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The Ancile- chapter two
Posted By: Jammerfer<Jammerfer@hotmail.com>
Date: 15 January 2005, 3:45 AM
Read/Post Comments
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CHAPTER 2=========================================
0552 hours, April 20th, 2525 (Military Calendar)
UNSC Scout Ship Argo, Harvest System.
Reyes watched the alien vessel inch closer as he firmed his finger on his Comm.
"Retreat to the Argo ASAP men... I have a feeling this isn't going to be pretty," he ordered, but no sooner had he replaced his hand on the flight controls that he saw a bright blue flash eminate from the leading ship, and felt a sudden jolt throw him forward. "My god." he gasped as two ships from team Hotel silently but fiercely erupted in a dance of white and crimson.
"Retreat, retreat!" He roared into the Comm as more Longswords began to explode. His ship led the race to the docks, though he wished to stand and fight rather than to leave his dying men alone. He knew though, that staying was suicide, the Longswords would hardly be a challenge to the massive attackers. His ship quickly approached his landing station, and he was just about to enter the Argo when a bright light filled the cockpit. Reyes managed to hear his co-pilot scream before a thunderous sound of burning metal drowned out all noise.
"Direct hit on the starboard side, it appears to be an energy salvo of sorts," McNeal reported.
"Is the MAC gun warmed up yet?" asked Garret, recovering from his fall. The MACs on scout ships were more like oversized gauss cannons, and nowhere near as powerful as those on, say, a destroyer, but they were still a formidable weapon.
"Main cannon at eighty-seven percent sir," Replied Mcneal, " Archer pods almost ready to fire though."
CMA had no idea what they sent us against, thought Garret, but at least they sent an armed ship. All of the unarmed Chiroptera class ships were being decomissioned because of their tendency to break down, which was apparently a mixed blessing to Garret, who was, in his youth, a pilot of one. Had he been sent here onboard, say, Pale Horse, his ship would not have withstood a single hit from the energy torpedoes the hostiles were launching.
"What of our Longswords?" he inquired.
"Two thirds gone sir," replied Paz, counting the ships on his radar,"one crashlanded onboard, two are in the docking bay, both are critically damaged, hostile weapons seem to emit an EMP pulse beyond the blast radius. Five... three ships still in evasive maneuvers, on their way to their docking stations."
"Sir," reported McNeal, "Archers hot!"
"Fire first wave at the leading cruiser, prepare for evasive maneuvers as soon as the remaining Longswords are onboar-"
"Sir!" interrupted Paz as the shouts on his COM immediately halted, " Remaining longswords destroyed."
"Right," replied Garret as he watched the Archer rounds race through the empty space, most intersected and destroyed by the enemy counter-fire, "full reverse, but don't turn away from them." The rounds slammed and detonated against the enemy cruisers hull, however, instead of melting the surface, a large, glistening ripple covered the entire surface where the missiles had detonated, only to fade away in a matter of seconds.
"What the hell?" gasped Garret in disbelief.
"They appear to have an energy shield covering the surface" stated Paz.
"Let's see if it can withstand a MAC round," Garret pondered aloud as he regained his bearing, "Fire one third of our Archers and tell me when we can fire the Cannon.
"MAC gun hot and firing on command!" reported McNeal.
"Fire," ordered Garret, dubious of the round's power, but making sure his voice was confident. The round tore through the gap between the Argo and the ships, barely visible at it's speed. The round smashed against the alien ship, managing to tilt it upwards, however, the shield held, the telltale ripple covering the entire front side, only to be struck by the Archers that weren't destroyed during the journey to the ship. This time, the shields flared, and a few of the missiles actually managed to penetrate the hull, but the armor used in these ships kept the damage's radius much narrower than Garret had expected. The enemy ships began to glisten, a light appearing at the front of each ship.
"Slipspace rupture! they're bugging out!" Exclaimed Paz.
But they're winning, thought Garret, why would they escape? Escape, was the last thing the ships intended, as the Argo's crew would find out when the ships reappeared, engulfing the main viewscreen.
"No," whispered Garret as the ships floated in space, appearing to stare down the smaller Argo, but the silence did not last, as the three ships in front of the V formation prepared to fire, the blue spheres beginning to form under them.
"Not like this," sighed Paz. But as a strange rippling light began to appear in thin air not two hundred miles away from the impending slaughter, the ship's crew would find that the fierce and fiery death they expected was not to come from these alien ships. And most of the men onboard the Argo, they would later find, would live to fight again.
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