Hey, Spartans! Sorry for the late post. Life got in the way, and editing took longer than I thought. This is the first time I’ve tried to write something like this chapter, so any comments and constructive criticism you have will be very welcome. UNFORTUNATELY, this chapter is longer than the character allowance for a post, so I will be splitting it up into TWO posts. I’m sorry for the inconvenience. I hope you all enjoy the read!
II.
0946 HOURS, FEBRUARY 21, 2558 (MILITARY CALENDAR) \ EPOLOCH SYSTEM, ABOARD UNSC SUPERCARRIER INFINITY, ABOVE FORERUNNER SHIELD WORLD REQUIEM
Lieutenant Jamie “Fish” Wright skimmed once more through her preflight checklist. It wasn’t because she didn’t trust the work of her co-pilot and weapons officer, Warrant Officer Agner, rather because it was her good luck routine. And from what she could tell, with all the AA and Banshee patrols in their target area, she would need all the luck the sky gods would grant her.
As a part of the 23rd Naval Air Squadron, she prided herself as being part of the best pilots the UNSC Navy had to offer. Her squadron had the history to prove it, too. Lieutenant “Cookie” Peterson, Petty Officer Sheila Polaski, and last but certainly not least, Captain Carol “Foe Hammer” Rowley. All legendary, Grade A pilots who served the UNSC, and humanity until their untimely deaths years ago.
Fish hoped that she could one day prove herself the same way that those who came before her had, save for the dying of course. She longed to distinguish herself and her skills through completing her missions with minimal problems, and maximum effectiveness. Her combat scores and aerial maneuvering during flight school had been second to none, top of her class. And when she had been assigned to the section of the 23rd Naval Air Squadron operating out of Infinity, she knew she was on the right track.
Ever since she was a small girl living in the domed colonies on Luna, looking back at the Earth where humanity had been, then out to the stars where she knew they would continue to go, Jamie had wanted to explore the galaxy. She wanted to swim through space and go wherever she could. Her parents however, owned a small real estate business in the city of Mare Cognitum that they had hoped Jamie would take over one day with her own husband and kids.
It was a constant struggle growing up. Straining against their wishes to keep her on Luna for the rest of her life, all while she craved the sense of adventure that exploring the galaxy would bring. There was nothing of interest for her on Luna, and not many options that would allow her to do what she truly wanted either, unless she joined the UNSC.
So the day after her eighteenth birthday, she decided to make her own fate. She marched straight down to the United Nations Space Command’s local recruiting office, and demanded they make her a pilot in their Navy. She would never forget the astonished face of the recruiting officer, watching a near six foot tall, brawny teenage girl stomp in and ask to be a pilot of all things, instead of a door busting ODST. And the rest was history, although a short three-year history so far.
Just keep flying, and don’t look back.
That was her montra. Her life’s code.
The Pelican’s engines roared to life as Fish flicked through the ignition sequence and lifted her helmet slightly to grab the piece of gum from her mouth and roll it between her index finger and thumb, then slapping it against the Pelican’s dash. It stuck right next to a sticky note that read, “FOR WHEN YOU GET BACK!!!”, with an arrow pointing to where she stuck the gum.
“Care to do the honors, Sharkbite?” Fish asked her co-pilot, using his callsign.
“It’s all yours, Fish.” his low voice answered from behind her in the Pelican’s upper canopy.
She keyed open the comm, “Control, this is Pelican Three-One ready for lift-off. I got some anxious Spartans in the hold, so let’s make this quick, eh?”
A young man’s voice responded, “That you, Fish? Ha. Spartans are always anxious. I hear it comes with the gig,” Fish let out a short laugh, “Alright listen up, Infinity isn’t currently engaged in action but will be soon. Half of the fleet, however, is in a standoff against Covenant elements near Requiem’s breach. I’ve requested Infinity provide an escort to help take you down to the planet. But that’s as much as you’ll have.”
“That’s all we need,” Fish answered back immediately, “Thanks for the intel.”
As good as Pelicans were at getting troops in and out of combat arenas, they were essentially a ton of bricks compared to any sort of support the Infinity would be sending. Both in terms of aerial prowess, and speed. Fish knew she would be able to make her exit now, and let the strike fighters catch up to her en route.
“Anytime. Good hunting!” the man said before the comm line snapped off.
If Infinity wasn’t currently in battle, there was really no need to utilize the ship’s semi-hidden catapult system for her exit point. She could just open the shielded bay doors, and lift off through the main exit.
But that was no fun.
“Sharkbite, kick the door.” she said. Her smirk barely hidden beneath the words she spoke.
“Yes, ma’am.” her co-pilot replied. His own enthusiasm, clear in his tone.
There was a pause while Sharkbite pressed a button, and a signal was sent to the Pelican’s elevator platform. The ship lurched as the hydraulic system activated, and the loaded dropship slowly descended into the catapult chute. The Pelican shook once more as it came to a halt at the bottom of the shaft, and was clamped to the rail system.
From her cockpit, Fish could see the metal braces which offered the base structure of the catapult rail, as well as massive pipe systems that stretched overhead and disappeared into the rest of the Infinity. A line of white LEDs flashed and raced down the length of the chute’s ceiling to guide the Pelican down the pathway. At the chute’s maw however, boundless space and the infinite stars awaited.
Dead ahead lay only a few hundred meters of metal and piping before she would be floating through space, surrounded by her life’s ambition. All she had to do was hit the afterburners, and that was the second best part.
Fish slammed the throttle forward as hard as she could, and was rewarded with an instant sense of acceleration as her bird’s afterburners kicked into full gear. The catapult worked its magic, adding more speed to the craft, as it flung the dropship towards the endless expanse of space.
For a long moment, she was glued to the back of her seat. The force of rapid acceleration kept Fish restrained against her chair. Hundreds of meters of superstructure and coolant pipes whipped by in a flash as the D79 was boosted to flight speed. Then, just as suddenly, was propelling through the calm of open nothingness.
Stars glittered against the canopy on all sides save for directly in front, where the colossal Forerunner Shield World, Requiem, sat floating in space. Its dark surface was somehow a shadow on space itself, blotting out a wide array of stars in its wake.
Fish felt like a little girl again, looking back at Earth from her home on Luna. Surrounded by vast opportunity, but the one place she didn’t quite want to go was straight ahead, and was the center of her view. Funny how that works.
A blue diamond appeared on her helmet’s heads-up-display. It pointed to the enormous and blinding white opening in Requiem’s outer shell. Just in front of it, however, blocking the entry point to the planet, and silhouetted against the installation’s matte-shelled surface, Fish could make out the faint shapes of three Covenant warships about to face off against five UNSC Strident-class frigates. She magnified her combat helmet’s HUD and focused on the loose alien cluster. Two cruisers and a heavy frigate filled her view.
On the left side of the formation, she spotted a CRS-class light cruiser, its dusky surface doing well to hide it from visual sight against the blackness of space. This new “Covenant” was fond of using these bulbus, three sectioned cruisers, if you could call it a cruiser to begin with. At barely three-hundred meters in length it was one of the smallest vessels in the Covenant’s fleet, and nearly half the length of the UNSC’s own Strident frigates it was about to go up against.
The middle ship in the formation was one she had fought against a few times before. A relatively small SDV-class heavy corvette, relative being the key word in the phrase. At over a kilometer long, it was still a big cookie. However, it was still much smaller than some of the other ships in the Covenant’s fleet. This corvette style did have a good-sized complement of attack craft it could use as support in both space and ground engagements though. And Fish watched as over a dozen enemy singleship Seraphs and Banshees streamed from the heavy corvette’s hangars, and scattered among the fleet.
The last ship, and the biggest in the formation, was an RCS-class armored cruiser which floated on the right side of the Covenant’s line formation. Based on declassified ONI Section One documents, Fish knew that it was the oldest class of the three by far. She also knew that like many of this Covenant’s assets, it was nothing more than surplus from the old coalition. Slowly falling apart under its constant use, and having an unreliable supply of replacement parts should it need any. The cruiser likely didn’t have exactly what it needed to stay the monstrosity it was back in its day. And as Fish watched more Seraph singleships pour into space from its hangars, she began to hope that that was the case with this cruiser and its complement.
Adjacent to the Covenant fleet, a few thousand kilometers from Requiem’s breach, were five Strident-class heavy frigates in an arrowhead formation. Only part of Infinity’s personal entourage and support fleet. The ships were tiny compared to the giants that the Covenant Empire had once created, but she knew better than to count the frigates out.
Since the end of the war, humanity had been able to study and understand more and more advanced Forerunner technology. Many of these technologies were immediately put to use inside the now rapidly growing fleet of the UNSC Navy. Hundreds of the Strident-class frigates were being commissioned, and many of them were being granted the additional hybrid human-alien tech when it was available.
However, one very important piece of technology was now in the arsenal of these frigates: Energy shielding. One of the biggest reasons why the Covenant held such an advantage over the UNSC when it came to ship-to-ship combat was because they had advanced shield systems to protect their warships, while humanity did not. But now that the UNSC also had energy shielded ships, space warfare had taken a monumental step towards easy. Placing the UNSC well within the bounds of being the most superior force within the Orion Arm of the galaxy.
Aside from their shielding, Fish knew that these Strident-class frigates were no slouches. Layered in the typical Titanium-A armor plating that was standard for UNSC warships, the Stridents were also equipped with a myriad of Archer missiles, coilguns loaded with experimental shield-piercing rounds, and a half-dozen point defense guns for close engagements. The cherry on top, however, was the Mark IV, heavy coil Mass Accelerator Cannon which the frigate was constructed around.
The Mark IV was what made the fast and agile frigate into an underdog, capable of taking on opponents over twenty times her tonnage, admittedly with difficulty. The Mark IV heavy MAC was one of the newer models of MAC guns, created for use specifically by the Strident-class frigates. With twelve massive capacitor banks, the Mark IV gave the Stridents a firepower comparable to that of the double barrel MACs on a UNSC destroyer or light cruiser.
Fish was no ship captain, but she had to appreciate the advantage it gave the tiny warships. And right now, she watched as the UNSC frigate formation split off to counter the Covenant’s oncoming pincer attack.
The leftmost Covenant warship accelerated to attempt a flanking maneuver against the Stridents. It pulled hard to starboard as it opened up on an opportunity to attack. Its engines silently burned blue-white as they pulsed in the vastness of empty vacuum. As the ship continued its opening, Fish could see its lateral plasma cannons beginning to glow white hot as they grew in charge capacity.
At the same time, the armored cruiser on the right side of their formation shifted and accelerated at a forty-five degree angle to port, its own plasma weaponry glowing hot from condensation. They were trying to box in the frigates, leaving the middle corvette to block the entrance to Requiem, and provide singleship support to the other starships.
The Pelican was closing in fast on the formations. Knowing that the Spartans were on somewhat of a time sensitive mission, Fish needed to get to the surface of Requiem quickly. She had kept the Pelican on maximum thrust since leaving the Infinity, but she would have to slow their pace to prepare for evasive maneuvering if her Broadsword fighter escort didn’t reach her soon enough. Afterall, it was better to arrive slightly late and bruised, than it would be to die in orbit, and never arrive at all.
Fish opened the channel to Infinity’s flight control again, “Infinity where’s my escort? The enemy is deploying Seraphs and Banshees, and I won’t have a paper’s chance in hell at evading them all if it comes to it.”
The man’s voice returned, “A flight of F-41E Broadswords just launched. ETA to your position, one minute.”
The F-41E Broadswords were the UNSC’s latest atmospheric and exothermic strike fighters. The versatile craft was designed to take on superior enemy singleships, and was humanity’s answer to the Covenant’s faster Seraphs. The “E” designation meant that the Broadswords were the latest evolution of the craft, and was also one of the several projects to receive an upgrade package consisting of shield technology after the War. They were fast, sleak, well armored, and very deadly fighters.
“Copy, one minute ETA.” Fish replied, the tightness that had grown in her chest loosened slightly as she eased on the thrust, and used the Pelican’s sensors to track the Covenant’s fighter movements. She activated the Spartan’s TEAMCOM channel and yelled, “Strap in, Spartans!”
A Spartan’s voice answered back, “Everything ok up there?” It was their team leader.
“Just peachy. But get ready for some bumps back there. We’re gonna have incoming soon,” Fish said.
The Seraphs and Banshees had now divided themselves among their three capital ship counterparts, and formed into clusters to begin the attack. Pulse lasers and heavy plasma cannons streaked through the void from the attack craft, and dissipated against the UNSC Frigates’ shields. The Silver shimmers of energy barriers, which were invisible just moments before, flared into view as the protective layers shielded the Stridents from the incoming damage, and they began mobilizing a counter attack.
“Weapon safeties released. We’re green to engage.” Sharkbite said, anticipating Fish’s next order to ensure the Pelican was ready for hostile contact, “Radar shows one squadron of Broadswords on an inbound trajectory from our six.”
Fish watched the waypoint marker on her HUD countdown the distance to planetary entry: Twelve-hundred kilometers to go.
The hulking mass of Covenant ships grew larger through the Pelican’s cockpit as the ships continued their pincer movement and began firing against the frigates. Plasma turrets fired barrages of blinding white heat across the open battlefield, while Archer missiles left streaks of burning exhaust in their wake. The missiles collided with the plasma and together, they detonated in fireballs, stopping the plasma assault short.
The Strident frigate closest to the CRS light cruiser accelerated quickly, and peeled away from the rest of the battlegroup as it headed straight on an attack vector against the smaller vessel. Its bow nudged ever more directly at the Covenant cruiser, as the enemy ship utilized its smaller size and increased speed to remain out of the frigate’s angle of attack. But the tactic was futile.
The maneuver only bought the cruiser a few seconds worth of time. Enough time for it to fire two plasma torpedoes against the Strident frigate. Twin streaks of purple plasma arked away from the tiny cruiser and raced towards the UNSC ship. The frigate slowed, increasing its rate of rotation, and allowing the ship to face both the oncoming torpedoes, and the Covenant cruiser. Its automated 55mm point defense turrets spun to life as they targeted the incoming missiles and rained lead into their direction.
One torpedo erupted in a shower of molten plasma, as its path was disrupted by turret fire, and it wobbled back and forth in space until detonating harmlessly, far short of its intended target. The second torpedo, however, closed in towards the Strident frigate and exploded against its energy shield. The barrier shimmered glossy silver as plasma sparked, burned, then faded against the protective surface. The shields held.
A heartbeat later, the Strident fired a single round from its powerful MAC gun. The shell tore through space at a fraction of the speed of light, and impacted almost immediately against the shields of the light cruiser. If you had blinked, you’d have missed it.
The Covenant energy shields flared bright silver for only a moment as they fought against the six-hundred ton, depleted uranium projectile, before they overloaded and popped.
The MAC round crashed violently against the cruiser’s midsection, cutting through its hardened surface, and every subsequent deck from port to starboard, like a heated knife to butter. Sparks flew, and plasma erupted in lengthy, short-lived arks from the interior of the cruiser. The kinetic energy carried behind the live round rippled through the ship, and sent it spiraling in an unrecoverable decline towards the planet’s gravity well. Its hull burned bright blue as plasma overcame its exterior surface, and the dead craft erupted into a ball of flame, leaving scraps of debris in its wake.
Fish checked her mission timer. That fight lasted only nine seconds.
Sharkbite let out a low, slow whistle, “We hold the big stick now.”
Fish silently agreed. She could count the number of UNSC space victories from during the Covenant War on one hand. Back then, the UNSC simply did not win a space engagement unless they outnumbered their alien enemies at least three-to-one. Watching a lone UNSC heavy frigate now take on a Covenant ship in single combat, then win the fight so quickly and decisively, gave her a prideful feeling she wouldn’t soon forget.
An alert beacon flashed red across Fish’s controls, and an alarm shrilled in the cockpit as the Pelican’s detection software picked up a pair of Covenant Seraphs on a head on course with the dropship. Their bows glowed with plasma discharge as lines of energy launched, and raced towards the Pelican.
“They’re firing on us,” Sharkbite said with the nonchalance that every experienced Navy pilot had when faced with imminent death.
“I can see that,” Fish answered in the same tone, but through gritted teeth.
She jerked the Pelican to the left, then reversed back to the right, weaving through the incoming volly of plasma.
A steady hum beeped as Sharkbite worked to acquire a lock and return fire, “Target locked. Firing.”
The deck beneath their feet vibrated rapidly and steady as the Pelican’s 70mm rotary cannon, mounted just over a meter below them, spun up and spat bullets from its twin barrels. Tracer rounds flew opposite from incoming plasma charges as they lit up the blackness in an orchestra of purple-orange hue, before disappearing far ahead of the Pelican. The closest Seraph singleship lit up like a candle as the rounds impacted their outer shielding.
The shield flickered, grew brighter from drainage, then faded from visibility as the strike fighter streaked passed just four meters from the Pelican’s left wingtip; its wingman on the right a moment later.
Fish flipped her head around as the ships vanished behind them, “They’re gonna be on our tail in just a few seconds. Where are those Broadswords?”
Although she didn’t outwardly show it, she was starting to regret leaving the Infinity before her escort was ready. But had she waited, the entire group would’ve ended up taking longer to reach the surface.
More warnings signaled from her console, and the dropship’s interior bounced fiercely as nearby fuel rod bolts detonated close to the hull. The Seraphs were back.
Fish continued her evasive maneuvering, making sure to keep her movements as random as she possibly could.
“That was quick!” Sharkbite said, surprised by the close miss.
Fish grunted through her teeth, “Yep!”
Pulse laser fire streaked by either side of the cockpit, and plasma bolts impacted against the outer hull, melting their way through the Pelican’s two inches of Titanium A plating.
Fish rolled to the right, inverting the Pelican before cutting the afterburners. She ignited the maneuvering thrusters on the port side of the dropship halfway through the roll, pulling back hard on the controls, and bringing the dropship into a tight, downward thrusted, leftward reversal. The Seraphs overshot.
“S**t,” Sharkbite groaned sickly halfway through the maneuver.
Fish rightened the Pelican a moment later, bringing its nose back to bear, and throwing the dropship into full acceleration behind the now distant Seraph fighters. The rotary cannon lit up again, and bullets pinged once more against the flaring enemy shields until they finally overloaded and failed.
Unprotected, bullets tore through the sleak, teardrop shaped hull of the enemy craft as the Pelican continued raining fire into the now smoking singleship. Its impulse drives shuddered and ignited under the increasing damage. Then the Seraph erupted in a ball of plasma induced flame.
Fish sighed inwardly. One down.
“Sorry, Pelican Three-one. We got held up behind you. We read one contact down, and one bugging out. Nice job, Fish.” A new voice came in over the comm. The contact identifier on Fish’s HUD read “HAMMER 1”, the lead craft in her fighter escort.
She didn’t know the pilots in Hammer Squadron personally, but she knew their reputation well, every pilot on Infinity did. They were among the initial wave of Broadsword squadrons to engage the Covenant on the first day of this Requiem Campaign. That day alone they had shot down twenty-two Banshees and Seraphs, and saved the necks of seven different Pelican crews ferrying Spartans and Marines down to Requiem’s surface. Each one having become a certified flying ace by the end of the first battle.
But Fish didn’t much care about their exploits at this moment, “Held up?” she asked, aggravated. She checked her radar and saw that four friendly blips were clustered behind her.
“Two new Covenant cruisers exited slipspace and engaged with Infinity. We were briefly placed on standby. My apologies. Hammers-three and four, go send that Seraph back to where it belongs.”
A pair of Broadswords charged past the Pelican on an intercept course for the fleeing Seraph fighter. The alien ship bobbed up, then down, then went through a series of desperate maneuvers to try and evade the inbound craft. But nothing worked as the strike fighters remained glued to their target. The Broadswords fired their 35mm cannons in unison, effortlessly shredding apart the Seraph’s protective energy barrier, before switching over to missiles and sending the singleship back to hell.
Fish’s anger cooled. Had the Broadswords been ten seconds later, the Seraph fighter would’ve been able to easily outmaneuver the Pelican, and take its rear again. She may have outsmarted the ship’s pilot once, but that was an advantage which would only take her so far against a far superior machine like the Seraph, which was built to operate in the vacuum of space.
The two Broadswords returned, or more accurately, significantly cut their speed to allow for the rest of the unit to catch up. Then, with the flight of Broadswords all back together, they scattered into a loose diamond formation, keeping the Pelican in the center of them all.
They were all in the middle of the battle now. Passing just a few dozen kilometers starboard the still tumbling remains of the light cruiser, and under the shadow of the Strident heavy frigate which destroyed it, as the UNSC ship returned to the ongoing battle. Off their starboard-side, what remained of the Covenant fleet continued to engage the UNSC forces, despite their cruiser being decimated so easily, and without dealing any lasting damage of its own.
By now, the other four Strident frigates had split into pairs and were attacking the remaining two Covenant ships. They were aiming to utilize a standard one-two punch maneuver, which would take advantage of both the Strident’s unmatched speed and mobility, as well as their formidable MAC guns.
Attacking as a staggered duo, the first frigate would strike using its heavy MAC to knock out, or weaken the enemy’s energy shields. Then, while the ship was concentrated on firing at and defending against the first frigate, the second one would come in for the killing blow, utilizing both its MAC, and Archer missiles.
If the enemy ship was still operational after the initial attack run, the Stridents would accelerate past it, reload their MACs and arm additional Archer missile pods, while splitting up, and making opposite high-g loops, back for another attack. During which, the larger, slower, and now criplped Covenant ship would still be in the process of maneuvering to engage just one frigate.
Again, Part 2 will be a in a different post because the chapter was too long for a single post on this site. Please continue there for the rest of Chapter 2.