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The Defense of Earth 3: The 889th Tactical Fighter Wing
Posted By: Steele<hoffmansteele@hotmail.com>
Date: 6 April 2003, 4:24 AM
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The 889th Tactical Fighter Wing
0900 Hours, October 14, 2552 (Military Calendar)/
Earth Local Space, Near UNSC Defense Fleet
Commander Rick "Einstein" Mitchell knew they were in trouble. Hundreds of Covenant ships had just jumped in close to Earth. He knew they were all going to die, but he also knew his assignment. He flicked on his COM and began issuing orders for his fighter wing to attack the approaching Covenant.
His squadrons formed up in a wedge formation and accelerated toward the Covenant Capital Ships. He shoved his throttles all the way forward and activated his targeting systems. He immediately got a lock on the leading Covenant Battle Cruiser; he then broadcast it to his squadron members.
"Launch on my mark!" Rick said. "Three...Two...One...Mark!" All 108 remaining fighters in his wing launched a Shredder missile; all of them headed for the exact same spot.
Rick watched the little contrails lance toward their target. They impacted with the Covenant Cruiser in a brilliant flash of white. His sensors reported that there was a large hole in the Covenant Ship's shields. He told the Longsword Wing Commander and sent him the targeting upload.
Captain Swenson's voice floated over the COM channel, "I copy Gold lead, we're launching now."
Rick looked over to see four Longsword Interceptors squirt out four Driller AAS missiles at the enemy ship. The Driller's arced up and plummeted downward, headed straight for the breach in the Covenant ship's shields.
The Drillers were slower than the Shredder missiles. This caused two of the missiles to be destroyed by pulse laser fire. The other two hit the ship.
The first one impacted on the two-meter thick armored hide of the ship, but drilled straight through it and kept going, ripping through bulkheads, supports, storage bays, and anything that got in its way. It exploded in the middle of the Cruiser, the second missile followed suit.
The Covenant Battle Cruiser seemed to jump upward as pieces of it tore free and were sent whirling out into space. The bulbous middle of the ship seemed to grow and expand, then turn into an ultraviolet flash as the Battle Cruiser disintegrated into chunks of superheated metal.
Rick smiled at the sight, but that quickly went away, when he noticed the thousands of Seraphs boiling out of launch bays on the other Covenant cruisers. He checked his sensors, then did a comparison between Covenant numbers and UNSC numbers. He got the following: Covenant forces; 697 remaining capital ships, 261, 450 fighter spacecraft. UNSC; 51 remaining capital ships, 60 Super MAC Guns, 144,000 fighter spacecraft.
Looking at these numbers, Rick felt his gut tighten with fear. There was no way they could win against these odds. Even if the new UNSC battleships could destroy at least three times their number and the MACs accounted for over 100 hundred kills every minute. The Covenant fighters would tear through the UNSC fighters then whittle the MACs and battleships down.
Oh well, it wasn't his job to worry about that. He turned to the left and entered the cloud of approaching Seraphs.
On the bridge of the UNSC Widower
Rear Admiral Joseph Mugs stood on the bridge; hands clasped behind his back, and surveyed the battle. It wasn't good. The Covenant had swarmed his meager supply of Battleships, eliminating any advantage the Battleships would have had against lesser numbers. The Battleships were new ships. They were bigger then every ship in the UNSC except the new Carriers, but they packed a far more powerful punch.
They were the first ship to incorporate Covenant technology. Along with a powerful shield, based on the ones Covenant ships used, they carried a large Fuel Rod Cannon (FRC) that could bring down the shields on any Covenant vessel. To add to the power they packed two of the advanced MAC guns; the ones that could fire three times on one charge. And the combo was topped off with over a thousand Archer missile pods.
The Battleships had already faced intense combat, yet they maintained a 4 to 1 kill ratio against Covenant Capital Ship; an unheard ratio. Before the Battleship it took two UNSC Destroyers to successfully bring down a Covenant small cruiser. But the Battleship could take on two Covenant Destroyers and come out in good shape.
He barked a command at his bridge officers, "Helm, bring us about to heading Two-Three-Seven. Weapons make sure our shields are at full and remove the safeties from the MACs, charge our FRC. Acquire firing solutions on the biggest Covenant ships."
"Heading Two-Three-Seven, aye-aye Admiral," the Navigations officer replied.
"All weapons are hot and fully charged, sir, firing solutions are ready," his Weapons officer, answered, her voice curt and precise, betraying no anxiety.
"Dante, battle assessment and predictions," Mugs asked the A.I. assigned to his ship.
The holographic hooded figure rotated toward him and spoke in a smooth whispering voice. "I predict our forces will be completely wiped out before reinforcements arrive. But, our forces should take down at least half of the Covenant. My assessment is based upon previous reports and current battle protocol."
"Damn, we can't let that happen. We need at to stop them. How long before reinforcements arrive?"
"The main force is still held up by a number of Covenant vessels, but are slowly dealing with them. Earliest arrival by not in-system ships is two hours. That is the UNSC Agonizer and escorts, Admiral."
"Alright, we'll have to hold until then. Weapons bring fire on the first approaching destroyer. Let's bring that bastard down."
"Aye-aye, Admiral, firing FRC now."
Deep within the vessel a fusion reactor released a built up charge directly into a waiting container of Plasma Fuel. The Fuel superheated, turned a bright green, and shot down a long shaft out the firing bay and accelerated into space. The blast hit an approaching Covenant Destroyer and completely brought down its shields, leaving it open to total annihilation.
Two loud thumps resounded through the hull as the twin MAC guns fired. Two silver tongues reached out and licked the Covenant Destroyer. The Destroyer's port side crumpled and collapsed. The MAC rounds passed through the hull, tore through important ship systems, and left large holes in their wake, as they exited out the other side.
The Covenant Destroyer listed to port, atmosphere venting out of ruined sections of hull, internal explosions shot down the length of her hull, until an explosion hit her Plasma Reactor. She expanded outward in a rolling, blue explosion.
The Admiral grinned in satisfaction, then turned to his A.I. "Dante, get me an open channel to all UNSC ships under my authority."
"Complying," the A.I. replied, as patterns scrolled all over his projected form. A minute later the screen on the Widower's bridge split up into multiple sections, each showing a Captain of a Battleship.
"All ships: Prepare Point Defense 3, we have a Golf case, repeat Point Defense 3, for Golf case. Do not, not matter what violate Golf case parameters. Mugs out."
Mugs turned to his bridge crew. "Bring us about to face that other Destroyer."
Rick slapped his control column to the side that inverted his fighter, causing the plasma torpedo following him to overshoot and explode. He snap-rolled to the left, and then rolled back to starboard. The Seraph shot by his fighter and began a hard turn to the right.
Rick dropped in behind him and lined his targeting reticle on the Seraph's spine and held the trigger down. The two 20mm cannons on each side of his Dagger's nose vomited fire at the Covenant.
The Seraph's port side broke off in a blue explosion. The rest of the fighter spun out of control and spiraled downward, toward Earth's atmosphere.
Rick pulled up and said, "Vape one Seraph." He didn't hear any response. Everyone else was too busy trying to survive to talk. He turned around and went head to head with a Seraph bearing down on him.
He flicked his weapon selector over to 'Missile' and waited for his Target Acquisition System to lock up on the target. When it did he pressed the trigger, saying, "Fox two!"
An AIS-36 IR guided missile leapt off its rails and darted at the Covenant ship. It hit directly on the ship's nose and exploded halfway through the ship. The Seraph morphed into a bright blue-orange cloud of expanding gasses and microscopic debris.
"Vape one Seraph," Rick monotoned over the COM channel. He rolled his Dagger on it's back to avoid a Pulse Laser Blast and watched in horror as a Covenant Battle Cruiser eliminated three Super MACs in a row. It was going to be a long day.
To be continued...
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