters. Alert me if anything arises."
The next few hours passed without incident aboard the Gates of Damascus. Rear Admiral Caldwell spent the time in his quarters, mulling over what to do. First, if there was a Covenant presence there, and they had made landfall, that meant that they must be looking for something. Second, a Covenant presence meant the probability of Covenant capitol ships, and with only one ship, there was very little chance of him surviving.
Caldwell sighed deeply. So many things to do, so little time. The comm. rang.
"Sir?" Lieutenant Miezko said over the channel.
"Go ahead, lieutenant."
"Sir, we've entered the Zephyrus system, and we are in geo-synchronous orbit over the Zama Military Complex."
"Understood, lieutenant," the comm. channel snapped off. Caldwell got out of his chair and exited his quarters. He walked briskly down the corridor to the elevator that led to the bridge. He rode the elevator to the bridge elevator and exited. He walked towards the bridge, and two Marines with shotguns saluted him. He returned the salute without pausing. He entered the bridge.
"Admiral on the deck!" someone barked. All five members of the bridge crew stood and saluted.
"At ease," Caldwell said. They all returned to their posts, but everyone looked tense.
"Lieutenant Miezko, Covenant presence in system?"
"Sir, two Covenant CCS class cruisers in system. Intercepted transmissions report that more ships are inbound.
"How many?"
The lieutenant's face was grim. He gulped. "Estimated inbound ships number near fifty."
Admiral Caldwell visibly flinched. FiftyCovenant ships? That was enough firepower to turn his ship to a smoldering hulk of slag.
"Lieutenant," Caldwell said. "Send Sergeant Burgess to the bridge."
"Aye aye, sir."
Caldwell thought for a minute, pondered if there were any other way. There wasn't
"Lieutenant, where are the Covenant cruisers as of now?"
"Uh, one of them is on the far side of the Ea moon. The other is scanning near the Gaia planet."
The bridge doors opened. A man in a standard UNSC Marine uniform entered the bridge. The man was tall, with broad shoulders. His darkly tanned skin was covered in ghastly scars. He wore a sergeant's cap, and had an M6D pistol and M9D shotgun strapped to his belt.
"You wanted to see me, Admiral?" He asked bluntly.
"Ah! Sergeant Burgess, good to see you,"
"Let's be frank, sir, what do you need me to do?"
Caldwell was taken aback by the sergeant's straight forward attitude. "Well sergeant, I need you to lead a mission," he said, and laid out the plan.
Sergeant Alexis Burgess stood before his contingent of Marines in the Gates of Damascus's cargo bay. The cargo bay, normally barren except for supplies, was filled with almost five hundred Marines.
"Listen up men," he barked. "We are to leave this ship, and assault a Covenant held city on Zephyrus. We will be entering via Pelican dropships and ODST drop pods. Once on the ground, we will break Covenant hold on the city. However, this is a one-way trip. As soon as you leave the ship, there's no coming back. This ship will be jumping out-system as soon as we leave. Because of the high risk of this mission, the skipper has asked for volunteers. All those willing to go, take one step forward."
Each and every one of the Marines in the room took one step forward. A Marine in the front row tripped and fell to the ground.
"Seems like some of us are more eager than others," Burgess said and chuckled. All the Marines chuckled along, too, even the private that had tripped.
"Okay then, Marines, get to your posts. We make landfall at 0600."
"Bail out! Move! Move! Move!" Sergeant Burgess shouted. "Someone strap a parachute to that hog!" he barked. At 0555 hours, Sergeant Burgess and his Marines had left the Gates of Damascus. He and another twenty Marines had left in a Pelican, Foxtrot-22. They had entered Zephyrus's thermosphere at 0605, along with five other Pelicans, ten Longsword heavy fighters, and close to fifty Orbital Drop pods.
Foxtrot-22 had taken a ground based plasma mortar to the cockpit, killing the pilot and co-pilot. The Pelican came screaming towards the ground like a flaming comet.
The nineteen other Marines in the Pelican with Burgess grabbed a parachute and bailed out of the crippled dropship. Burgess leaned out of the ship, and attached a parachute to the Warthog stowed on the Pelican. He pulled the rip cord, and disengaged the Warthog.
Burgess leaned out of the Pelican again, and pulled back inside as a Wraith mortar shot came too close. He braced himself, and leaped out of the plummeting ship.
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