- soulguard
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- Exalted Mythic Member
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Authors note: Not very long, but a descent length. Hope you like it, as it is probably one of the better Stages yet. Enjoy
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Stage 12: Intruder Alert!
July 28, 2552
Final Assault of Troy
“Captain, all pelicans have docked and the Cole Protocol has been initiated.” Ares stated from his glowing holotank. He floated softly above the small pedestal, with a deep red glow and black body armor reminiscent of a Greek warrior. Ares was not a smart AI, but simply aided in aiming the MAC cannon and slip space flight. The crew of the Rogue Fantasy would have had it no other way.
“Good.” Captain Monroe stated. She leaned forward in her captain’s chair and looked to the rear screen. “And not a moment to soon.” On the screen she saw four Covenant cruisers quickly pursuing her tiny cruiser away from Troy’s orbit.
“Captain, lock down complete.” A command crew member stated with a nervous pitch. “We can enter slip space at any time.”
“Make the jump!” Captain Monroe stated without hesitation. “Monitor those Covenant ships that are sniffing at our tails.”
“Aye-aye.” The navigator stated in return. The sleek engines of the Rogue Fantasy flashed to life and quickly accelerated the ship forward. A flash of blue and red formed at the forward hull as the ships slip space engines tore a whole in sub-space. The twist ripped open a pathway into an alternate dimension and allowed the Rogue Fantasy to force itself into slip space.
The four Covenant cruisers watched as the Rogue Fantasy vanished from before their eyes, but this did not deter their aggression. The Covenant smoothly crossed plains in less the amount of time that it took for the Rogue Fantasy to perform the same maneuver. The Covenant’s understanding of slip space travel was much more advanced and they managed to predict the course of the Rogue Fantasy.
“Captain four slip space tears dead ahead!” The helmsman stated. “Those bastards jumped ahead of us!”
“ETA till slip space exit?” The captain questioned sharply, with a hint of nervousness in her voice.
“Two minutes, captain!” The navigator replied. The Rogue Fantasy was not a battle cruiser, and taking on four Covenant Capital cruisers was suicide. The mission of the Rogue Fantasy was to spy on Covenant activity after they had glassed a world. In some cases the Covenant landed before the entire surface was blasted, and they began excavations of various ruins across colony worlds. The Rogue Fantasy and its marine, ODST, and Black Ops crew secretly observed these behaviors and documented their findings. Occasionally they were intercepted by ground forces, but the Black Ops held them at bay. This was the first space battle for the tiny ship, and its inexperienced captain.
“-blam!-!” One of the command crew shouted as he gazed into his scanner. “Multiple Covenant drop ships detected beyond slip space threshold! Those bastards are waiting for us!” Captain Monroe felt a cold lump slam into the back of her throat, and her mind went blank as she gazed at her display. She was afraid of this, she wasn’t ready to face space battle, yet one was about to begin, but now she had to repel boarders as well. She reached out to the helmsman and navigator which were sitting only a few feet from her captain’s chairs.
She placed her hands on their shoulders and whispered, “Options?”
“Captain?” The helmsman questioned as he tried to deal with the reality of what was happening. His captain was loosing control.
The navigator quickly snapped them both to attention, “Sound general quarters, prepare to repel boarders, load the MAC gun and fire on the lead ship, and then… pray, Captain!”
“All hands, battle stations.” Captain Monroe stated into the ship wide com. Her voice was hesitant, but her duty was clear. If she were to die, she would at least die fighting. “I repeat all hands to battle stations. Prepare to repel boarders.” She depressed the ship wide com and directed her attention back to the navigator. “Why board us? We’re too small of a ship to be a threat or to carry any important personnel. So why risk a boarding party?”
“You’re asking me?” The navigator laughed. “The Covenant has some of the worst battle tactics I’ve ever seen, but they’re still winning this war. We’re exiting slip space in ten seconds.”
“Right.” Monroe sat back in her chair and breathed deeply, attempting to calm her rattled nerves. She pressed a channel on her com counsel and stated, “Black Op 04, I want your squad guarding the command deck.”
A stiff voice replied on the channel, “04 is dead, Captain. This is 19 and I’m in command of the Black Ops.” Captain Monroe sunk in her chair even further, her mind quickly raced as she pondered how many times Kim had saved her life and the life of her crew over the past ten years. She was a brilliant strategist and sharp shooter, and she could crack any covenant transmission or encrypted message without the aid of Smart AI.
“Normal space reached!” The navigator stated. “My God, all four cruisers dead ahead and fifteen boarding crafts in bound.”
“19, get your squad up here and defend this deck!” Monroe nervously shouted into the com. “Marines, defend decks two through six. Medical teams stand by to receive injured.” She once again sat up and quickly placed a hand on her heart, attempting to regain her composure. “Ares, set the next jump destination and put a MAC round in that lead cruiser. Engineering, how long before we can jump again?”
“Twenty Minutes, sir!” The engine monitor stated. “SFTE is recharging now, and I’m pumping as much power into as I can, but the MAC guns are sapping a lot of power. If we fire a MAC round we’ll need an additional ten seconds before we can jump.”
“That can’t be helped.” Monroe snapped. “Those ships will fire on us even while their boarding teams are hitting us.”
“Multiple hull breaches along the port and aft of the ship; decks two and six.”
“Marines, hull breaches detected on decks two and six, port and aft. Defend engineering and the main landing bay. Intruder alert! I repeat, intruder alert!”
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“Melanie, I need you to pull yourself together.” Eric stated as he pulled Melanie behind him. She staggered wildly as the Black Ops raced down the hall toward the main elevator. The remaining Black Ops were Roy 02, Melanie 05, Mathew 08, Sammy 13, Justin 14, and Eric 19. They were all that had survived the slaughter on Troy.
“I’m fine.” Melanie sighed. She was clearly far from it.
Eric fumed and turned to Roy 02, “Notify the command deck Marines to prep for close quarters combat. I want deck one and two to be our primary hold point, along with engineering on deck six. I want the ODST’s stationed there.”
“Got it.” Roy 02 replied as they all climbed into the elevator and headed to deck two.
The Rogue Fantasy was a small ship, caring a crew compliment of only four hundred able bodies. The addition of the Black Ops only increased its manifest to four hundred twenty. But now, with over two hundred civilians scattered about the ship, the Rogue Fantasy was bursting at the seams. The Rogue Fantasy was designed for stealth, meaning that no fighters were docked on the in the lone landing deck, only a few scorpions, dozens of warthogs, and forty pelicans. The pelican roster was the second largest in the fleet, but because of the Rogue Fantasy’s unique missions, pelicans were an asset that the crew could not do without. Whenever a Pelican was disabled it was immediately replaced at the next refit. Luckily, the Rogue Fantasy had just re-supplied and refit at the colony world of Reach when the call from Troy was sent out. The small cruiser had four primary decks, one command deck and an engineering deck; a total of six. But unknown to the captain, Eric and Kim had already set plans to defend the ship years ago.
“Captain, this is 19.” Eric stated in his communicator. Standing beside him, Roy 02 was barking orders to the ODST stationed around the ship. Ordering them to gather on deck six and defend engineering. The ODST were a hardcore group and followed the orders of the ONI Black Ops squad without question. They had served under the Black Ops for years, and never had their plans backfired. But this was also the first time a boarding team had breached their ship.
“Go ahead Eric.” Monroe stated over the channel.
“Sir, stick to protocol.” Eric snapped. “This is a live channel so use call signs only.”
“Sorry 19.” Monroe nervously replied. Eric could hear the tension in her voice and no matter how long she had been aboard the ship, she was still young and not use to direct combat. As luck would have it, her first officer and navigator were seasoned UNSC officers so Eric knew that she was still in good hands.
“Sir, Black Ops will defend deck two.” Eric stated. “Deck one is a pit, they’ll need to get past us to get there. We have begun our Lock Down maneuver.”
“Lock Down?” Monroe replied.
“Our battle plan to secure the ship in case of borders. 04 and I put it together a few years ago. Permission to take command of all UNSC personnel?”
“Granted.” Monroe replied. “The command crew and I will deal with getting us out of this mess.”
“Roger that, 19 out.” Eric tapped his helmet and adjusted his chest plate. The all black battle armor of the Black Ops was the first version of the ODST battle armor used throughout the UNSC for drop shock troopers, but with slight modifications for stealth. “Attention all Marines, this is Black Op 19. Repel boarders on decks two and six. Form fallback points at the primary elevator. If you’re deck is overrun notify me ASAP. ODST, you have your orders.” Eric killed the channel as his squad began to pass around ammo and adjust their gear. They arrived on the second deck and heard the roar of assault riffle fire at the end of the corridor. The fight had begun.