2120 Hours, July 18, 2552 (Military Calendar) /UNSCIroquois , military staging area in orbit around Sigma Octanus IV“Ship’s status?” Captain Keyes said as he strode onto the bridge, buttoning his collar. He noticed that therepair stationCradle still obscured their port camera. “And why aren’t we clear of that station yet?”
“Sir, all hands are at battle stations,” Lieutenant Dominique replied. “General quarters sounded. Tac datauploaded to your station.”
A tactical overview of theIroquois , neighboring vessels, andCradle popped onto Keyes’ personaldisplay screen. “As you can see,” Lieutenant Dominique continued, “wedid clear the station, but they aremoving on the same outbound vector we are. Admiral Stanforth wants them with the fleet.”
Captain Keyes took his place in his command chair—“the hot seat,” as it was more colloquially known—and reviewed the data. He nodded with satisfaction. “Looks like the Admiral has something up hissleeve.” He turned to Lieutenant Hall. “Engine status, Lieutenant?”
“Engines hot at fifty percent,” she reported. She straightened to her full height, nearly six feet, andlooked Captain Keyes in the eye with something edging near defensiveness. “Sir, the engines took a realbeating in our last engagement. The repairs we’ve made are . . . well, the best we could do without acomplete refit.”
“Understood, Lieutenant,” Keyes replied calmly. In truth, Keyes was concerned about the engines, too—but it would do no good to make Hall more uneasy than necessary. The last thing he needed now was toundermine her confidence.
“Gunnery officer?” Captain Keyes turned to Lieutenant Hikowa. The petite woman bore moreresemblance to a porcelain doll than to a combat officer, but Keyes knew her delicate appearance wasonly skin deep. She had ice water for blood and nerves of steel.
“MAC guns charging,” Lieutenant Hikowa reported. “Sixty-five percent and climbing at two percent perminute.”
Everything on theIroquois had slowed down to a crawl. Engine, weapons—even the unwieldyCradlekept pace with them.
Captain Keyes sat up straighter. There was no time to spend on self-recriminations. He would have to dothe best he could with what he had. There simply was no other alternative.
The lift doors popped open and a young man stepped on deck. He was tall and thin. His dark hair—longer than regulations permitted—had been slicked back. He was disarmingly handsome; Keyesnoticed the female bridge crew pause to look the newcomer over before returning to their tasks. “EnsignLovell reporting for duty, Captain.” He snapped a sharp salute.
“Welcome aboard, Ensign Lovell.” Captain Keyes returned his salute, surprised that the unkempt officercould demonstrate such crisp adherence to military protocol. “Man the navigation console, please.”
The bridge officers scrutinized the Ensign. It was highly unusual for such a low-ranking officer to pilot acapital ship. “Sir?” Lovell wrinkled his forehead, confused. “Has there been some mistake, sir?”
“Youare Ensign Michael Lovell? Recently posted on theArchimedes Remote Sensor Outpost?”
“Yes, sir. They pulled me off that duty so quick that I—”
“Then man your station, Ensign.”
“Yes, sir!”
Ensign Lovell sat at the navigation console, took a few seconds to acquaint himself with the controls—then reconfigured them more to his liking.
A slight smile tugged at the corner of Keyes’ mouth. He knew that Lovell had more combat experiencethan any Lieutenant on the bridge, and was pleased that the Ensign adapted so quickly to unfamiliarsurroundings.
“Show me the fleet’s position and the relative location of the enemy, Ensign,” Keyes ordered.
“Aye, sir,” Lovell replied. His hands danced across the controls. A moment later, a system map snappedinto place on the main screen. Dozens of small triangular tactical markers showed Admiral Stanforth’sfleet massing between Sigma Octanus IV and its moon. It was a sound opening position. Fighting inorbit around Sigma Octanus IV would have trapped them in the gravity well—like fighting with yourback to a wall.
Keyes studied the display—and frowned. The Admiral had moved the fleet into a tightly packed gridformation. When the Covenant fired their plasma weapons at them, there would be no maneuveringroom.
The Covenant was moving in-system quickly. Captain Keyes counted twenty radar signatures. He didn’tlike the odds.
“Receiving orders,” Lieutenant Dominique said. “Admiral Stanforth wants theIroquois at this locationASAP.”
On the map, a blue triangle pulsed on the corner of the grid formation.
“Ensign Lovell, get us there at best speed.”
“Aye, sir,” he replied.
Captain Keyes fought down a wave of embarrassment; theCradle stardock started to pull ahead oftheIroquois . It took up a position directly over the Admiral’s phalanx formation. The refit stationrotated, presenting its edge to the incoming Covenant fleet to show them the smallest target area.
“Rotating and reversing burn,” Ensign Lovell said. TheIroquois spun about and slowed. “Thrusters tostation keeping. We’re locked in position, sir.”
“Very good, Ensign. Lieutenant Hikowa, divert as much power as you need to get those MAC gunscharged.”
“Aye, sir,” Hikowa replied. “Capacitors charging at maximum rate.”
“Captain,” Lieutenant Dominique said. “We’re receiving an encrypted firing solution and countdowntimers from theLeviathan ’s AI.”
“Transfer that vector to Lieutenant Hikowa and show me on screen.”
A line appeared on the tactical map, connecting theIroquois to one of the incoming Covenant frigates.
The firing timer appeared in the corner: twenty-three seconds.
“Now show me the entire fleet’s firing solutions, Lieutenant Dominique.”
A web of trajectories crossed the map with tiny countdown times next to each. Admiral Stanforth hadthe fleet exchanging fire with the Covenant like a line of Redcoats and colonial militia in theRevolutionary War—tactics that could best be described as bloody . . . or suicidal.
What the hell was the Admiral thinking? Keyes studied the displays, trying to divine a method to hiscommanding officer’s madness . . . then he understood. Risky, but—if it worked—brilliant.
The fleet’s firing countdowns were roughly timed so that the shots would be staggered into two, maybethree, massive salvos. The first salvo would—hopefully—knock out the Covenant ships’ shields. Thefinal salvo was to be the knockout punch.
But it could only work once. After that, the UNSC fleet would be destroyed when the remainingCovenant ships returned fire. TheIroquois and the other ships were stationary targets. He appreciatedthat the Admiral couldn’t get too far from Sigma Octanus IV, but with zero momentum—and no room tomaneuver—there’d be no way to avoid those plasma bolts.
“Sound decompression alarms in all nonessential sections, Lieutenant Hall, and then empty them.”
“Aye, sir,” she said, and bit her lower lip.
“Guns: status on the MACs?” Keyes’ eyes were glued to the firing countdown. Twenty seconds . . .
fifteen . . . ten . . .
“Sir, MAC weapon systems are hot!” Hikowa announced. “Removing safeties now.”
The Covenant ships started to rotate slowly in space—although their momentum continued to carry themon their inbound trajectory toward the UNSC phalanx. Motes of red light collected along the alien ships’
lateral lines.
Five seconds.
“Transferring firing control to the computer,” Lieutenant Hikowa said. She punched a series of firingcodes into the computer, then locked down the controls. TheIroquois recoiled and spat twin bolts ofthunder toward the enemy.
The starboard view screen showed UNSC destroyers and frigates launching their opening salvo.
The Covenant fleet fired as well; angry red lances of energy raced though space towards them.
“Time until that plasma impacts?” Captain Keyes asked Ensign Lovell.
“Twenty-two seconds, sir.”
The vacuum between the two opposing forces filled with a hundred lines of fire and smoldering metalthat seemed to tear through the fabric of space.
Their trajectories closed on one another, then crossed, and the bolts of fire grew larger on the mainscreen.
Lieutenant Dominique said, “Receiving a second set of firing solutions and times. Admiral Stanforth onthe priority channel, sir.”
“Put him on, holotank two,” Keyes ordered.
Near the main view screen, a small holographic tank—normally reserved for the ship’s AI—winked intooperation. Admiral Stanforth’s ghostly image appeared. “All ships: hold your positions. Divert allengine power to recharge your guns. We’ve got something special cooked up.” His eyes narrowed. “Donot—I repeat, do not—underany circumstance break position or fire before you are ordered to do so.
Stanforth out.”
The holographic projection of the Admiral snapped out of existence.
“Orders, sir?” Ensign Lovell turned in his seat.
“You heard the Admiral, Ensign. Thrusters to station keeping. Lieutenant Hikowa: get those gunsrecharged on the double.”
“Aye, sir.”
Keyes nodded as Hikowa turned back to her task. “Three seconds until first salvo impact,” sheannounced.
Keyes turned back to the tac display, concentrating on the MAC rounds that crawled across the screen.
The fleet’s MAC rounds hammered into the Covenant lines. Shields flickered silver-blue and overloadedas the super-dense projectiles rammed into the formation; several ships were spun out of position by theimpact.
“Guns?” he called out. “Enemy status?”
“Multiple hits on Covenant fleet, sir,” Hikowa replied. “Salvo two impact . . . now.”
A handful of the shots were clean misses. Keyes winced; each one of the off-trajectory MAC roundsmeant one more enemy ship would survive to return fire.
The vast majority, however, slammed into the unshielded alien vessels. The lead Covenant destroyertook a direct hit from a heavy round, which sent the alien ship into a lurching port spin.
Keyes saw the destroyer’s engines flare as her pilot struggled to regain control—just as a second MACround struck on the ship’s opposite side. For an instant, the Covenant vessel shuddered, held position,then flexed as the hull stresses became too great. The destroyer disintegrated and scattered debris in awide arc.
A second Covenant ship—a frigate—shuddered under the impact of multiple MAC rounds. It listed tostarboard and rammed the next frigate in the enemy formation. Sparks and small explosions flared fromthe ships as a gray-white plume of vented atmosphere exploded into space. The ships’ running lightsflickered, then dimmed as the pair of dead spacecraft—locked in a deadly embrace—tumbled into theheart of the Covenant line.
A moment later, the wrecked ships hit a third Covenant frigate, and they exploded, sending tendrils ofplasma through space. A dozen of their ships vented atmosphere and fires flickered within their hulls.
The fore view screen, however, was now filled with incoming weapons fire.
“Fleet commander on priority channel,” Dominique announced. “Audio only.”
“Patch it through, Lieutenant,” Keyes ordered.
A hiss of static crackled through the communications-system speakers. A moment later, AdmiralStanforth’s voice calmly broke through the noise. “Lead to all ships: hold your positions,” the Admiralsaid. “Make ready to fire. Transfer timers to your computers . . . and hang on to your hats.”
A shadow crossed the overhead camera. On the view screen, Captain Keyes watched as theCradle repairstation, the plate nearly a kilometer on edge, rotated and started to slide in front of their phalanxformation.
“Christ,” Ensign Lovell whispered, “they’re going to take the hits for us.”
“Dominique, hit the scopes. Are there any lifepods outbound fromCradle ?” Keyes asked. He alreadyknew the answer.
“Sir,” Dominique answered, his deep voice thick with worry. “No escape craft have left theCradle .”
All eyes on theIroquois ’ bridge were riveted to the screen. Keyes’ hands clenched with anger andhelplessness. There was nothing to do but watch.
The front view screen went black as the station passed in front of them. Pinpoints of red and orangeappeared along the back surface, metal vapor venting in plumes.Cradle lurched closer to the fleet, theimpact of the plasma torpedoes pushing it back. The station continued to move downward, spreading outthe damage. Holes appeared in the surface; the internal lattice of steel girders was exposed and, secondslater, glowed white-hot—then the view screen was clear again.
“Ventral cameras,” Captain Keyes said. “Now!”
The view changed as Dominique switched to theIroquois ’ belly cameras.Cradle station reappeared. Shespun and her entire forward surface was aglow . . . heat spread to the edges, the center liquefied andpulled away.
“MAC guns ready to fire in three seconds,” Lieutenant Hikowa announced, her voice cold and angry.
“Targeting lock acquired.”
Keyes gripped the arms of the command chair. “Cradle’s crew bought this shot for us, Lieutenant,”
Captain Keyes growled. “Make it count.”
TheIroquois shuddered as the MAC gun fired. On the status display, Keyes watched as the rest of theUNSC fleet fired simultaneously. A twenty-one-gun salute three times over for those on board thestation who had given their lives.
“All ships: break and attack!” Admiral Stanforth bellowed. “Pick your targets and fire at will. Take asmany of these bastards out as you can! Stanforth out.”
They had to move before the Covenant plasma weapons recharged.
“Give me fifty percent on our engines,” Captain Keyes ordered, “and come about to course two eightzero.”
“Aye,” Ensign Lovell and Lieutenant Hall replied in unison.
“Lieutenant Hikowa, release safeties on the Archer missile system.”
“Safeties disengaged, sir.”
TheIroquois moved away at a near-right angle from the phalanx formation. The other UNSC shipsscattered at all vectors. One UNSC destroyer, theLancelot , accelerated straight toward the Covenant line.
As the UNSC ships scattered, the MAC salvo reached the Covenant ships. The Admiral’s firingsolutions had targeted the remainder of the Covenant battlegroup’s smaller ships. Their shields sparkled,rippled, and then flickered out of existence. Their frigates shattered under the impact of the firepower.
Holes ripped through their hulls. Wrecked spacecraft drifted lazily through the battle area.
The surprise second salvo had cost the Covenant dearly—a dozen enemy ships were out of the fight.
That left eight Covenant vessels—destroyers and cruisers.
Pulse lasers and Archer missiles fired, and every ship onscreen accelerated towards one another. BothCovenant and UNSC ships released their single-ship fighters.
The tac computer was having trouble tracking everything—Keyes cursed to himself over the lack of aship AI—as the missile fire and plasma discharges strobed in the blackness. Single ships—the humans’
Longsword fighters and the flat, vaguely piscine Covenant fighters—dove, and fired, and impacted intowarships. Archer missiles left trails of exhaust. Blue pulse lasers scattered inside the clouds of ventedpropellant and atmosphere, and cast a ghostly blue glow over the scene.
“Orders, sir?” Lovell asked nervously.
Captain Keyes paused—something felt . . . wrong. The battle was utter chaos, and it was nearlyimpossible to tell exactly what was happening. Sensor data was thrown off by the constant detonationsand the fire of the aliens’ energy weapons.
“Scan near the planet, Lieutenant Hall,” Keyes said. “Ensign Lovell, move us closer to Sigma OctanusFour.”
“Sir?” Lieutenant Dominique said. “We’re not engaging the Covenant fleet?”
“Negative, Lieutenant.”
The bridge crew paused for a fraction of a second—all except Ensign Lovell, who tapped on the controlsand plotted a new course. The bridge crew had all had a taste of being heroes in their last battle, and theywanted more. Captain Keyes knew what that was like . . . and he knew how dangerous it was.
He was not about to charge into battle, however, with theIroquois at half power, her structural integrityalready compromised, and with no AI to mount a point defense against Covenant single ships. Oneplasma torpedo to their lower decks would gut them.
If he remained where he was and attempted to shoot into the fray, he was just as likely to accidentally hita friendly ship as a Covenant vessel.
No. There were several damaged Covenant ships in the area. He would finish them off—make sure theycould not launch any attack on their fleet. There was no glory in the action—but considering theirpresent condition, glory was of little concern. Survival was.
Captain Keyes watched the battle rage in the starboard camera. TheLeviathan took a plasma bolt, andher foredecks burned. One Covenant ship collided with the UNSC frigateFair Weather ; thesuperstructures of the two craft locked together—and both ships opened fire at point-blank range.
TheFair Weather detonated into a ball of nuclear fire that engulfed the Covenant destroyer. Both shipsfaded from the tactical display.
“Covenant ship detected in orbit around Sigma Octanus Four,” Lieutenant Hall reported.
“Let me see it,” Keyes said.
A small vessel appeared on-screen. It was smaller than the Covenant equivalent of a frigate . . . butdefinitely larger than one of the aliens’ dropships. It was sleek and seemed to waver in and out of theblankness of space. The engine pods were baffled and devoid of the characteristic purple-white glow ofCovenant propulsion systems.
“They’re in a geosynchronous orbit over C.te d’Azur,” Lieutenant Hall reported. “Their thrusters arefiring microbursts. Precision station keeping, sir, if I were to guess.”
Lieutenant Dominique interrupted. “Detected scattering from a narrow-beam transmission on the planetsurface, sir. A far-infrared laser.”
Captain Keyes turned toward the main battle on-screen. Was this slaughter just a diversion?
The original attack on Sigma Octanus IV had been for the sole purpose of landing ships and invadingC.te d’Azur. Once accomplished, their battle group had left.
And now—whatever the Covenant’s purpose was groundside, they were sending information to thisstealth ship . . . while the rest of their fleet kept the UNSC forces from interfering.
“Like hell,” he muttered.
“Ensign Lovell, plot a collision course for that ship.”
“Aye, sir.”
“Lieutenant Hall, push the engines as far as you can. I need every bit of speed you can get me.”
“Yes, sir. If we vent primary coolant and use our reserve, I can boost the engine output to sixty-sixpercent . . . for five minutes.”
“Do it.”
TheIroquois moved sluggishly toward the Covenant ship.
“Intercept in twenty seconds,” Lovell said.
“Lieutenant Hikowa, arm Archer missile pods A through D. Blow that Covenant son of a bitch out of thesky.”
“Archer missile pods armed, sir,” she replied smoothly. Her hands moved gracefully over the controls.
“Firing.”
Archer missiles streaked toward the Covenant stealth ship—but as they closed with the target, theystarted to swerve from side to side, then spun out of control. The spent missiles fell toward the planet.
Lieutenant Hikowa cursed quietly in Japanese. “Missile guidance locks jammed,” she said. “Their ECMspoofed the guidance packages, sir.”
No other choice, then,Keyes thought.They can jam our missiles—let’s see them jam this.
“Run them over, Ensign Lovell,” Keyes ordered.
He licked his lips. “Aye, sir.”
“Sound collision alarm,” Captian Keyes said. “All hands, brace for impact.”
“She’s moving,” Lovell said.
“Keep on her.”
“Course correcting now. Hang on,” Lovell said.
The eight-thousand-tonIroquois slammed into the tiny Covenant ship.
On the bridge, they barely felt the impact. The diminutive alien vessel, however, was crushed from theforce. Her crippled hull spun toward Sigma Octanus IV.
“Damage report!” Keyes bellowed.
“Lower decks 3 through 8 show hull breach, sir,” Hall called out. “Internal bulkheads were alreadyclosed, and no one was in those areas, per your orders. No systems damage reported.”
“Good. Move to her original position, Ensign Lovell. Lieutenant Dominique, I want that transmissionbeam intercepted.”
The ventral cameras showed the Covenant ship plunge into the atmosphere. Its shield glowed yellow,then white—then dissipated as the ship’s systems failed. It burst into crimson flame and burned acrossthe horizon, a black plume of smoke trailing in its wake.
“TheIroquois is losing altitude,” Ensign Lovell said. “We’re falling into the planet’s atmosphere . . .
bringing us about.” TheIroquois spun 180 degrees. The Ensign concentrated on his displays, then said,“No good, we need more power. Sir, permission to fire emergency thrusters?”
“Granted.”
Lovell exploded the aft emergency thrusters and theIroquois jumped. Lovell’s eyes were locked on therepeater displays as he fought for every centimeter of maneuvering he could get. Sweat ran down hisforehead and soaked his flight suit.
“Orbit stabilizing—barely.” Lovell exhaled with relief, then turned to face Keyes. “Got it, sir. Thrustersto precision station keeping.”
“Receiving,” Lieutenant Dominique said, and then paused. “Receiving . . . something, sir. It must beencrypted.”
“Make sure you’re recording, Lieutenant.”
“Affirmative. Recorders active . . . but the codebreaker software can’t crack it, sir.”
Captain Keyes turned back to the tac displays, half expecting to see a Covenant ship in firing position.
There wasn’t much left of either the Covenant or UNSC fleets. Dozens of ships drifted in space,billowing atmosphere and burning. The rest moved slowly. A few flickered with fire. Scatteredexplosions dotted the black.
One undamaged Covenant destroyer turned, however, and left the battlefield. It came about and headedstraight for theIroquois .
“Uh-oh,” Lovell muttered.
“Lieutenant Hall, get me theLeviathan —priority Alpha channel,” Keyes ordered.
“Yes, sir,” she said.
Admiral Stanforth’s image appeared in the holotank. His forehead had a gash across it, and bloodtrickled into his eyes. He wiped it away with a shaking hand, his eyes blazing with anger. “Keyes?
Where the hell isIroquois ?”
“Sir,Iroquois is in geosynchronous orbit over C.te d’Azur. We’ve destroyed a Covenant stealth ship andare in the process of intercepting a secure transmission from the planet.”
The Admiral stared at him a moment unbelievingly, then nodded as if this made sense to him. “Proceed.”
“We have a Covenant destroyer leaving the battle . . . bearing down on us. I think the reason for theCovenant’s invasion may be in this coded transmission. And they don’t want us to know, sir.”
“Understood, son. Hang on. The Cavalry’s on its way.”
On the aft screen, the remaining eight UNSC ships broke their attacks and turned toward the incomingdestroyer. Three MAC guns fired and impacted on the Covenant vessel. Its shields only lapsed for a splitsecond; it took a round through her nose . . . but it continued toward theIroquois at flank speed.
“Transmission ended, sir,” Lieutenant Dominique announced. “Cut off in midpacket. The signal wasterminated at the source.”
“Damn.” Captain Keyes considered staying and trying to reacquire that signal—but only for a moment.
He decide to take what they had and run with it. “Ensign Lovell, get us the hell out of here.”
“Sir!” Lieutenant Hall said. “Look.”
The Covenant destroyer was changing course . . . along with the rest of the surviving Covenant vessels.
They were scattering, and accelerating out of the system.
“They’re running,” Lieutenant Hikowa said, her normal iron calm replaced by astonishment.
Within minutes, the Covenant ships accelerated and vanished into Slipstream space.
Captain Keyes looked aft and counted only seven UNSC ships intact, with the balance of the fleetdestroyed or disabled.
He sat in his command chair. “Ensign Lovell, take us back the way we came. Make ready to take onwounded. Repressurize all uncompromised decks.”
“Jesus,” Lieutenant Hall said. “I think we actually . . . won that one.”
“Yes, Lieutenant. We won,” Keyes replied.
But Captain Keyes wondered exactly what they had won. The Covenant had come to this system for areason—and he had a sinking feeling that they may have gotten what they had come for.