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Neu Haven: Chapter One
Posted By: Blue Jaguar<Madsh33p@netscape.net>
Date: 3 January 2004, 8:09 PM
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Battle of Neu Haven
August 17, 2418 A.D.
UNSC Lagos, Delta Jaguaris (18:01) EZT Earth Zulu Time
Captain Erik Rovic, UNSC, unstrapped himself from the command chair of his vessel, the frigate Lagos, and shoved himself towards the exit door. After a brief few seconds of flying through air he hit the door, and scrambled around to gain a hold on one of the grips on the doorframe. Beyond the door was a long tunnel that lead aft towards the rotating cabins. Upon reaching them, he opened the door and looked into the Section A. He quickly overcame his dizziness, of having to watch as the room in front of him rotated around. He carefully stepped through the doorway and onto the floor. It took him a few seconds to gain his balance, but once he had he began a slow stumble further aft. When he came to the first ladder he climbed it up, or towards the outer hull of the ship, until he reached the officers deck. Here he could finally relax from the long watch.
His ship had been orbiting the planet of Neu Haven for five days now, and communications were still down with Sol Space Command. The Lagos was escorting the colonist ship Brandenburg, when it first encountered the communication problem. They had to drop out of slipstream to retrieve the communications probe they launched periodically, so that they could remain in contact with UNSC HQ on Phobos. But the probe was no where to be found, even after nearly three days of searching, they had no luck. Instead of continuing search for the missing satellite, Rovic had chosen to continue following the Brandenburg to its destination. What Rovic didn't know, was that the Brandenburgs' communication equipment had been destroyed in a severe meteorite storm, and they were also out of contact withUNSC FLEETCOM.
Lagos had finally arrived 13 days after Brandenburg began work on its colony, trying to quickly bring back up communications. The trip from Sol Space to Neu Haven was only a 40 day trip, so command would definitely be wondering what happened to its newest frigate and colony ship when they hadn't sent any messages back for several weeks. This calmed Rovic somewhat, he wasn't fearing a rebel attack, but command must have, or they wouldn't have sent him with Brandenburg.
"Captain!" Rovic snapped up out of his sleep. "What?"
"Sir, Commander Schultz is on the comm." A young officer said.
"All right, I'll be right down."
Rovic shrugged off his sleep and opened up his computer. A hologram of the Brandenburg's commander, Schultz, appeared.
"Guten morgen Captain."
"You have good news I take it?"
"Nein, well actually, I have some good news."
"All right, lets here it."
"The colony has temporary communications up, but we are afraid they won't have the range to reach Sol. We are trying to contact one of the other colonies, although regulations strictly prohibit this."
"All right, as long as we aren't stuck out here without anyone to talk to. Anything else?"
"Ja, I'm afraid bad news. Our long range scanners detected a ship exiting slipstream at the far edge of the system. The ship was very small, maybe a corvette or gun ship, and was only here for a few minutes."
"Ok, well they might be waiting for reinforcements. I will send our marine landing party planet side to begin setting up ground defenses. I want you to get as many personnel off your ship as you can, I don't want half your colonists dead before they even touch their new home."
"Jawohl captain."
"Rovic out."
Rovic turned the computer off. This new ship gave him some what of a challenge. A corvette didn't stand a snowball's chance in hell of taking out the Lagos, but if he could get in close and hit hard, he might be able to take out the Brandenburg. That definitely would not be good, and Rovic wasn't going to let them do that.
Rovic reached up and grabbed the microphone for the Lagos' intercom system.
"Attention all officers, meeting in the officers mess hall in five minutes."
Rovic zipped his uniform back up and walked out the door.
"All right, here is the situation." Rovic paused for a second as the officers all quieted down. "The Brandenburg still hasn't regained communications with Sol, so they are going to try and get a signal to another colony. I know this is against regulations, but we got another problem." "Rovic pressed a button on the table. A hologram came to life, showing a layout of the system, and the locations of the planet side colony and ships orbiting it. "The Brandenburgs'' sensors picked up a small vessel exiting slipstream in this area." A small box flashed red on the hologram. "We think it is only a corvette or a scout ship, but it could be waiting for reinforcements. The ship exited slipstream before we could get an accurate fix on what exactly it was, but we aren't going to wait and find out. Major Wilton, I want your fighters on constant patrol. Leave 2 fighters on the far side of the planet and report anything that they find. We have comm satellites up already, so they wont need to come all the way back to report everything."
"Aye sir, anything on our side?"
"Yes, I want another 2 fighters flying close escort for the Brandenburg. If anything comes even close to it without authorization, blow it to hell." Rovic turned to the marine commander. "Captain Shannon, I want your marines to go ground side and begin setting up defenses. I want those colonists protected, and if we get damaged, you will be the only thing saving this colony."
"Yes sir"
"All right, dismissed."
Delta Jaguaris (00:07) EZT
"How much fuel left?" Captain Firenze asked his rio, Lieutenant Muller.
"Not much, we should probably be heading back to the ship soon."
"All right."
Firenze's eyes became huge as he looked up, just to see a massive hole rip in slipstream in front of him.
"Oh shit! Pull up! Pull up!" His rio began screaming.
Firenze's pulled back on the stick and his Katana fighter immediately went nose up, then jolted forward.
"What the fuck was that!?" His wingman yelled through the radio.
"Talk to me Muller!" Firenze yelled.
"One second sir, it looks like a ship, can't designate, maybe a raider."
"How big?"
"Maybe 100 metres, hold on.........106 metres long, still cant identify sir."
"All right, I'm gonna turn back towards the ship, we need a visual."
The two Katana fighters slowed down and turned back towards the craft that had suddenly appeared out of slipstream.
"That was one hell of a jump, either that captain knows something we don't know, or he's a nut!" Muller commented.
"Shut up, tell me, what the fuck is this thing, it certainly doesn't look human!"
Muller got out of his seat and climbed into the cockpit. "Holy shit." He muttered.
"All right, better contact the Lagos."
"Aye sir" Muller climbed back into his seat and began talking a mile a minute to the radio operator on the Lagos, who probably thought he had lost his mind.
"Jans, try and contact the vessel." Firenze commanded his wingman.
"Roger, hailing vessel." Jans changed to an open frequency. "Attention unidentified vessel, you are in UNSC space, state your intentions or you will be fired upon."
The group waited for a few seconds, but then received a response they didn't like.
"Captain they are firing!" Muller yelled.
"Shit, Two break low, lock missiles on target and FIRE!"
"Roger, engaging!"
The two Katana fighters broke in opposite directions and then reoriented in the direction of the enemy ship. Both launched a pair of long range missiles at the ship and then immediately broke off again to avoid the incoming fire.
Jans pulled hard away from the enemy ship, but ended up only making his own craft a larger target for the incoming rounds. Several scattered around his ship, but finally one pierced directly under the cockpit, vaporizing Jans, and then blasting back out the top of the ship. As the air began venting from the craft, his rio began scrambling to get his helmet on. He looked down to make sure he was securely buckled in, and then he saw the massive hole in his stomach. He stared at it in disbelief for a few seconds, and then died.
"Captain, two is gone, they took a direct hit to the cabin!"
"Shit! What about our missiles?"
"Two were knocked out, the other two.......they had no effect sir, enemy craft appears to have shields or something."
"This is fuckin crazy, lets bug out!"
"I'm all with you on that one!"
Firenze gunned the engines and headed away from the vessel.
UNSC Lagos, Delta Jaguaris (00:09)
The Lagos klaxons blared as the ships crew crawled out of their bunks and made there way towards their battle stations. One of the eight Katana fighters had just been destroyed by an unknown contact, and they were not going to let that go unpunished.
"Captain, enemy vessel coming into sight." Lieutenant Kisla, the sensors operator reported.
"All right, load Crossbow missiles into tubes, when they get within firing range, report."
"Aye sir, enemy vessel is 250 thousand kilometres and closing." Kisla replied.
"Launch fighters all remaining fighters, have them prepare to engage any craft the enemy sends our way. And get all marines planet side, on the double."
"Aye sir, craft deploying."
The Katana fighters formed around the Lagos in a echelon formation, with three craft trailing in a small V close behind. As the Lagos closed in with the unidentified contact, the fighters sped ahead, to form a fighter screen against the enemy ship.
"Enemy ship is launching fighters, I count one pair."
"Weapons, what is the status on our missiles?" Kovic demanded.
"All tubes loaded, our 180mm batteries are loaded as well sir, they will be coming in range in just a moment." Lieutenant 2nd Class Jackson responded.
"The second they get in range, open up."
"Aye sir."
The Lagos came into range, and opened fire on the enemy ship. 24 Crossbow missiles streaked out of their tubes and towards the enemy ship, now a mere 50,000 kilometres away. The missiles were followed by pairs of 180mm shells, with more coming every five seconds.
"Sir, enemy ship isn't firing, there fighters however are moving to engage ours."
"All right Kisla, once the enemy gets within 50,000 kilometres, turn hard to outer orbit, and try and keep our distance from it. Jackson, I want constant fire against them, but once our 180's are half-way depleted, cease fire with them."
"Both nodded in acknowledgment."
As the Crossbow missiles struck the enemy ship, it was apparent that the enemy had far more advanced technology. All of the missiles struck a defensive shield that projected several metres from the craft. Soon after the missiles hit, the 180mm shells began to strike, the first few pairs detonated harmlessly against the ships shields, but soon they began failing. By the third pair, the ships shields were depleted, and several rounds slammed into the ship, ripping massive explosives into the side. That is when the unknown ship returned fire.
"Enemy is firing, I can't tell what it is, some type of plasma weapon of some sort." Kilsa reported.
"All right, evasive maneuvers, try and get out of that things way. Jackson, what is the status on our fighters?"
"Both enemy fighters have been destroyed sir, one of ours' suffered moderate damage."
"Good, order them to engage the enemy ship while we are evading."
"Aye sir."
The Katana fighters turned towards the enemy ship, which instead of continuing to pursue the Lagos, turned towards them, and began blasting plasma flak into space at the oncoming threat. As the fighters closed, they opened fire on the ship, hitting it with precision missiles, blasting massive holes into the hard points on board the ship. As the plasma conductors were hit, they blasted their plasma out harmlessly into space, as well as molten metal and some miscellaneous items. Before they could get off a second salvo however, the ship fled into slipstream.
"Captain, sensors show enemy ship has entered slipstream, there plasma weapon has dispersed."
"All right, begin repairs and recall the fighters, send out ever probe we have, I don't want that guy showing up again. Get a security officer to take the battle tapes down to ONI in the CIC, see if they can shed any light on our friends." Kovic ordered of his XO, Lieutenant 1st Class Sasha Kaltenov, who had just entered the bridge.
"Aye sir, we already have everything on tape down in the CIC, but ONI doesn't have a clue who they were." Kaltenov replied.
"Damn....all right, send out salvage parties and recover anything still floating around, we need intel on the double."
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