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Haven: Chapter 1 - Something to Fight For
Date: 12 June 2002, 6:25 am
United Nations Space Command Priority Transmission 98432D-48
Encryption Code: Red
Public Key: File/-Alpha-Omega-Zulu-Six-/
From: Admiral Standforth
To: UNSC Cruisers Legacy and Tides of War
Subject: Haven
Classification: Classified (BGX Directive)
/start file/
The Covenant have been spotted near the colony world of Haven. As I'm sure you are aware this is a critical supply world for the UNSC and must be protected at all cost. With the recent fall of Reach we cannot stand the loss of supplies or moral, and you know if Haven falls the UNSC will most likely follow... Usually more than two ships would be assigned to this task but the covenant seem to be short of ships also. Only four ships have been detected, three frigates and one destroyer. They should arrive about the same time you do so be prepared for a fight upon entering the system. The deployment zones, mission parameters and all essential information can be found in the attachment with this file.
-/ Download Attachment, y/n/- Looking down and sighing heavily Captain Nicholas Johnson analyzed his mission. With his new cruiser Legacy this mission should be simple enough, but things are often not what they appear. " Lieutenant Dawn, bring us to the Haven system immediately.
"Yes sir," replied the Dawn professionally.
The UNSC cruiser Legacy was neither the biggest (even though quite long she was still not as long as wide as Marathon class cruisers.) nor the most powerful ship in the UNSC fleet, but it did have a very lengthy record of excellence. Her crew was the best of the best and this was rightfully so seeing as this was a fairly new cruiser. One and nine-sixteenths of a kilometer long and one-half wide Legacy was quite a spectacle. With a trio MAC cannons and ninety-eight missile ports the crew was not left a great deal of extra room, but this was still enough to support the three-hundred fifty crew members and the five-hundred marines that were currently stationed with her. Her sister ship Tides of War sported almost the same payload except she had a special package of five havok thermo nuclear warheads. Normally both ships would be accompanied by members of the 9th Rim heavy guards, but they had assignments else were. To add to all this armament was the smart AI Damion who handled point defenses and corrected calculations.
Three hours-fifty minutes later
" Sir, we're exiting slipstream now." With that a green molted light appeared, seemingly swallowing the whole ship, and just as quickly as it appeared it left.
" Any sign of the Covenant?"
" No Sir, the only contact we have is Tides of War."
"According to intelligence they should be here any minute, go to combat alert, and I sorely doubt the would let us straighten our affairs before our battle, so tell the crew to hurry."
Lieutenant Jones was his sensor specialist and newest officer, not saying that all his officers were not competent, was unusually on edge. He had lost his previous sensor officer during a battle when the unfortunate Lieutenant Ericson hit his head on the bulkhead and lost his life.
After subduing his wandering thoughts, "Nick", as his friends called him, thought about the coming battle, and remembered his reasons for fighting. His reason was not a reason that you would find in a book, no his reason was simple and was right. His reason for fighting went back to the times before man had left terra and became an empire. His reason for fighting was the survival of the human race as a whole. As his thoughts started to wander once more he was awaked by the shrill sound of warning klaxons as they rang out as they had so many times before and would again. "Sir, Covenant ships detected on the far side of the planet."
"How many?"
"I have four major contacts and many smaller fighters which must have been deployed upon arrival in the system."
"Open a line with Tides of War, get Captain Bill Mills on the horn."
"Ah, good to see you again old friend," greeted a portly older man in a Russian accent. " How have you been!? Still alive and well I see," he said with a sly grin. "Well no time to chat now; we best commence our assault before they launch their dropships, and they get the chance to dig in dirt side," without giving him a chance to reply Captain Bill Mills closed the channel.
" Give us a vector to drop our ground forces on the way to the battle," ordered the captain. Almost as quickly as the order was spoken, it was acted out.
As Legacy neared the plasma and plumes of smoke left by archer missile could be seen as brightly as Haven's class-4 sun.
" Prepare three heavy rounds and remove the safeties on our havok."
" Yes sir," replied his weapons officer, Lieutenant Jenkins."
As Legacy neared the battle, two Covenant ships broke formation, heading for an intercept course with them. Fire the nuke in the middle of them; fire one heavy round at each of the cruisers firing maneuvering thrusters on this course. A melody of " Yes Sir" followed. The ship shook as the shock wave from the nuke hit taking out the shields of the destroyer and frigate. Just as this happened the ship shook twice as two heavy rounds sped toward the enemy. " "Fire archer missiles on three second solution with each heavy round," bellowed Jonathan.
The destroyer dodged the MAC round for the most part, only being clipped and slightly thrown off course. The frigate was not quite as lucky, catching the MAC round in as well as a two-year old human can catch a bullet with his hands tied behind his back. Violently thrown off course, the frigate spun wildly before bursting into a bright neon ball of plasma.
The destroyer retaliated, by firing pulse lasers. Armor sheared off and floated away in globules the size of soccer balls. This was only a slight peppering before its volley of twin plasma torpedoes. " Fire starboard emergency thrusters and brace for impact. Prepare to vent atmosphere on any deck besides the bridge!" The crew felt the all-to-familiar sudden change in direction, which sent any surplus supplies flying across loading docks (this was because during the charge of the MAC guns all non-essential systems were drained of power for a moment this included the artificial gravity.) crushing any crew man unlucky enough to have a station nearby.
"Sir! They're launching their fighters!"
"Have Damion take care of the point defenses and launch whatever fighters we have left!"
"Sir, MAC guns recharged but we're out of archer missiles."
" Fire at will." The ship shook as another pulse laser hit carving more precious armor off Legacy, "Give me damage schematics," Yelled the captain in a worried voice.
" Sir we have multiple breaches on level thirteen sector C, D, E, F; sector 14 also has a minor hull breach."
" Not to bad..." but he knew it could get worse fast.
And it did a pulse laser raked across the bow close to the bridge throwing everything into chaos. During the confusion a plasma torpedo hit tearing through several decks before contained.
" Hit it one more time," Yelled the captain in vain because the weapons officer didn't need to be told.
"Heavy round fired," reported the weapons officer.
" Covenant ship destroyed." A cheer went up across the bridge, but the captain new it wasn't over yet as he watched hundreds of dropships fall upon the unsuspecting ball of shimmering blue.
Author's Note: This is my first fan-fiction I would really appreciate some honest feed back. If you liked it there will be more soon... if you didn't I can only recommend not reading it.
~Ice~
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