"Navy Rear Admiral Lower Grade Beauman, Captain of the UNSC Atlas, was a brave man. He was one of the bravest Navy men I ever knew, and one of the smartest tacticians to ever sail the void of darkness; space. The brave escapades of him and his legendary crew was one that has yet to be rivaled by any. With his ship refitted, he returned to the battlefield that was once the space of Earth. Destroyed ships littered the combat zone, plasma, MAC rounds, and missiles were being exchanged. Even through the hardships of losing comrades, the Rear Admiral showed immense bravery and calm." - Fleed Admiral Sir Terrance Hood
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"All hands prepare for cool down. We are re-entering normal space in 5 minutes! Repeat we are re-entering normal space in 5 minutes!" The sound of Achilles' voice rang in Beauman's ears. Beauman, the Navy Rear Admiral Lower Grade in charge of the UNSC Atlas Carrier, stood in the deck of the massive ship surrounded by his crew. The resident AI on the Atlas, Achilles, stood as a hologram in the room, freely moving about as though he were real. He looked like an ancient Greek soldier, robes flowed from his shoulders down to his feet, he wore silk shoes and laurels held back his hair.
Beauman, looked nothing like that however. He adorned the appropriate gray Naval uniform. His chest was covered by medals which he displayed with no particular pride. He had fought had for those medals sure, but the losses he had gone through, the people he had seen die, the planets he had watched get glassed as he fled, it seemed almost not worth the trouble. His face bore a dull, almost glazed look.
The crew sat, watching the monitors, a probe was just returning from normal space back to the ship, it seemed that the battle was going worse than the could have ever imagined. The number of UNSC Starships and Super MACs were depleting with every hour, while it seemed that even though hundreds of Covenant ships were being destroyed, their numbers had not reduced. Of course the Atlas may as well have counted for 3 UNSC Halycon Class Cruisers, not only because of it's shear size, but also because of it's arsenal. One of the best equipped ships in the Fleet, it may as well have been a Super Cruiser.
The Atlas is roughly 1600 meters in length, 300 feet longer than the standard Orbital Defense Stations and is one of the most well armed Carriers in the fleet. After it's retreat from the Battle of Reach it was refitted with a Super MAC, one liking to the Orbital Defense Stations, the first ship to have this done. Along with it's Super MAC, it is armed with 2 standard MACs, one forward and on rear. Along with it's MACs the Atlas is armed with well over the normal amount of Archer Pod missiles as well as it's massive stock of SHIVA an NOVA nuclear bombs. Combining this armament with the entire division of soldiers waiting for orders, the Atlas could be considered the equivalent of a Covenant Assault Carrier in a fifth of the size. However Beauman would insist otherwise.
Sure the Atlas may have been one of the first to include a Super MAC in the redesign of the ship, but in comparison to an Assault Carrier it was a mere dwarf. The only thing that the UNSC could compare to the Assault Carrier were the almost myth like UNSC Super Carrier, which were nearly 19,000 meters in length. They were the Goliaths, Beauman even doubted their existence. The ship would be almost 4 times larger than the Assault Carrier's of the Covenant armada, which were the largest the covenant had.
While Beauman stood at attention on the deck his crew were working frantically. A crew of more than qualified veterans of the military, they were the best of the best. At the position of Communications Officer was Lieutenant Dominique, who was one of the only surviving Officers from the Pillar of Autumn. He worked marvels at the Communications seat, and when there was a problem with encrypted messages, he was always there to save the day.
At Weapons Officer was Ensign Mitchell Rawley. Though he was low in rank, he still was one of the more skilled of officers in the room. He probably had the most experience second only to Beauman. Aside Rawley was Lieutenant McKesnie, the Operations Officer. Another experienced soldier, he has served with Beauman his entire career, including serving on the Atlas during the Battle of Reach.
The Navigation Officer was the only female officer on board the Atlas, Commander Stacy Idol was in line to receive her own Frigate class ship, however she declined the offer and took up the offer directly from Beauman to become the Navigations Officer. Finally, next to Stacy was the last of the officers on the deck. Lieutenant Junior Grade Farme was the Chief Engineer on the Atlas, and it was his job to watch over the status of the hull as well as the entirety of the ship. He managed the damage.
Even with all these elite crew members Beauman insisted that he needed Achilles on board the ship, mainly to assist the crew and to take full advantage of the systems when the crew could not. Achilles was one of the rare breed of Smart AI. He was generally a new AI, but because of the Smart AI's nature he was already situated with the ship and could assure the crew that there estimates were correct. And if human reflexes were too slow for the AI's liking, it would take over and would assist in piloting the ship.
Achilles stood over Stacy's shoulder pointing to a few icons on the monitor, "There's a concentration of Covenant ships in this area, but just beside them is the 3rd Defense Grid Formation. If the grid is to fall then the Covenant will have direct access to the New Mombasa stations. It's a risky job, but we have to make sure that those Super MACs stay up." He spoke softly, the AI's voice was rough, the voice of an aged man.
"Agreed, allowing them access to New Mombasa means that the troops down there won't even have a chance of survival." Beauman chimed in, they were just about to re-enter normal space and he wanted to make sure everything was in check. "Rawley," He turned to the Weapons Officer, "Give me a status report on the MACs, will they be ready when we enter normal space?"
"Sir both MACs are ready whenever you are, the Super MAC is ready as well, reporting no problems." Mitchell spoke to the Admiral, he didn't look up from the monitor though. Sure the Super MAC was capable of being armed every 10 seconds, but it was also high maintenance. It seemed that after every battle it had to be repaired in one way or another, however that much power was well worth it.
"And the Fujika-Shaw engine?" Beauman looked over to Farme, who simply nodded, "The Fujika-Shaw engine is in prime condition, I'll begin recharging it as soon as we re-enter normal space."
"Don't bother," Beauman interjected, "I don't plan on leaving Earth once we get there, we'll fight until we need refitting, at that point we'll land and see how we can help on the ground, there's no point in running from the fight."
"One minute until re-entry!" Achilles' voice called over the intercom once again. It was about that time, of course Beauman was so used to slowing from Slip Space that he didn't have to secure himself, he knew exactly what it felt like and how to stop himself from being sent flying. He simply stood in the center of the deck, his crew sat in their chairs, strapped in, still monitoring the systems. Achilles didn't even object to Beauman's actions, simply because he knew Beauman was smart enough to know what he was doing.
Finally a rift appeared in front of the ship, almost like a knife had cut through the very fabric of the universe itself, and through it stars could be seen, the many brilliant stars decorated the black that was Slip Space, and then Earth came into view as well as the Moon, and finally the ship slowed to a near stop, well at least a near stop compared to the speed of Slip Space travel. Immediately upon it's exit it was put into the middle of the fray. A Frigate Class ship was pounded by a plasma torpedo as they re-entered normal space. The torpedo tore through the hull of the frigate like fish through water, blistering the hull, causing layer after layer to melt.
Within a matter of seconds the entire Frigate was either melted and decomposed into it's base atoms and or it was just a giant floating chunk of metal debris. It was amazing how quickly the Covenant's plasma could tear a ship apart. Of course, this was no new sight for Beauman, and the sight didn't rattle his morale at all. The Covenant Assault Carrier that had just torn the Frigate to bits drifted in front of the Atlas slowly. The entire side of the ship seemed to glow a dull purple. "Is that Super MAC armed?" Beauman quickly yelled over to Mitchell.
"Sir yes sir! All systems go," Rawley yelled back over, "Good, Achilles," Beauman said but was interrupted.
"Already on it sir," Achilles spoke, the relatively calm AI was the only one in the room who didn't have their heart racing, then again, Achilles was the only one in the room without an actual heart. The side of the Assault Carrier began to emanate a bright light, meaning only one thing. It was charging it's plasma. The tell tale sign that the ship in it's target area was about to be hit. The side of the Assault Carrier went from the dull purple glaze of Covenant ships, slowly to a hot pink, onto a bright white light.
"FIRE! NOW!" Beauman yelled, and at that, the entire ship shuddered. The sound of hundreds of super magnets rapidly propelling a 3000 ton explosive from 0 to 0.4 light years per minute was more than overwhelming, yet somehow satisfying. On the display monitor the Assault Carrier could be seen, then a flash of light and the shields of the ship flared up, only to immediately be shattered by the shear velocity of the giant round. Compared to the 600 ton slugs propelled at 30 km/s, the Super MAC was a godlike strike.
The blow punctured straight into the side of the ship and immediately burst open in an explosive manner. Though the explosion was not a large one by any means, the sheer velocity of the round caused enough damage to tear a hole straight through the ship leaving it vulnerable to the other MAC cannon as well as a bombardment of Archer Pods and SHIVA nukes. But Beauman didn't have time to cheer in glory as the ship was not disabled and within ten seconds the ships Shields will have recharged.
Just as the thought reached his mind the ship released a massive burst of plasma artillery. The deadliest weapon that humanity has ever seen, the Plasma Torpedoes and artillery moved at super speeds and when they were locked onto a target, they would generally impact that target 80% out of the time. The plasma upon impact would explode and begin eating away at the Titanium-A armor of the UNSC ships, the only way to stop it from completely burning through the ship would be to close up the wound by locking all doors exposed air tight, thusly the sudden de-pressurization of the rooms wouldn't fuel the plasma further.
"Activate emergency starboard thrusters at my command." Beauman spoke to Achilles. "Aye sir," Achilles responded swiftly, which is why Beauman spoke to the AI rather than Stacy, for she probably wouldn't have the point reaction time that a smart AI like Achilles would. The plasma arced at their ship full speed it was only a matter of seconds before it reached the ship. "Now!" He yelled and suddenly the ship was thrust to the left. If his plan worked well enough the plasma would fly past trying to home in and miss then make a swooping turn and try to catch them from the rear.
Suddenly the ship shuddered and an explosion rocked the entire ship. "Sir we've been hit!" Farme yelled over, looking from his station. "Close up the air locks now!" "Aye, sir" Farme responded almost instantaneously, he then turned back and tapped as rapidly as he could on the display, hoping to fix the problem. "Fire the secondary MAC now!" Beauman yelled.
Almost immediately after he yelled it he could feel the bottom of the ship shudder, and the round was blasted off rapidly at his target. The MAC impacted, but not where he had expected it to. "Damn it," Beauman cursed under his breath as he watched the shields of the Covenant ship flare up and absorb the blow of the MAC round. But with that, the shields gave their last flare and died out, it was a sitting duck now.
"Status on the Super MAC?" Beauman asked, looking over back to Mitchell, "It'll be ready within the next minute sir." He responded, "Stacy on my command steer the ship towards the Moon at 45* Towards starboard, and 15* toe in on the front of the ship and engage the engines to 120% capacity."
"Sir, why?" She chimed in. "We wouldn't want to be anywhere near that nuke when it goes off would we?" He said to her, a slight arrogance in his voice, "Sir what nu... oh, Aye sir!"
When Beauman turned to Achilles he simply nodded, "Already armed and ready to be fired." Was all he said, "Good on my mark fire towards the bow of the Assault Carrier. Farme, lock all doors within 3 rooms of the wound, and on my command release all air locks aside from the inner most of the three, understood?"
"Yes sir I do sir." Farme said, he then began rapidly tapping once again on his display. At that Achilles' voice called over the radio, "All soldiers from Sectors F to L need to evacuate immediately for Sections 4 to 7." There would be a rapid de-pressurization of all of those rooms within the next few moments and any soldiers in those rooms would be sucked out into the abyss that is the night sky.
Achilles nodded to Beauman, "All soldiers evacuated sir,"
"Good," Beauman said, "3,2,1... MARK!" He yelled. At first nothing happened, but he knew that the SHIVA nuke was on it's way to that ship, then the effects of the rapid de-pressurization of the rooms combined with the steering to starboard side took effect. The ship turned rapidly to the right until it's nose aligned directly with the side of the moon then Achilles corrected the angle of the ship. The engines then kicked in at over recommended capacity thrusting the ship forwards at a might of a speed.
"This is Vice Admiral Whitcomb, calling the UNSC Atlas, Atlas, do you copy?" The voice of a war hardened soldier echoed over the radio of the deck. "Aye sir, this is the Atlas, we read you loud and clear what do you need?" Beauman called back, they reached the moon and suddenly were being pulled around it by the gravitational force. It would send them flying right back at the ship at twice the speed. As soon as they passed to the other side of the moon they could hear a dull popping sound, undoubtedly the sound of the SHIVA nuclear war head tearing the Assault Carrier to bits.
"Sir, engines are at critical temperatures." Stacy chimed in, "Cut engine power back to 80%, turn off all unnecessary systems." "Aye, sir"
"Atlas glad to hear from you, we've got a mission especially for your cargo." Whitcomb's voice called over again. The ship came around the moon to see the remaining chunks of the Assault Carrier drifting through space lifelessly. "How can we be of assistance sir?" Beauman called back.
Written and Idea by Teh Professor
Editted by In Stereo
© 2007 G.NET Production Studios
Editted by In Stereo
© 2007 G.NET Production Studios
