A Flawless Victory: Fleet Battlegroup Romeo
Posted By: VesselDown<BattleReady301@Yahoo.com>
Date: 10 March 2005, 4:16 AM
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UNSC Cruiser Cassandra in Slipspace
UNSC Battlegroup Romeo
1900 hours
Captain Devus watched his crew as they monitored the numerous panels and screens set throughout the bridge. The Viewscreens had all been overlaid with Engine readouts and Reactor scans, except for the most forward, which remained dark. There was nothing to see in slipspace; at least nothing in the visible spectrum.
The junior officers checked and rechecked their touchpanels and inspected their monitors for dust or fingerprints. They were obviously bored to tears and trying desperatly not to show it.
Devus rubbed his eyes and looked down at the small screen attached to his command chair. With 20 minutes left until reentry to "normal" space, there was no way he was going to be able to catch any sleep.
"Zeus, how is the reactor running? I think there's a flutter in superconductor 2."
The slim figure of the Greek god, complete with tiny lightning bolts in his hands, shimmered up from the depths of the no. 1 holotank. The AI planted his arms over his broad chest and eyed Devus closely.
"Captain, The reactor is operating at 110% functionality and the superconductors are processing their allotted workloads accordingly. There are no flutters in my reactor."
Devus already knew that the reactors were fine, but he was trying to take his mind off the incesscent boredom.
The AI's flowing, transparent form stroked his long beard and gave Devus a perplexed look.
"You already knew the reactor was fine. Its status is on Viewscreen 3. What's wrong Captain?"
"Nothing Zeus, nothing."
The AI nodded and sank into the holotank.
UNSC Battlegroup Romeo
10 seconds to slipspace exit
1919 hours
The Cassandra snapped into the open black of deep space. Beside her, the Devastator, a UNSC Destroyer, and the Frigates Beluga's Cry and Fearless Wind popped in as well.
Another ship snapped in merely 2 thousand Kilometers away. And another, and Another.
Unlike the sharp utilitarian lines of the Romeo Battlegroup, The luminescent purple hulls of these ships flowed and ebbed into a form that reminded one of a peaceful whale.
Not even the frigates were peaceful however.
Blue dots appeared on the exterior of the Covenant ships and red blobs began collecting into lines on their flanks.
Onboard the Romeo ships, calm was a thing of the past.
"Nav full power to engines, I want this tub jumping and Diving like someone's got a tazer in our butt clear?"
"Aye, sir"
Although not phrased officially, The helm understood Devus clearly enough.
"Engine room, engage secondary reactor and divert energy to MAC coils Alpha through Delta."
"Aye, sir."
Devus opened a Battlegroupwide channel.
"All ships concentrate fire on the frigates. We'll hit the Cruiser."
A resounding chorus of Aye, Aye's come over the freq and Hard white streaks burned into the blackness.
MAC rounds slammed into the Frigates. The two human frigates had focused the power of their single MAC guns on the leftmost Covenant equivalent, while the Devastator used its Duel MAC guns to punish the Starboard Vessel.
Archer missiles carved long contrails between the ships and explosions peppered the two Covenant ships. The Cruiser turn hard starboard.
"Command! Weapons are Hot! We're green and free for all four MAC's captain!"
Devus snapped his gaze to the main view screen where the Frigate's midline had become a solid line of blinding red, liquid, fire.
"WeapOps FIRE! Fire MAC's in Sequence Alpha, Charlie, Bravo, Delta. NOW! Follow up with Archer pods D-36 through G-19!"
Zeus flickered over the holotank and miniscule lighting bolts flashed in his holographic eyes.
"Firing solution locked in. Executing."
The Cassandra was thrown back against her massive forward momentum again and again as the Magnetic Accelerator Cannons hurled streaks of white fire at the Covenant cruiser.
At the same time the cruiser fired it's pent up energy.
"Alert! The Cruiser has Fired! Enemy Plasma Torpedoes away! Repeat The Cruiser has Fired!"
Devus listened with half an ear to his SenseOps officer as the boiling plasma and the molten Metal converged.
The first MAC round, using its incredible forward momentum; built up by the Cassandra's own engines; plowed straight through the ball of fire. It exited the back of the torpedo before the immense heat could affect it. The other three rounds slammed through the fireball. The Magnetic Stabilizing Bubble encasing the plasma imploded, sending fiery tendrils of molten Plasma in unintentionally artistic arcs and whirls before freezing in the hard vacuum. The Four rounds from Cassandra slammed into the Cruiser.
The first round took the ships shields down.
The second slammed into the Covenant Ships flank, buckling hull plates and smashing a hold through the center of the ship.
The gutted cruiser took the third round in the nose and the round passed through enough of the ships walls to cross paths with the tunnel the second round had burrowed through the Enemy vessel.
The Fourth and Final shot penetrated the Cruiser in the engines, piercing though the un-baffled engines and tearing through plating and bulk heads before imbedding itself in the ships reactor compartment.
Following the final round in, over 400 Archer ship-to-ship missiles raced across the hull most impacting and covering the ship with small dimples and craters.
A few, aimed even before they were fired raced into the hole pierced by the final MAC round.
The 60 Archers plowed into the Covenant Plasma Conduits and Reactor conductors. The Ship blew apart violently. Streams of molten metal released into space and plasma sailed out in ever expanding rings. One ring caught the now unshielded Port Covenant Frigate in the side. The ship parted around the flaming liquid and sailed into the blackness. Its dead engines sailing back, while its bow passed harmlessly between the two Human Frigates, who fired their engines and let the decimated ship proceed unhindered by a potentially fatal collision.
The remaining Frigate burned freely in the vacuum, its own contained atmosphere feeding the flames.
The UNSC Devastator pounded salvo after salvo of MAC rounds into the helpless ship and white trails snaked between the Destroyers Archer pods and the explosions blossoming on the ships hull.
The fleet ceased fire and watched the only intact Covenant vessel rotate erratically and slowly disappear into the blackness as the flames guttered out, their fuel expended. Lights had disappeared from the hull long ago.
UNSC Battlegroup Romeo, with damage only to the effect of a few buckled hull plates and a decompressed lavatory onboard Fearless Wind, Accelerated into Slipspace, Their vectors randomized before popping back into realspace, and jumping home.
THE END
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