"Bank along our x axis 60 degrees!" Yelled Captain Cutter as the Spirit of fire groaned from the stress. The old ship was never meant to be a frontline combat ship, but she was going well beyond the call in the last few days.
The colony ship finished its turn just as a frigate grade MAC fired at them 30,000 kilometers off to their right. The round cut across space and slammed into the massive armor plates that ran two thirds the length of the ship. It ripped a massive gouge in the two meter thick plates of Titanium A before continuing off into space.
"Fire deck guns 2, 4 and 6 on that rebel ship!" Yelled the captain once again to his crew as they worked on fire solutions for the heavy cannons. The ship groaned once again as the bank of engines roared as it brought the big coilguns to bear.
The Insurrectionist Frigate fired its engines not full and started to turn and try to run off. It's 50mm coilguns firing all the while. But the small rounds only left small craters in the thick armor of the Spirit.
Twelve flashes of light signaled that the three quad heavy coilgun batteries released their deadly payload. Golden streams of ionized gas left a trail behind the rounds as stray gas was superheated in the barrel.
The frigate made a valiant attempt to escape, even dodging three of the 400mm tungsten rounds. But the other nine made contact with the light armor of the ship. Four struck the nearest engine pod and speared through to wreak havoc on the second pod of the Stalwart class frigate. While two struck the MAC assembly, and the final three struck central mass and caused massive holes to rip through the ship.
Two of what he'd been told were called Sabres soared by and unleashed a payload of anti-ship missiles on the stricken Stalwart. They hit right on top of the bridge and ripped the command center apart in a blaze of fusion explosives.
It brought a small smirk to his face as he watched the dead Frigate float lifelessly. It didn't matter what they were fighting for anymore, you use nukes on population centers and execute innocent people just for siding with the UNSC. Then they would be put down.
It had only been a half hour since they'd come out of that alien Slip space rupture. While he thought originally this was his earth, the differences were abundantly clear as seen as he saw the details. He would have to have a conversation with someone when this was done.
Especially with her no doubt bearing down on this location at that very moment. They were on a limited window of time and had to end this quickly.
So, with a ironclad determination he refocused on the rapidly thinning rebel fleet. But these new UNSC ships were clearly racking up the damage themselves. They were far more powerful than the ships he was fighting. But the rebels outnumbered them. The shields, which was something he still needed to get used to, of the UNSC ships were starting to go out. Leaving their armor as their only line of defense. And with the rebels getting more and more desperate, their hulls would likely have a lot of craters soon.
But in what seemed like an act of defiance to what he was thinking, one of the 2 kilometer cruisers let out its MAC. The rebel Marathon would never be able to get out of the way. The Song of Sirens unleashes three 600 ton slugs into the rebel Marathon.
The first slug cracked the armor around the impact area and penetrated several decks below. The next speared through the weakened armor, and the ablative nature didn't help when 3.2 gigatons of kinetic energy hit you at once. The final slug speared through the reactor and caused the already crippled cruiser to go nova. Splashing everything near it in titanium debris.
Cutter smirked to himself as he watched the Insurrectionist ship get turned to subatomic particles. But his thoughts were cut short as the deck shuddered from explosions throughout the hull.
He grabbed onto the holotable to brace himself, narrowly avoiding a fall to the floor.
"Status report!" He barked out as the bridge crew all scrambled back to their stations. Doing an amazing job of focusing on the situation at hand.
One of the more senior members turned to him. "Sir, rebel longswords made a strafing run on the engines. CIWS tried their best, but several missiles hit the starboard engines! We're running on less than half thrust, engineering is trying to stop the reactor in their section from going critical."
Shit, that wasn't good. They were effectively a turtle in space now with their limited thrust. The only saving grace being that the rebels were on their last legs. Less than a half dozen ships left to fight.
But there was only one giant, 2.5 kilometer problem. The stolen Orion class carrier was unleashing a storm of tungsten and missiles. Two of the unknown type of frigates had to pull back from the barrage, with one having an entire engine pod destroyed.
They both disappeared into slipspace portals, presumably back to earth.
A message then came from one of their new crew members. Fluorite had flooded the damaged reactor with coolant and with the help of anders had restored 20% power to it. He could work with that.
He then watched as the four remaining Paris class frigates of the rebels gathered around the Orion. Seemingly preparing for a final attack.
"Captain, detecting power building in all enemy ships! Their charging MAC guns!" The officer said with fear in her voice was clear. He had out his faith in the Spirit of Fire countless times. But he knew the old ship wouldn't survive another MAC. Especially not a carrier grade one.
He then got a ping from the holotable, allied ships were moving alongside the Spirit. He zoomed in on the 3 dimensional model and smirked as he saw the heavy unknown cruisers orient themselves on either side of him. All three of the large ships were battered, even though the cruisers had shields.
He guessed the shields had gone down though, because there were dozens of impact craters in the hull plates and gouges of light MAC rounds and missiles from where the thick plates protected the ships. But there were also areas where the armor failed and fires raged across their hulls.
But there they all were, ready to lay down their lives for humanity and take the opportunity to down that carrier.
"What's the status of the MAC guns!" Cutter asked with a hidden rage as the two sides seemed to stare at each other as their weapons charged. They were exhausted of missiles and their deck guns didn't have the firepower to breach carrier armor.
"MAC batteries are being repaired, Rhodonite says the capacitors are fully charged, but the power cables were severed from shrapnel. It will be fixed within a few minutes." Said another officer.
Cutter cursed under his breath. They needed to get those MACs online. That carrier was a half million klicks away and closing. If it bared its full might, they were finished.
It was then that a heavy beam of ruby photons raced through space to his right. While two smaller streams of similar photons came from the left. The lasers each hit a frigate. Burning through Titanium A like a hot knife. He watched as two of the rebel frigates were sliced to pieces. Their reactors then went critical and turned them into two small nova's.
He watched the heavy Frigate and destroyer of still unknown classes retreat behind them as fires raged across their hulls. They had let out one last volkey into the enemy before turning around to limp home.
The final two frigates were dealt with by a few brave Sabre pilots who attacked them. A few were shot down from CIWS fire, but their shields were strong, the golden barriers letting most of the pilots get their missiles to their targets.
The CIWS tried shooting the heavy missiles, but by the time they were released it was too late. The fusion bombs ripped pieces of armor off and buckled the superstructures. The front of one of the frigates was torn off and had its engines gutted, causing it to spin lifelessly in space.
The other frigate got a quicker end as the missiles destroyed the bridge and detonated the reactor. One more nova was added to the darkness.
Now, there was only the carrier for the Insurrectionists. The UNSC had two cruisers and a support ship. They just had to hope their combined barrage could break through the added armor of the rebel carrier.
_____
Slipspace
UNSC Arcturus
Quasar's avatar sat atop the holotable. Staring through the bridge windows, watching as the pitch back of the eleventh dimensional plane.
Of course he didn't need to actually look in that direction, he had cameras all over the massively overhauled cruiser. But it was a sense of familiarity that caused him to do so. And it was far more comforting to the crew.
He already knew she was on the way, but the hiss of the massive bridge doors opening before once again locking was also a dead giveaway.
He turned around and watched as the figure strode over to the holotable. The rookie bridge crew watched her as she walked. The clanking of her slimmed down Mjolnir echoing off the shiny new plating.
Bone white and baby blue plates of slim Titanium alloy covered the form fitting black body glove. The boxy MK IV chest plate smaller to fit her lithe frame. An ODST variant helmet with a fiery red visor watched him.
Three simple numbers on the chest plate signified who she was without taking off the helmet.
152
Quasar smiled, it seems she was taking the Cutlass Mjolnir variant rather well. Even more mobile than base Mjolnir IV, but having less armor. She thought it was a worthy trade.
"Good to have you back Pearl." Quasar said simply with a smile before going to a salute. "Captain on deck!"
The bridge crew saluted before quickly going back to their stations.
Pearl gripped the edges of the holotable. Her visor depolarized with a mental command. A nervous but determined expression on her face as she stared down at the table.
"It's a lot to take in, isn't it?" Quasar said to her inside the helmet, free from the crew listening in.
"I must admit, it is. Everything that's happened in the past few weeks. It's moving so much faster than I ever anticipated." She said to the hologram still standing on the table.
"Well, nothing ever really goes to plan does it? But we just have to go along with the changes and make the best of it." He told her with a light hearted tone.
"But we're not ready. We're not ready for an invasion of homeworld. Steven's not ready for a fight. A real fight. I'm afraid we've been sheltering him from the horrors of the universe." Pearl said with remorse, she hoped that he'd never have to fight. That he could live out his life on Earth and be happy.
But it seemed the fight always came to them. Even the safety of their home wasn't nearly safe enough. Homeworld gems just snuck right in and took him!
One way or another, Steven and even Connie were going to have to be trained. Otherwise, they likely wouldn't survive. War was brutal, no matter where you were.
"You're right, we're not ready. We may never be ready for the creatures in the night. But right now, we can only do the best we can to prepare for them. Arm ourselves and advance technology to have a hope of fighting them."
The AI had seen over five long years of the Human Covenant war. He'd seen desperation in many people. As well as seeing hope die from soldiers eyes as they watched their friends get melted by plasma fire or eaten by brutes and jackals.
Same fight, different monster.
Pearl said nothing for a few moments, looking down at her trembling hands. She grabbed her right hand with her left, trying to get the shaking to stop.
A deep breath in, and a long exhale out calmed her nerves. She let her hands rest by her sides. The various scenarios of the apocalypse playing through her head. All the what if scenarios.
She then stared back at the AI. One thought on her mind above all others.
"And what if we lose?"
Quasar hardened his expression. "We burn that bridge. Don't believe you'll lose, or all hope will be lost. But, if the unthinkable happens. If we go extinct as Homeworld or the Covenant burn us to ash. Then we do the one thing we can do. We go out kicking and screaming, deal them a blow that'll take a thousand years to even hope of recovering from."
"Well said." She said with a small smile.
"Exiting Slipspace in 30 seconds!" Came the voice of one of the bridge crew.
Pearl then stared out of the bridge windows, staring as the pitch black of Slipspace started to turn into the maelstrom of blue and white light.
"Once more into the fire we go." She mumbled to herself.
The lumbering cruiser exited Slipspace with the familiar tear in Slipspace. The familiar shapes of the Spirit of Fire, Song of Sirens and Here be Dragons staying in a triangular formation across from one remaining rebel ship.
She stared at the large Carrier, the cobbled together plates of Titanium alloy welded all along its hull. More than tripling its armor value, as well as making it pretty much immune to anything short of a MAC or Nuke.
Unfortunately for them, the Arcturus had both in spades.
And it had two very special additions to the cruiser that its old crew would have loved to use. A brand new Mark V Super MAC gun, loaded with a 3,000 ton Ferric Tungsten slug.
But not to be outdone, it was also backed up with four 800mm plasma coated mini MAC turrets. Two along each side of the cruiser.
Both of these weapon systems were aimed at the Insurrectionist carrier. Ready to turn it to nothing more than cosmic dust.
The Arcturus slowly pulled forward, gliding silently over the Spirit of Fire by 5,000 kilometers. Its three MAC barrels aimed directly at the Orion class.
But one thing that Pearl had learned from thousands of years of life and combat. If you could take one thing from that experience. It was that the tide could change in an instant.
It was at that moment that she was about to give the order to fire their salvo at the carrier that she saw something much more horrifying appear behind it.
A pure white tear in space burst forth into existence. A Slipspace rupture obviously, but one that cut a much cleaner hole in space. The crack quickly spread to well over 40 kilometers tall before stopping.
Every single being in the area seemed to stop everything and stare. They all knew it wasn't them, but didn't know who it was.
But one being did, one AI program that had lived far past his lifespan. Who had seen horrors that few could understand.
Quasar's holographic eyes shrunk to pinpricks as he stared toward the rupture. Dread and anxiety filling his emotional matrix as he simply stared. Knowing the doom that these ruptures spelled for those caught in their owners wrath.
Time finally seemed to move forward again as a vessel emerged from it. Slowly, like a looking leviathan emerging from the depths of the abyss.
Sleek and curving plates of Nanolaminate making up its bulbous hull. Lines of blue energy across its surface giving off an edge of danger and mystery. But this giant didn't come for anything other than annihilation.
It finally passed completely through the rupture with the warm glow of repulsor engines. The rupture fading away behind it.
It continued forward, smashing into the top of the rebel carrier. Tearing off chunks of armor with its seemingly impervious golden barrier. The over 5 kilometer long carrier that had spelled doom for countless human worlds showed itself fully. Plasma lines charging as it rained hell down onto the now stricken carrier.
Pearl, Quasar and the rest of the bridge watched in horror as they saw meters of Steel and Titanium being melted under hundreds of millions of degrees of pure ionized gas.
The carrier then split in half before micro detonations ripped it apart. Shattering the whole ship to pieces no bigger than a Corvette.
This was a dark day Quasar had hoped would never come. But the words he dreaded saying came out.
"Winter contingency in effect! I repeat, Winter contingency in effect!"