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Battle For Reach: The Lost Chapters
Posted By: Colonel Falcon
Date: 26 April 2006, 10:34 pm
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Chapter 1: The invasion
Colonel James Edward Falcon wiped the sweat from his brow as he stood watching the battle from the bridge of the UNSC cruiser Independence. Why isn't this war over yet? Why can't we put these bastards down already? He thought to himself as he watched the five-dozen other human ships fire their weapons at the Covenant Armada. The battle over Reach had raged for 2 hours now, and ever since the first Covenant frigates had entered the system, all hell had broken loose.
As if things couldn't get any worse, the human fleet was taking a bad beating from the aliens' plasma torpedoes; one direct hit was enough to mortally wound a ship, and could even cut straight through a UNSC carrier with ease. Worse still, almost no weapon in the human arsenal could take out a Covenant ship easily; as they were energy shielded.
The colonel's train of thought was suddenly interrupted by the impact of a Covenant boarding craft in the Independence's port airlock. "Report!" bellowed Falcon, the second in command officer, Lieutenant Gage replied, "boarding craft, sir! We have an intruder alert on Pork Deck 13; bastards must have used the airlock to get in." Falcon turned to Gage, "Teach them a lesson, Lieutenant. Vent the airlock." Gage smiled, "Aye, sir. Venting…now." Falcon chuckled to himself as he imagined the Covenant troops on Deck 13 getting sucked into the vacuum of space. Every last one of those bastards that got killed would mean less Covenant to worry about later. "Sir!" yelled crewman Ensign Cravett, "the Trafalgar is on fire!" Damn, thought the colonel as he turned his attention to the main-view screen. Sure enough, the legendary UNSC super carrier was on fire and was sitting listless in orbit above Reach. Falcon forced himself to look away as the ship slowly exploded as its reactor melted down.
"Lieutenant…fire some Archers at those enemy frigates who took out Trafalgar, don't let them live to appreciate what blow they just dealt." Gage hesitated briefly, but then began removing the fail safes on the Archer high-explosive anti-ship missiles. "Archers ready to fire, sir." Falcon nodded, "give those aliens some presents, Gage." said the colonel, and watched as the missiles fired and shot towards the group of frigates orbiting nearby, the Covenant ships promptly launched their countermeasures, and destroyed several Archers, but the majority impacted on their energy shields. Colonel Falcon watched as the shields flared, overloaded, and dissipated, and the remaining Archers exploded on the surface of the hulls. After a flirting moment, the ships flashed, and burst into flames, slowly sinking towards Reaches atmosphere. Several bridge crewmen cheered, but Falcon stayed silent, he knew that this was hardly a victory, he knew that the present UNSC fleet wasn't nearly enough to combat, let alone defeat, a Covenant fleet of this size. Though Reach had the advantage of orbital super MAC gun stations, those defenses could only do so much. But despite all this, protocol was clear, and the colonel wasn't about to let Reach fall without taking down as many of those aliens as possible.
Suddenly the bridge blast doors slid apart, and Vice Admiral Danforth Whitcomb stepped inside, accompanied by several lesser officers. "Admiral on deck!" someone shouted, and the bridge crew came to attention. As the Admiral approached Colonel Falcon, he also snapped a salute. "Sir! If I had known-" the Admiral cut him off as he returned the salute, "At ease colonel, there's no need for the welcome, I won't be here longer than I have to." Whitcomb directed his gaze to the view screen and bit his lower lip as he watched several human destroyers explode from enemy fire, but turned back to Falcon; "Not looking good up here, is it son?" Falcon glanced at the screen as more UNSC ships took fire. "No sir, it isn't…it won't be too long before those aliens get clued into how to disarm the MAC guns, and once those go down, we're done for." The Admiral nodded, "Well, I hate to poop on your party, colonel. But they've already figured it out-" he turned to the NAV officer, "excuse me crewman, could you change the view screen coordinates to point zero-eight, five-three?" the crewman scrambled back into his seat, "Yes sir! Right away." The screen changed to a view over Reach, at first it looked clear of enemy forces, but then as the camera zoomed, Colonel Falcon caught sight of the hundreds of tiny dots that were headed straight towards Reach's surface, he then realized what they were. "Covenant dropships, colonel," said the Admiral, "a whole brace of 'em. They figured out that the MAC guns have control stations on the surface, and they're going in to take them out. Once that happens, our fleet is going to be in a very bad situation. And even worse, the Covies detected an unsecured NAV database on the ship Circumference, if they get hold of that database, they'll learn the location of every human world, including Earth." The colonel looked away; stunned. "Are we taking any course of action, sir?" The Admiral looked off toward the battle over Reach, "We've sent in the Spartans, they've split into two groups, one to stop the Covenant from getting that NAV, and the second to protect the MAC control stations. But even the mighty Spartans can't turn the tide of this battle; we can only hope to protect Earth.
This is why I'm here, to introduce you to Captain Steven Faltai, the Independence's new CO." Colonel Falcon stopped his hand from shaking the captain's, he looked at the Admiral, both surprised and dismayed. "Sir, did you just say that this man is now in charge of my ship?" Whitcomb scowled, "Yes son, I did. We have other plans for you, far more important ones. Here, I'll show you-" he turned to the NAV officer again, "crewman, can you change the view again, get me the Basra on screen." The crewman tapped rapidly on his screen, "done, sir!" the officers turned to the view, and Falcon saw the large human battle carrier Basra taking heavy enemy fire. "That ship is the only thing standing between the Covenant, and a clean shot at a crucial element in this battle, which I can't elaborate on, but their CO decided to go and have a nervous breakdown, I need you to get on board that ship and assume command, you're the only other officer I'd trust with this job." Colonel Falcon looked at the Admiral, "What's the 'crucial element' I'll be protecting, sir?" The Admiral turned, "You'll be keeping the Pillar of Autumn alive. Keyes is on that ship, and he's in charge of the Spartans at this point, we can not afford to lose him. If we do, the Spartans lose their ride outta the system." The colonel studied the ship, Keyes, he thought, he had met the man briefly at ONI's CASTLE facility, but hadn't developed his acquaintance with the man, but Keyes' reputation pursued him, and orders were orders. "I'll leave for the Basra immediately, sir." Whitcomb nodded, "I thought you might, ok son, there's a Pelican dropship waiting for you in Launch Bay 17, get to it posthaste. Now if you'll excuse me colonel, I have eight kinds of hell to raise back on Reach." The two men saluted, and Admiral Whitcomb departed from the bridge. As Falcon started towards the door, Captain Faltai approached him, "Excuse me, sir-" Falcon glanced at the man. "Yes, captain?" the stout man cleared his throat and spoke, "I just want you to know sir, don't worry; I'll take care of your ship." Colonel Falcon returned Faltai's salute. "Thank you, I'd better go now. Give those bastards hell." With that, the colonel walked briskly away, knowing he'd never see Captain Steven Faltai again.
"Welcome aboard, Colonel Falcon," said flight officer Lara Codson, as she lowered the entrance-ramp on the Pelican's rear. Colonel Falcon briskly stepped on board, and had to grab a railing for support as a plasma torpedo impacted his ship, he sighed as he climbed aboard. "Thanks, Codson. I needed that…" It took another few minutes for Codson to power up the ship, remove the launch clamps, open the hangar doors, and move the dropship out into space. Falcon glanced out one of the windows on the side of the ship, at first the view was a sight to behold, but then he noticed the battle continuing around him. He shook his head as he pressed the intercom talk button, "Codson, ETA to the Basra?" the flight officer responded, "ETA ten minutes, sir. Six if we go straight thru the middle of all that fighting, but four minutes more means a safer route." The colonel nodded, "Thank you," and switched off the intercom. He knew that his involvement in this battle would be short-lived and futile in the end; that he would get aboard the Basra, take out some more Covenant ships, but in the end would take a hit and go down in the flames of glory, a forgotten hero. But to James Falcon, it didn't matter. Ever since his wife had been killed on Harvest during the Covenant invasion, nothing had mattered to him; except killing as many Covenant as he possibly could. Maybe I'll get to see Anne before todays over, if only I could- Falcon's thought was cut off by a sudden violent explosion, and Codson screaming; "Damn it! I can't see! Colonel! Get the damn-" she fell silent and the ship went out of control.
The colonel grabbed the metal rungs on the cabin's ceiling and started moving toward the cockpit, as he made his way closer, he could smell fuel burning and could tell one of the engines had been hit, and that the fuel was boiling away. He burst into the cockpit, and found the flight officer unconscious in the pilot's chair. "What happened, Codson?" but his question was answered as a bolt of plasma streaked past the cockpit windshield, and exploded in a blinding flash of light. Damn, he thought, she's been blinded. He quickly moved her body out of the pilot's seat, and strapped himself in; it had been 7 years since he'd piloted a Pelican, and he was a little rusty with flying a damaged one. Ok, think damn it! You've got to get this thing out of the air, but where to- he looked down at Reach, and steeling his nerves, turned the dropship towards the planet, dodging fire from both fleets as the ship entered the atmosphere. As the ship encountered severe turbulence, Falcon grabbed the radio and transmitted on the emergency frequency, "Mayday, mayday. Echo 397 going down, repeat, we have been hit and are going down…" the Colonel was cut off as the radio sparked and shorted out. He turned back to piloting the ship. Come on, baby, just get me to the surface. He steered towards a city, but then as he left the pressure of Reach's atmosphere, the Pelican's controls went haywire. Falcon swore as he overshot the city and flew towards a wooded area. Looks like I'm coming in the hard way. Images of his late wife flashed through his mind as he assumed a crash position. He ducked his head, and whispered a short prayer. He felt the impact strike every bone in his body, then all he saw was darkness.
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