Chapter 1, Part 1
1237 Hours, July 3, 2557 (Military Calendar)
UNSC Infinity, Epsilon Eridani System, approaching high orbit above planet Reach
“After all the combat footage I’ve seen of the battle, I almost expected to still see parts of the planet on fire.”
Commander Thomas Lasky leaned on the railing near the primary viewport of Infinity’s rather spacious bridge, inspecting the blackened landmasses that used to be habitable continents. It had been almost five years since Reach had been glassed by the once powerful Covenant military. The fires that had engulfed much of the planet after the Covenant had performed their bombardment had died out long ago, but the scars from that battle could easily be seen with the naked eye. Large swaths could be seen crisscrossing the once habitable landscape - clear evidence of Covenant energy projectors.
Lasky glanced at Captain Andrew Del Rio standing beside him, and watched as the Captain’s eyes flicked back and forth, either taking in the extent of the devastation or as if searching for something. He couldn’t tell which. Del Rio continued to stare out into space for another moment before breaking his gaze and turning to Lasky.
“The Covenant’s efficiency at leveling the surface of a planet was always a gross over-utilization of their fleet’s firepower,” the captain commented. “Had Infinity been completed earlier in the war, I doubt this would have happened to Reach. Millions of civilians and UNSC personnel KIA and more than one hundred warships destroyed. Not to mention a large portion of the remaining SPARTAN-IIs trying to save it.”
In that hypothetical scenario, Lasky had to admit, Infinity probably would have made a significant difference. The ship had taken too long to build however - almost as long as he had been in the service. Starting in the early 2530s, ONI begun acquiring what they at the time had called “emergency prototype technologies,” that they claimed were radical, yet untested design schematics to improve the combat efficiency of UNSC naval vessels. The origins of these technologies had been kept classified, however.
It wasn’t until several months after the conclusion of the war with the Covenant that he learned that most of the technologies found on the ship were reverse engineered from a mysterious and long since vanished alien race called the Forerunners.
Once the ship had finally been completed, it had been well worth the wait. Offensive armaments were nothing short of what the naval brass had deemed “overkill.” At it’s core, Infinity sported a Mk. V super MAC cannon which gave it the ability to utterly decimate any Covenant capital ship in one on one combat. Twenty-four Archer missile clusters with ten launchers each as well as an impressive array of 50mm autocannons handled basic point defense.
That was just it’s array of conventional offensive weapons.
Weapon testing during its final shakedown cruise had not only been impressive but had been a substantial morale boost to the entire navy.
Infinity had been tasked with eliminating the growing human-Covenant black market on Venetzia in August of 2553 following intel that ONI had received. Human insurrectionists would be acquiring a combat-ready Covenant battlecruiser from a rogue faction calling themselves the Storm - an emerging splinter group of the Covenant that still followed the late Prophet’s ideals and the Great Journey.
ONI had decided that it was time to stretch the newly completed ship’s legs. A fully armed Covenant ship in the hands of insurrectionists would spell disaster for the recovery efforts in newly reestablished colonies.
They had been part of a small battlegroup - a couple frigates and a destroyer. Not a significant military force in the least. The UNSC was left with just under a hundred capital ships following the Battle of Earth. Caution was the mandate when faced with possible combat situations. With few shipyards left that were capable of producing capital ships, each vessel and her crew were precious commodities that couldn’t be recklessly thrown into combat situations.
Del Rio had expertly applied this ideology accurately - to the three smaller UNSC ships in his taskforce.
The Storm Covenant had arrived in system with an assault carrier and three CCS-class battlecruisers - one of which they had intended to hand over to the insurgents - and had taken up parking in orbit around Venetzia. After initial recon by an ONI corvette, Del Rio had their escort hold position at the edge of the system while Infinity herself performed the assault.
In more than twenty years of war with the Covenant, the UNSC only ever came out victorious in a naval operation if they outnumbered their fleets by nearly 3-to-1. Twenty years of the development of Infinity turned that fact around in a single skirmish.
Infinity had made a precise slipspace jump from the edge of the system and emerged two hundred kilometers above the Covenant formation - bearing directly down on them.
The ships hadn’t even reacted before a MAC round slammed into the assault carrier, ripped through its engine core, and punched clean through the other side of the vessel. Primary and secondary explosions chained throughout the ship and ripped it apart.
Two of the three battlecruisers by then had activated their shields and sped towards Infinity at high impulse like sharks sensing blood in the water. Their lateral lines warmed and launched a volley of plasma torpedoes in retribution of their fallen comrades.
Ordinarily, UNSC commanders would order evasive maneuvers when facing Covenant torpedoes - their super-hot rounds made Titanium-A battleplate look like tissue paper before a blowtorch.
Lasky wished he could have seen the look on the Covenant’s faces when their torpedoes splashed harmlessly against Infinity’s forward energy shielding. It had to register as a complete shock to realize that their enemy now possessed superior defensive capabilities and that their conventional tactics book against UNSC ships had to be rewritten.
Nothing could have prepared them for what happened next.
The two battlecruisers broke formation a hundred kilometers out from Infinity and maneuvered to port and starboard in preparation for a dual broadside attack. Quick thinking on the Covanant’s part - get out of firing alignment with the MAC cannon and force the enemy to engage with point defense weaponry. Rock, paper, scissors. Covenant weaponry traditionally emerged victorious at close range.