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Rally Point Alpha
Posted By: Sterfrye36<Sterfrye36@yahoo.com>
Date: 2 June 2003, 5:27 PM
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Marcus's eyes bulged. Out on the edge of the system, hundreds of green dots appeared. Jacob knew however, that this wasn't some sort of polar borealis, those were slipspace entry points. And there were a lot of them.
"Oh..." Jacob started, his voice rising. He then uttered a string of words that froze the conversation in mid-sentence and caused everyone to look at him.
"SCRAMBLE!" he cried yelling himself hoarse.
Jacob turned to exit the booth they were sitting in and was met with five pairs of raised eyebrows.
"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!?" he roared.
"Um, boss," Jordan asked delicately, "are you feeling all right?"
"Am I feeling all right!?" Marcus's voice cracked. " I'll show you all right!" he grabbed Jordan by the scruff of his neck and almost flattened his face on the view port.
"Tell me Jordan, do you happen to have any idea what those green dots are?" Marcus asked, his tone cold and icy. Jordan slowly shook his head, confused. "Those my friend are slipspace entry points, and judging by the raw number of those dots, they've probably brought half of the Covenant fleet here, intent on wiping us out, do you understand that Jordan?" Jordan's head became a near blur as he furiously yanked his head up and down for yes.
Just then, the scramble klaxon sounded.
"GO!" Marcus's voice sounded like a Longsword breaking the speed of sound in atmosphere; raw and cut.
Marcus had never run the distance between the mess hall and the fighter bay nearly as fast as he did then, and he doubted he would be able to do it again.
By the time he had reached the hangar, the place was swarming with techs making last minute checks and re-arming.
Marcus, out of breath, sprinted to his Longsword.
"How's it look Arch?" he yelled as he all but dove through the hatch, grabbing his helmet from off of the hook.
"As good as ever, Marcus! You've got full plasma batteries, missile racks and fuel is topped off." Archie laughed." Woe to the Covvie that tries to shoot you down!"
"Thanks Arch!" Marcus yelled over his shoulder.
Working quickly, Marcus went through the abbreviated startup checklist. He then punched his Longsword five feet up into the air, rotated and roared out of the hangar.
What he saw froze his gut cold.
The Covenant hadn't skimped funding for this one. The Covvie flotilla was deployed in a ball formation and it looked as though there were four cruisers, nine Destroyers, twelve frigates two carriers...and a Snipe.Right in the middle of their formation no less.
Marcus broke out in a cold sweat. Just what the heck were they supposed to do against a Snipe? Their weapons could travel at light speed. Even at this range, they could hardly miss...
Jordan formed on his wing.
"So boss," Jordan's normally goofy tone had flat lined. "I guess this is it huh?"
"Yeah," Marcus said, "I guess so..."
Marcus's com popped.
"Attention any and all UNSC forces," a gruff voice said, "proceed to Rally Point Alpha with all speed and prepare for battle."
A blue nav point appeared on Marcus's HUD...clear on the other side of the planet; the dark side...what were they planning?
"Ok Hornet Squadron spread as far out as possible. I don't want any of us getting picked off by the Snipe."
A quintet of clicks came across his com, notifying him they had all acknowledged his command.
It took only five minutes to get to the darkside of the planet. Though throughout the whole trip, Marcus kept trying to unravel what they were going to do.
If a Snipe could hull a Destroyer with very little effort, it couldn't take much longer for it to kill Cruiser.... They had plenty of Cruisers-seventeen to be exact as three of the impressive warships had been destroyed at Reach-but with the Snipe out there the odds might as well have been nil...
Please let whatever they're thinking up work...
They had reached Rally Point Prime.
Marcus glanced around.
The Big MACs were being fitted here. There were about twenty five under construction, with more on the way.
They were almost finished, but at this rate, they'd never make it in time for the battle.
Just then Marcus noticed something.
There had been no shots from the Snipe and no shots from the other ships in the Covenant fleet.
What was going on?
Jordan's voice crackled over the com. "Maybe they're having some sort of religious ceremony. Watching us flee might be enjoyable to them...But in the past they've always hunted and stalked and pursued...Hornet Leader, something's wrong here."
"Thank you Jordan, not only have I noticed that about a hundred times already, I have mulled it over so much, I'm about ready to throw up!" Marcus snapped.
"To bad they don't have those Big MA-"
"Three, would you shut up about those blasted Big MACs?"
"Sorry Hornet Leader..."
Marcus's com crackled again.
"This is admiral Stanforth. Well boys and girls, this is it. I won't explain what we're going to do as there isn't enough time. However, the Leviathan has laid several HAVOK tactical nuclear mines in stationary orbit around Earth. Avoid this area." A boxed area appeared on Marcus's screen outlined by green. "All fighters from the Leviathan, will circle around to the middle of the North American continent on my mark. All fighters from the Dauntless, will do the same, only this time they will fly east and stop over the edge of the Philippine islands. From those two points you will launch on SHIVA apiece into the middle of the Covenant formation after the HAVOKs have detonated. That should be enough to kill 'em. However, fighters from the Thunderbolt, Maverick, Spoke and all other fighters will fly cover for the Cruisers as they come over the poles and clean up any refuse."
Marcus did a double take. To have a cruiser to use a nuke in combat was generally a sign of desperateness. A nuke aboard a Longsword was a sign of craziness.
His com popped once again.
"Hornet Leader, this is Typhoon Leader, you have any idea why the Admiral would want us to launch a nuke?"
"Not a clue Typhoon Leader. Not unless..."
After about five seconds, Typhoon Leader's voice crackled over the com. "Oh," he said, realization dawning in him. "We're gonna put them in one heck of a vice," he said his voice gaining confidence.
Just then, what appeared to be a solid wall of Seraph fighters traversed the poles.
I want to apologize for not having Beginings put in the Longsword: series. By the way, can anyone catch all of my references?
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