- steadman
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- Fabled Legendary Member
No one interested?
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'Lord Hood?' A nervous ensign asked, turning to the elderly man to his left.
'Yes, Ensign' Lord Hood hesitated, looking for a name in the depths of his mind. He had resolved to know everyone's name on his bridge since the death of the Master Chief and the countless other souls lost since the beginning of the human covenant war. 'Merridew?' He continued slowly, grasping onto the last syllable cautiously, knowing that if he guessed wrong the Ensign's moral would lower. Fortunately, he was correct and his reply was met by a smile.
'We just received news from Mombasa, the reclamation of the Epsilon Eridani system can begin soon, the Elites are nearly ready for the attack.' The junior Ensign proclaimed. 'But ONI want us to take back Reach first'
'What? That's in the centre of the system!' Hood called out, interrupting the surprised Ensign.
'Sir, I'm just the anchorman, nothing I can do about it,' the ensign replied in a slightly hushed tone. Hood just sat, mouth open wide, he was going to like Merridew, he had spirit, despite his nervous and now, trembling exterior. Nobody had spoken to him like that for quite a while, it was refreshing.
'At ease, Merridew,' the admiral said after a short silence. 'Despite my rugged appearance, I have a sense of humour.'
This seemed to lower the tension a little bit as Merridew noticeably relaxed, slouching slightly in his chair, the whiteness on his face gone.
Hood sat back, the past few years hadn't been easy, despite mankind's success in securing Earth again, and pushing the covenant back with the Elite's help to some of the outer systems, there was a void left by the war. So many people dead, so many good people had disappeared, Johnson, Miranda and Jacob Keyes, Sierra 117. All of them, gone.
Too make matters worse, a celebrity status had been thrust upon Hood, an undeserved one at that. He had been dubbed a hero, when there were so many other people that could have been dubbed with that 'honour'. Still, most of them had gone, and the other survivors that had been contemplated as mankind's hero had all stood down from the task, there was Admiral Eden, a coward as always, Lieutenant MacMillan of the ODSTs and Captain price of the Marines, hell, even Corporal Jenkins, the sharpshooter from Harvest. For some reason, ONI had to pick him, no one else in the galaxy would cut it.
'Incoming message from R'Tas Vadum, he says he has news on the reclamation.' The self-dubbed Anchorman had called out.
'Lillith, play message,' Hood said, replaying the future battle in his mind, making the decisions before they came would make them easier would make them easier when they did eventually move their way down the chain of events to the 'now' section.
'Will do, sir' the station's AI called.
'Your 'respected and heroic Admiral' has just taken allied lives and fled. He opened fire on one of my ships and took out the drive core. We cannot attack until it is repaired.' The tightly controlled Alien's voice said over the bridge's speakers.
This was not like Eden, he would never attack like this, right in front of their noses. It would have been to risky, not like him at all.
'It was a weapon malfunction,' Eden announced to his crew. 'Open up a link to the elite'
'Admiral!' Merridew interrupted, 'we got a message from the UNSC Market Garden, there's fighting on board. Their ship is having a civil war! There was something said about the attack being deliberate. There was no weapon malfunction, they want a boarding party to help them out in the fighting.'
'Lillith, record message: we have a rouge destroyer out there, captained by Admiral Eden. He will partake in guerrilla actions against elites and could risk the alliance. End voice message. Send to ONI HQ and R'tas Vadum's cruiser.'
As soon as he stopped talking, a slipspace rupture punctured the fabric of the universe 12 kilometres to their Starboard side, next to the Elite fleet. Bodies were being sucked out into the void that is space. They had armed their experimental Directed Energy Cannon and was bringing it to bear on the Elite fleet.
The ship was belching smoke and flames were visible, oxygen leaks fuelling the blaze, it was a mess. Their laser weapon glowed red hot and fired, an eerie silence complimented the eeriness of the nature of the weapon, the supercharged particles fired from the laser cutting an Elite frigate in half.
The Sangheili did not sit by idly and allow their own destruction , their Plasma weaponry glowing and firing on the near dead Destroyer. The shots were true, striking their target but to no avail. ONI hadn't spared anything from the Market Garden, it was equipped with the most powerful and sophisticated weaponry and armour in the UNSC arsenal, including the new Energy shielding, vastly improved on the Covenant's botched attempts at shielding technology.
The Destroyer fired again, three shots echoing through the silence of space, each making their mark on a nearby Sangheili frigate, rupturing something important and ultimately ending in the ship exploding with such force that pieces of the ship went flying in all directions, smashing into other ships and weakening their shields. The Sangheili fleet was in disarray, all hell had broken loose [I]in[/in] their lines and was tearing them apart.
'We've established a link with R'tas Vadum, putting him on now,' Merridew explained in a panicked tone.
'We need assistance, this ship is not human of origin! This technology pars that of the blessed forerunners!' R'tas quickly told Eden.
'Roger that, Vadum, we're mo' Eden began before a massive shockwave shook the ship and throwing off the artificial gravity and cutting the power for a second.
'What was that?' Eden barked to no one in particular.
'EMP, we'll be down until Lillith is back online,' an outline to his right answered in a female voice.
'Status on Life Support?' Eden asked, again to no one in particular.
'Unknown, sir, we have no communication,' Merridew answered.
'Crew, hold on to something, when gravity comes back online, I want no one in the infirmary with an imprint of the floor on their face.'
Right on cue, the power came back online, making them all fall to the ground in a heap of limbs. They were all back to their stations in less than seven seconds and finding out exactly what had happened.
'Sangheili are still down, their AI's aren't as powerful as ours, ETA 34 seconds,' an Ensign called out over the din of status reports.
'The Market garden is gone, sir. The ship exploded, simple as that.'
'No, its not,' Eden replied in a hushed tone, looking out over the debris colliding with their ship. 'The loyal crew blew it up from the inside, overloaded the Fusion reactor.'
'Any escape pods?' Eden asked, still remaining logical despite the pressure he was being put under.
'That's a positive on that one, sir. One made it out just before the fighting began, he has been arrested by the Elites and put under high security in a cell.'
'Lets hope the Sangheili don't do anything stupid,' Eden hoped. This eventuality will have consequences, he thought to himself as he planned a response to every possible situation that would rise in the ensuing diplomatic debate. He only wished he could find a peaceful end, Humanity needed it.