SOL SYSTEM

20/10/2552 STANDARD UNSC CALENDAR

ABOARD INCOMPLETE UNSC INFINITY-CLASS SUPERCARRIER ETERNITY

Three battalions worth of Marines herded civilian evacuees into the massive cryobays built into the aft of the Super-carrier. Although the Infinity-class ships hanged in the Oort cloud, still missing many modules and pieces of their bodies, UNSC HIGH-COM and the UEG reps aboard expected the Covenant's arrival at any moment. The lead of the class was awaiting her own load of civilians a few million miles away from the Eternity. The 12th Army, formed specifically to provide assistance for evacuation, worked around the clock.

On the bridge of the unfinished ship, where unwelded panels loosed wires that hanged from their couplings, engineering crews worked to get the girl into an operational state, while the Admiral of the evacuation fleet stared out the window at the escort. Young, inexperienced in commanding a fleet and already tired by the fear of their vicious foe appearing, the dark-skinned man stared out at the escort fleet with tired blue eyes.

One Halcyon-class, retrofitted for repair, four Marathon-class cruisers, twelve Paris-Class heavy frigates and twenty Charon-class, as well as a phalanx of 40 Gladius-class Corvettes, all of which could be better-used in the defense of Earth than protecting a rickety, unfinished ship meant to transport mankind's last hope through the darkness of space. He sighed, then looked back as the engineers had just finished setting up the holographic table and the com suite.

"Sir," the lead Engineer gave the man a salute. He saluted back, then dismissed them with a nod of his head, before approaching the com console.

"Charon," The man spoke, his voice rough, tired "What's our status?"

Clad in a black cloak, the figure stood at its holographic pillar. It spoke, its voice soothing "We are still missing multiple gun batteries, our SHIVA tubes remain empty, our MAC Gun mounts are also empty and we are lacking armor plating on decks three through fifteen, but the prototype shield generator and our Slipspace drive are online, sir... The latter still needs calculations to be run in order to ensure it's properly installed. Engines are also functioning, though they are only meant to be stand-ins..."

"Good... Good enough. Will we be ready to go if the situation requires it?" The Captain asked, looking to the Smart AI. It answered with a grave nod just as more crew members streamed onto the deck, manning consoles. Alarms blared aboard the UNSC ship as the newly-installed sensors picked Slipspace ruptures. Dozens of them. The Admiral saw the sensor readings come into view as the holo-table ahead came alive, flaring with hundreds of bits of information.

"Shit..." The Admiral paused, staring with wide eyes as a Covenant fleet appeared in-system, just outside the range of Earth's ODP Clusters. The crew present on deck stopped all that they were doing, to watch the arriving Covenant fleet on holo-display. The deck had fallen completely silent as the Admiral stared disbelievingly at the sight before them. The Com console pinged...

The doors slid open once more. A ginger-haired 30-something woman marched onto the deck, her sunken emerald eyes locking onto the holo-table, then onto the Com console. She moved over t othe console, put on a headset and listened in. Sighing, she said "Alright, ladies and gentlemen, ENOUGH FUCKING GAWKING! Get this ship moving! We have to get the fuck out of here before the Covenant find us!"

"Excuse me..." The Admiral started, looking to her "Who are you?"

"Captain Valerie McKinnon, acting XO of the Eternity. You must be Admiral Jonah." She answered, approaching him. She jabbed a finger to the console, then said "We just got the order from Lord Hood. We're bugging the hell out ASAP with whatever million people we managed to scrape together and heading for the outer rim of the Galaxy, while Fleet Admiral Harper's fleet holds the line."

"We can't just abandon the fight!" A Crew member protested

"The Eternity's few mounted guns are offline and without ammo, almost all of our MACs have been redirected to the Infinity, ammunition, to the fleet and all we have is fighter-bomber wings to defend ourselves, plus our escort, yeoman Koch." The Captain said angrily "I don't wanna fuck off and leave while our folks sacrifice themselves for us, but right now, we've got no choice if we want our species as a whole to survive. You've been through Reach, I read your file... You know what they'll do."

The Admiral sighed "So we're just leaving?"

"We have our escort and orders, admiral. You can order us all in and squander the last bit of hope mankind has of even surviving if and when Earth is burned, or we can leave now... Rebuild on another world... And return to get some fucking payback." The Captain explained. She looked around at the crew, her glare almost as if she was asking them to contradict her. However, much to her seeming dismay, nobody said a word. She nodded, then arranged her uniform and cap, before stepping back.

The Admiral sighed, gritting his teeth, then said "Signal our escort ships! Tell them to prepare to leave! Spool up our Slipspace Drive, charge the coils and power on our engines. Try to get us decoupled from the Drydock as fast as possible."

He and the Captain locked eyes and nodded to one-another, before the woman turned and took her seat at the Captain's console. She started writing up to the engineering deck, before she spoke up "Switch us to Red Alert. Prepare to decouple and jump." calmly typing in a direct message to an unknown address as the alarms blared and red lights flashed on the deck. She hit 'send', before standing up again and walking toward the holotable. She leaned onto it, watching as the Covenant deployed Strike Craft and boarding ships, then she sighed and spoke in a whisper "Stay safe, folks..."

"Ma'am! sir!" The sensor officer called out, getting the two Fleet Officers to turn to her. She sent a new reading to the holo, then warned "We've got approaching, times ten Covvie bomber squadrons and times two Cruisers! They're powering weapons!"

"How the hell did they spot us...?" The Admiral murmured

The Captain gritted her teeth, then said "Must've been our engines spooling. All crew, to battlestations! Admiral, the Battle Group will need you to give orders... I've got my ship, you got them, yes?"

He nodded. She bit her lower lip, then looked down at the approaching signal of Covenant craft, then whispered a plea "Please, lord, tell me our shields are online..."

"Ma'am! Slip-drive is spooled, but we're..." The Engineering ensign on the bridge started, but was cut off by the wail of alarms. The officer cadre froze once again as the alarms howled. Eternity's hull groaned, while the Captain barked and hollered orders to her men and the crew and the Admiral tried to get a message out to the Escort fleet, to warn them to stay away.

Out in space, two of the Marathon cruisers turned, their MAC Guns sending projectiles out to greet the Covenant's assault picket. Archer missiles flew from the hulls of the warships, while the smaller Corvettes and Frigates hammered away with their own small weapons at the approaching enemy force. Covenant shields flared while their weapons burned white-hot.

Beams of energy and Plasma torpedoes lashed out toward the Naval force protecting the Eternity, catching two Charon frigates in a wave of energy that tore the small frigates in half. A Marathon-class moved in front of a wave of Plasma torpedoes, to protect the Infinity-class ship's unarmored ventral hull and the cryobays. Plasma washed black armor, burning through the layers like a forest fire in the hot summer.

Ahead of the Eternity, space collapsed in on itself. A black hole the size of the massive Super-Carrier flashed, lightning striking the evacuating ship's hull and causing a flare-up in the shields. Almost as if it was a black hole, the rupture in space-time began to swallow the gases in the Oort cloud. The gravitational distortions intensified, sending ripples throughout the hull of the Eternity and her Drydock, then, the Slip portal grew, encompassing the Eternity and her escorts and swallowing them whole into its maw, before it, too, collapsed in on itself and imploded, pushing debris and a half-destroyed station out toward the Covenant fleet.

... Space was silent for the UNSC Eternity. The only sounds that could be heard were the groan of the hull of the UNSC ark vessel. And then, the Captain's voice, strained, called out "Charon, status report!" as she struggled to stand to her feet. She gritted her teeth, then yelped in sync with the crack of a joint being set back into place. Feeling her right shoulder, the woman barely moved the newly-reset hand, but she deemed herself functional enough.

"... The Eternity has suffered hull breaches on decks 12 through 25 and deck 20 has lost all pressure." The AI spoke, emerging as a flickering ghost on the com pillar while electronic panels sparked, damaged, behind him. He added "I am taking a headcount of the casualties... So far, I've counted a twelfth of the crew injured, two-thirds in critical condition. Dozens more dead from the sudden depressurization. I also detect major damage near the aft of the ship, from an impact."

"What the fuck happened to us, Charon...?" The woman demanded.

The AI sighed "The Slipstream Drive was not checked before we were asked to jump. Its installation was precarious and I would've needed at least a few more minutes to make calculations so that we would not be damaged by the jump... Sadly, I did not have the time. And with the drive misaligned, it seems that it self-engaged upon being spooled up for random jump."

"God dammit..." The woman sighed. She looked to see the Admiral slowly wake up, then she turned to the holo-table and powered it on. A diagnostics screen flashed on, before it was replaced by the 3-Dimensional holographic form of the UNSC Warship. She pleaded "At least tell me that the Cryobays are undamaged..."

"Completely unharmed, ma'am..." Charon said "The few layers of armor we had over them ensured that."

She bowed her head, sighing in relief, then ordering "I want a full damage report... Give me an overview of our escorts."

"Ma'am." The AI nodded, closing his eyes to begin the scan. He opened them wide. The Captain helped the admiral up, then looked to Charon.

"What's the matter, Charon?" She asked, feeling a pit form in her stomach. She watched the holographic table flare up with muted horror. With wide eyes, she leaned on it, seeing the status report for all the UNSC ships that had 'jumped' with them. And the term 'jumped' was a compliment in and of itself. More like they were bodyslammed into it hard enough to...

To do this.

Two Marathon cruisers lay, damaged beyond repair and non-functioning, having rammed into each-other by mistake in the middle of the transfer and now merged into one hulk that floated beside the Eternity. The other two were functioning, but had lost plating and weapons thanks to the uncalculated jump. Meanwhile, the picket ships and the frigate screen seemed to have been halved...

"Where is our Corvette screen?" The Admiral murmured, ignoring the head wound he had received.

"It appears in our uncalculated jump... The moment they were caught in the gravitational disturbances of the Slipstream portal... I am detecting multiple hulks belonging to standard Gladius-class Corvette design, with mixed modules from Charon and Paris-class Frigates forming a debris field around us." The AI spoke, bowing his head "We also have a piece of the dry-dock we were attached to with us..."

Red Alert blared once more as the reactor of the ship kicked into high gear, with Charon pausing. He turned to the holo-table, pulling up a detailed analysis of the outside hull. He then zoomed in to the port aft section, near the engines and reactor itself. She pulled apart the section, to find the twisted remains of a Charon-class half-embedded into the unarmored hull section. He spoke "The UNSC Frigate Free Bird has embedded itself near our reactor... Hers is going critical."

"God fucking... Time until detonation!?" Valerie demanded.

"Approximately 5 minutes." Charon said bluntly "Ma'am, I'm detecting one active, undamaged ship."

"Hail them! Tell them to stay away!" She barked.

"Negative, ma'am. They are hailing us. Accepting handshake protocol." The AI offered, concealing his smile behind his hood.

"... Eternity! This is the UNSC Halcyon-class repair cruiser Vestal, we're here to assist! Thank God we hanged onto your coattails for this one, or we would've been scrap!" The captain of the ship, a young civilian officer with a heart of gold, spoke. Valerie and the Admiral sighed in relief.

She leaned in, then spoke "Vestal, it's good to hear you got out from that clusterfuck alright. We need help, immediate, on the port, aft section of the ship, near the reactor and engines. A Charon-class frigate rammed right into us during our flight over, it seems. We're gonna need you to pull her out and throw her as far away as possible!"

"Roger dodger, Eternity, we're on our way. Hang on to your hats, folks."

And indeed, moving at best speed as a timer started to tick down in the Captain and Admiral's head, the UNSC Halcyon repair ship readied herself for the removal of the Frigate. They felt the ship shudder as the timer counted down below two minutes, with the retrofitted repair ship probably having launched massive harpoons or magnets attached to hardened wiring, to tug the small frigate out of its hole.

The clock ticked down another minute, now leaving only one. Stress caused the warship's hull to groan even more than before. Slowly, the frigate was inched out, just as time was running low, before finally, she was brought to the 'surface' and thrown toward the emptiness of space. What looked like a second sun was born the moment that ship exploded. The shockwave had a deep reverb, felt across the hull of the remaining UNSC ships, then... All was quiet.

The Captain felt her knees buckle under her. She leaned on the table for support, placing her forehead against its edge, then she called out a weak "Status report..." as the rest of the crew sighed in relief.

And Charon answered calmly "The danger has passed... I've acquired three more frigates, Paris-class, still active. Though they're damaged."

"Good." The woman sighed in relief, standing up with the help of the Admiral. She gazed out toward the windows, then froze again... "Charon."

"Yes?"

"... Why can't I see any..."

"Stellar bodies?" The AI hummed "Yes, I'm making calculations as we speak regarding that, Captain... There is a planet ahead of us, with three moons. Going by scans, it is habitable, although it is also emanating a very strange energy signature, ma'am, sir."

The Captain looked to the Admiral. He seemed just as shocked as she and the rest of her crew were, at the sight of a starless universe. She sighed, then straightened her uniform and said "Get the medical and damage control crews to work and prep a squad of Marines and a Pelican to go down. I know the whole 'Captain always on deck' policy we have, folks, but if someone's gotta go down there and die for the safety of everyone... I'd rather it be me. Admiral... I trust you with my ship's command." She eyed the man "I'll hopefully be back soon."

"Captain, aren't you a bit brash to make that decision yourself?" The Admiral asked in protest "Should we not wait until the planet's been scanned further and we have at least minimal repairs done?"

"I'd rather know if we have a world to bring our people to, should we need to evacuate the Eternity, Admiral." She answered calmly, going for the weapon in her holster. She felt a jolt of pain shoot through her right arm. She grabbed onto it, massaging her shoulder, then stepped off without another word, much to Charon and the Admiral's chagrin. The man sighed, resigning himself to having to listen to the Captain for the time being. This was her ship after all.

The woman walked down the halls of the ship, watching as medical teams began their tiresome work, picking up the wounded and those trapped under debris. She went to the side of a young gunnery officer, helping him to his feet and waving a medic over to him, before she walked off. Deeper into the bowels of the ship, the woman entered one of the finished landing bays, one occupied by gunships, tanks, transports and fighters. And by a squad of Marines, glad in their olive-drab uniforms and armors. Behind them, an armored transport, gunmetal and green and armed with missiles and a 30mm Chaingun in its nose, sat, engines already on.

Valerie easily recognized the wolf's head emblem on the shoulder of one of the men, as well as the black, gold and red horizontal stripes that made up his flag patch. She rubbed her shoulder, watching one of the Marines grin at her, pulling out an armored vest and setting it onto a box. The Captain smiled at the antics of the Marine in question, then gave him and the men a quick salute.

"Sergeant Reaver. Good to see you're cheery." The woman noted, taking the armor piece and quickly getting to putting it on.

"First time Marines go boots on the ground to scout for a new colony, ma'am" The Sergeant quipped "and me and my squad are them. Can't be proud of it?"

"Oh, you can." She grinned, locking the last of the armor's straps in tight. She felt for her shoulder's wound again, only to see the Sergeant motion to the team medic to help check on her. One quick scan and a bit later, the team was aboard the Pelican drop-ship that was headed for the ground floor. Having been given a light painkiller and anti-inflammatory medication, the Captain quickly took to checking her gun.

Locked, loaded and ready to rock...

She prayed for those back home, then stowed the gun back in its holster, watching as the Marines talked to keep their spirits up. She'd known Reaver, a blonde, blue-eyed mean son of a bitch who'd seen just about every front from '33 onto now. He'd stuck himself as Sergeant because, to quote him, 'he enjoyed the company of the Lower Enlisted more than some stuck-up CO position'. He was something.

... She didn't know what they'd find down there, considering this was a world without stars around it, but she had hope... Hope for her people. That felt like it would be enough. She hoped it was.