Fin Dovah Junaar

Chapter 3: When Fire Falls from the Sky

Disclaimer: I own it. I own it all. I'm also dating Catwoman. If you believe that you're welcome to sue me.

Location: Harvest Orbit, Occupied Nirnian Space

Date: 5th February 2525

"You have the impudence to demand anything of us? The Gods would have you destroyed and we are but the instruments of their will. This is our response." Vul'Drumee cut off the viewscreen and opened communication with the fleet. "Begin the cleansing of this world."

Plasma detached from the ships to rain down on the defenceless planet. Eruptions burst across its surface as seas boiled, mountains were vaporized and anything alive died a quick, fiery death.

"Sir what are they doing?" Yelled out an ensign in shock as the planet burned. Captain Thomas Lasky gritted his teeth and narrowed his eyes. "They're sending us a message, they are not to be trifled with. But neither are we."

"What can we do Sir?"

"The only thing we can do. Go to war."

He turned to face his horrified bridge crew. "Get me a line to the fleet." Turning to face the viewscreen he spoke.

"Gentlemen, I have one word for you and one word only. Attack!"

The ships of the Nirnian third fleet flung themselves forward through space, fire and death spewing from their guns.

Caught off guard, as they had been expecting the aliens to summon reinforcements before attacking, the Covenant fleet turned to face the Nirnians leaving the ships that were performing the glassing unguarded and vulnerable.

Both fleet's leaders smiled to themselves, their opponents had left the, albeit not quite perfect, openings they had been looking for. "Fire the MACs! Get me a line to Captain Shepard!" Yelled Lasky.

Captain James Shepard, his long-time friend, appeared on the screen. "Captain, I'm going to give the order for your battlegroup to jump behind the enemy fleet and attack those ships bombarding our world."

"Understood Sir." Lasky noticed Shepard seemed to be a bit tense, but that was probably because he had his wife and newly graduated daughter waiting for him at home. Given the circumstances it was understandable.

"Godspeed Captain."

"Thank you Sir." With that a section of the Nirnian fleet, led by the UNSC Fires of Oblivion broke away and slid into the distinctive portals that marked the use of a plane drive.

"Sir it appears that some enemy ships are retreating!" an ensign yelled. "Excellent, give the order for the fleet to close range and engage." Replied Vul'Drumee. "Sir Enemy contacts behind us! They're going for the glassing ships!" Vul whirled around to look at the tactical display. It showed the ships that had been left behind leaving their positions above the planet to face the new threat.

However it was already too late to save them. He watched in anger as the ships were torn apart by those massive kinetic weapons the aliens used so much. He noted with some small pride however, that his ships gave as good as they got, enemy ships drifting as their vital systems sputtered and died. Despite this however, it was clear the ships where doomed. They were outnumbered by the battlegroup of 70+ ships. He'd left behind a few ships to continue the glassing and hide the fact that most of the fleet would need to help to get any real progress. Glassing an entire planet wasn't easy. Now however those ships were being replaced by clouds of free-floating atoms as enemy fire slammed into them.

The most worrying thing however in his opinion, was the fact they had shields. The advantage he'd been expecting to enjoy was now gone. The enemy shields were strange however, they weren't like the energy shields of his fleet but nor where they like the inferior kinetic barriers the Citadel vermin used. They didn't seem to present until enemy fire was about to impact, then suddenly appeared. They didn't seem to cover the whole ship, but rather appear where they were needed. They also seemed to create a strange flux of energy near the edges, it was as though light was being distorted at the edges by some strange effect. It had a magical, ethereal quality to it that made it seem completely alien in every sense of the word.

However their shield systems, interesting as they were, were not his main priority. Their fleet was getting badly mauled by the alien's volleys and, despite reaping a terrible price for the victory, the Covenant fleet was in danger of being completely wiped out by the aliens.

"Order the retreat."

"P-pardon Shipmaster?" A bridge officer asked incredulously. Disbelief evident. Sangheili almost never chose to retreat, it was far better to die in battle than retreat from it.

"I said, order the retreat. We cannot win this battle as we are, outnumbered without support. If these aliens press the attack, these ships will be needed in the defence."

"Understood Shipmaster."

The fleet began to turn towards the relay, attempting to get close enough to jump back to Covenant space. However, seeing this, the alien ships intensified their fire on the fleeing ships, taking out several. They were now unable to fire back without being left behind by the fleet.

"Turn us around, we're going to cover the fleet's retreat."

"Very well, Shipmaster." The helmsman replied without complaint. It was obvious to see, despite the certain death that awaited them, not one crewmember would run and abandon their comrades to death.

His crew were loyal into the end, even when he was leading them to their deaths. Their sacrifice may not ever be remembered but they did not do this for glory, but rather for their people.

The Ascendant Justiceturned towards the alien fleet, moving to cover the fleeing ships, shielding them with its hull.

Almost a minute later as the Covenant fleet left the system, the final rounds slammed into the hull of theAscendant Justice, destroying it as the reactors failed and blew the ship to Oblivion. It was not without cost however, as the wreckage of several smaller ships attested to. Chief among these was the drifting, shattered wreck of the Stormcloak-Class Heavy cruiser, UNSC Fires of Oblivion with the body of its captain, James Shepard, entombed inside.

Location: High Charity, Sanctum of the Hierarchs

Date: 6th February 2525

Aboard the massive station known as High Charity, dwarfing even the Citadel in terms of sheer size, deep in the stations heart lay the Sanctum of the Hierarchs. This room was only used when the prophets wanted to convene to discuss matters of great importance to the Covenant. Currently they were discussing the disturbing news that the fleet led by Vul'Drumee had returned, led not by Vul'Drumee but by his second in command, Kyhra Vulree.

According to Khyra, Vul'Drumee had been unwilling to fight the aliens they had encountered, despite the fact they had huge stores of Forerunner artefacts on their world. Eventually the "heroic" Khyra had persuaded the "cowardly" Fleetmaster to launch an attack. The attack had apparently been a complete success, there being no military units on the ground and merely some civilian militias. After the inhabitants had been exterminated, teams were deployed to search for the artefacts the luminary had detected. Strangely though, the artefacts had disappeared from the luminary's range.

He suspected this mean those vile heretics had destroyed them to deny them to the invaders, but Vul'Drumee had been unwilling to listen to reason.

It all started to go wrong though when the aliens had shown up in a large fleet with what were obviously larger ships than the Covenant was used to. Typically, while the citadel vermin had one supercarrier-sized warship, The Destiny Ascension, the Covenant fielded several, however these aliens not only seemed to forsake the relays in favour of their strange type of FTL, but also seemed to build ships larger than any other known race would consider practical. The total number of ships that were supercarrier-sized in the enemy fleet was staggering, nearly a quarter of the entire Covenant navy would be needed to defeat the massive golden ships.

As the enemy fleet arrived the Fleetmaster managed to redeem himself by glassing the vermin's world. Unfortunately shortly after, the enemy fleet attacked and succeeded in destroying nearly half the fleet, although not without casualties. In a final act of cowardice the Fleetmaster ordered the retreat. His ship was destroyed shortly afterwards.

"This is worrying news, we must organise a defence immediately." Commented the Prophet of Regret. "Agreed, we should recall all fleets performing non-essential duties." Added the Prophet of Mercy.

"In that case recall the fleets." Truth commanded his aide. "A great Crusade is about to begin"

Location: Relay 343, Edge of Covenant Space

Date: 6th February 2525

Fleetmaster Thel'Vadamee was not having a good day. First of all he had been ordered to lead this fleet into a new relay. That in itself was unusual.

A millennium ago they had been activating every relay they could find in the hopes of finding forerunner relics. Then they had found the Parasite. That had been a long and bloody war that had devastated the Covenant. Now they only ever opened a relay with fleets that had enough guns to glass a solar system. This was the first time since the Covenant-Citadel war had begun that they were able to muster enough ships to do so. Normally they used navigation data stolen from the vermin's ships but more often than they wiped the data from the ship's computers. Hence them opening a new relay in the hopes of finding the vermin's systems.

In theory this was an honourable posting, but Thel knew that the odds of them actually finding something were miniscule. Second on his list of things that were ruining his day was the rumours that were abounding among the fleet. Something about a ship full of Jackal privateers finding a new alien species. According to the rumours the follow-up fleet had subsequently attacked, glassed the planet and been destroyed shortly after. This did not bode well for the war. To compound that he had just been ordered to return to High Charity with his fleet for a new posting. No doubt to the systems bordering the aliens.

It seemed the Covenant was not having good day either.

And I'm alive believe it or not! I'm really sorry for the short chapter and long update time, but I've got exams right now so… yeah. I'll try to update as soon as possible but I'm not making any promises. In the meantime please review!

DaNinja101