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Scoring
Posted By: Corey Hotten<raden4000@yahoo.com>
Date: 23 November 2007, 8:51 am
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The flag ship holograms shimmered, shocked slightly by the harassing corvette on their port side 'below' them in the blackness of the space. The Jiralhanae reflected their brutal nature in their tactics. The corvette, nearly one third the size of the capital ship it faced, fought with a thick headedness that Raike Falamoree mocked openly. He stood as shipmaster at the head of the holo board. The image of the corvette shuttered again, another contact on their port shields. It could do little to the flagship Desired Retribution, Raike gave the Jiralhanae one moment to consider their fate.
"Port batteries, combine targeting. Full salvo!" Raike commanded, his gunner warbled an acknowledgment, his hands danced over the holographic controls. Firing solutions appeared on the holo display. The plasma lanced out and at the whim of his coordinator the plasma danced in the vacuum, dodging counter fire with the grace and ferocity of the true warriors, the plasma carried the hellish furry of the Sangheili with it. Raike roared victory as the first concussions of the plasma splashed on the corvette's shields, those that had deliberately lagged behind flew forward and right through the collapsed shielding.
The holo showed vividly the first explosions starting at the midsection where the bridge was located. The near synthetic looking flesh of the smooth corvette bubbled like scorched hide, opening and popping as a pustule. Venting atmosphere and Jiralhanae into the cold of space. Raike, with much satisfaction, magnified nearly a thousand times upon a single Jiralhanae that was thrown into vacuum.
The near homo sapien creature's eyes bulged and it pawed at its throat. The creature's blood literally boiled within its veins and through its orifices, its lung decompressed and 'popped' in the soundless star speckled black. The creature's eyes expanded and popped as well, by then it was dead, blood boiled at the exact second its skin and fur was flash frozen, it shattered with the violence of it all.
"Serves those monkeys right." Dalre Garmadee spat acidly. The word monkey was human, a word the short sapient species often barked in insult towards the traitorous Jiralhanae, that and 'ape' 'bo-bo' and finally the classic 'brute' tittle the Jiralhanae had earned from the humans.
"Sector is clear ship master." Raike's system technician growled, a little disappointment Raike surmised, no more fur to burn, no more revenge to seek.
Raike had been at this for weeks now, at the borders of the covenant armada, picking on supply ships and any troop transports he could. He had destroyed three corvettes, four frigates, fifteen transports and finally one capital flag ship like his own. He was a shipmaster, with the command of his own and five frigates who were currently in waiting to ambush any threat, Raike had taken the front of this ambush. He longed, like all Sangheili , to bring the fight to the Covenant heart. To dive into the core systems and rip them apart, to tare out their hearts, crush their moral and burn their worlds.
Worlds Raike had once called sanctuary long ago were now enemy territory. The Covenant now a great foe he stood at the foot of, slashing away piece by piece. The worlds were afire in their own way, civil unrest, his kind was not taken in a coup deta so easily.
Those taken by surprise on normal militia worlds reacted as a warrior must, they fought back taking as much as they could before the Jiralhanae had finished them. He heard even way out here that within the core worlds his people still lived, fighting with gorilla tactics, striking from shadows with terrorism and bloody ambushes. It was not exactly honorable but it was necessary for survival.
Sangheili still inspired loyalty from many Unggoy and Kig-yar, Raike himself had a pair of sympathetic Lekgolo as his personal bridge guards. He glance to them, their thick shelled armor shimmering in the lights of the still active holo. Most of the lower ranks had stayed with the Jiralhae in the uprising, but loyalty to the old Sangheili commanders was hard to erase from some of them.
Raike had a loyalist Unggoy troop at his disposal, fifteen hundred to be exact, hard trained. It was a struggle to control forces, Raike's soldiers were more than a match for the unintelligent, under evolved Jiralhanae.
The thing is there was so little of them these days, they had taken it hard with the coup. Raike knew they could not be taken easily, but still they suffered. A large portion of their fleet was lost not to long ago by a bomb the humans had dubbed the N.O.V,A, a barbaric nuclear device. This was of course before their alliance, but the wounds were fresh, Raike had lost friends and loyal troops.
Raike waved the holos silent, their low glow dimmed and the bridge lit up again, washing them in pure light. The Ship Commander pressed a key on his left forearm gauntlet, a grav chair lowered from its seal upon the ceiling and came to allow him a seat.
It would have been considered lazy to shit upon such a thing, back when he was with the Covenant, Raike had always stood; a symbol to his men that he was strong and stout. But of late he had little to no sleep, his body was hunched with exhaustion from too much adrenaline, every battle wound him tighter than a battle stricken Unggoy…he missed sleep as much s he missed the old days of fighting.
He was lifted by the command chair and over looked the busying pit below the rise of the command platform he could observe the battles from. His men worked with him up there, side by side, sharing the responsibility of the ship. Yet now he was escalated, feeling steely muscles coming to a rest, unwrapping and aching. Coming to a rest was the worst part in the whole of things.
"Sir, the rest of the fleet request to rejoin us." His comm officer stated. 'Hardly a fleet,' Raike thought with a sour taste in his mandibles.
"Let us not waste their time, we will come to them." Raike sighed. He nodded to his officer Dalre who had the coordinates put in and they were off in moments. Raike redirected his grav chair to rest again at the command platform, his chair brought up a display of the battle results. There had been but one corvette and one frigate, frigate having been destroyed the second it slid out from slipspace; by the end it was not even enough for reinforcement. The Desired Retribution had burned them all, single salvo for each, the Covenant capital ship's shield's had not dropped into the orange warning category during the whole battle.
"Sir!' Dalre suddenly barked, nearly leaping from his station. "Something large is on a vector with us through Slipspace!"
"And?! Raike growled, he leapt from his chair and it fell clumsily aside, off set by the loss of weight. The pain was gone and conviction was in Raike again.
"Sir its…High Charity!" Dalre hissed, his mandibles clamped loudly and Raike leapt form the over view platform, taking the stout Sangheili by the neck with his right, his other at his sword!
"Liar! How is that, the Flood have taken High Charity, how can it be!"
Dalre did not fear the blade ready to snap into life and that lack of fear made Raike very nervous, he did not bluff with threats. "You speak the truth." Raike gasped with awe.
"Its on vector for Earth Sir." Raike let Dalre go with a shove and his legs sent him back to the command platform. He stopped and turned to his soldiers who waited in eager silence.
"Well then, it looks like the humans need our help! Time to burn some rotten flood, get thy swords ready and charge the plasma, we go to war!" Raike pulled his sword high, it snapped into life, hissing and rising with a roar form Raike. Battle was close and he forgot sleep and pain.
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