Welcome to Gaia! ::

The serine vaccum of space was disrupted by MAC rounds. The slugs buried themselves deep within the bowels of the Covenant vessels, striking 3 and missing 2. A violent shockwave ripped through the UNSC fleet as a Covenant ship vaporized from oncoming fire. The defenders of the planet rocked back and forth from the strain of the blast that momentarily disabled their fleet.
3 more rounds flew through the black of space from the planet below, hurling themselves at the massive Covenant ships.
One struck at the bow of a small destroyed, Its shields flickered from the force of the blow, allowing the rounds to plunge under its plastic like shell, piercing all the way through to the stern.
For a second, the ship remained quiet and still, but then became enveloped in a fireball that spread throughout its fleet.
Missiles and plasma continued to fly between the fleets.


“Sir, I’m reading Seraphs incoming at our port.”
Captain Resnick’s posture stayed the same like a stone statue.
“Have Squadrons Rouge and Wolf intercept and attack. Give out friends a nice welcome.”
“Aye sir.”

The Captain looked onto the bloody scene that took up the view screen. He could barely make out the rounds being extanged with the Covenant fleet. Missile exaust trails littered the sky like crayon streaks. “Sir, the MAC cannon is at full charge and ready to fire.”
Resnick scanned the screen, looking for a target. His eyes met with the glowing lateral lines of a Covenant Carrier. “Set target trajectory at Six-One-Five-One-Zero-Nine-One. Pull all safeties from the missiles. I wanna piss it off…”
“Sir. Locking in new coordinates. Safeties removed and ready to fire.“
“Good, and open a signal to all smaller vessels, have them be in the vicinity for when the bastards come into the trap.”
“Aye sir.”

An inferno ripped through the dead of space as another UNSC vessel erupted into particles.
The Armengald's wounds began to rip apart from the seams as they held their own against the onslaught.
"Sir, I'm reading Covenant dropships inbound on the planet. They've broken through the wall."
Captain Resnick's facial expression didn't change. "Have all fighter squadrons intersept and destroy them."
He then turned to his helmsman.
"Alright, bring us to port at Six-Six-Five. Fire MAC cannon at Main Carrier. We're going to piss it off."
"Aye sir."
A tremor ripped through the ship. A MAC round shot through space, flairing off the Covenant Carrier's sheilds. The Carrier turned to face the small UNSC vessel, its lateral lines started to glow.
"Prepair for hell." The Captain said, gripping his hands against the rail.

The sizable target, known as the Titan to its allies, pushed its power source to its limits as it sped toward the decently open area of their makeshift front lines. Only a pair of Covenant warships sought to take advantage of this weak point, the small destroyer and even smaller frigate moved to take up their perfect positions. The destroyer, Lucid Disposition led the smaller ship onward as the larger, weaker human carrier attempted to challenge them.

___________________________________________________

"Engines red-lining in two minutes," spoke Lieutenant Forten, breaking the short but unnerving silence that had momentarily plagued the bridge of the Titan. Vincent felt no need to acknowledge the statement as he eyed up their cometition, considering their limited options. He'd sacrificed the use of his Longswords to defend the desperately needed MAC platforms, meaning he was limited to using a handful of MLA's to deal with enemy fighters. "Prep the remote Longsword for launch and arm the Shiva missile...Set the activation origin to my terminal..." Forten turned his head from his monitor to look at the Captain directly, his usually plain features slightly hinting his concern as he voiced his argument. "Sir, the enemy is too close to our stations. The resulting blast . . ."

___________________________________________________

The Covenant frigate was the first to turn to the small threat with its sides glowing with collected energy, the destroy continuing without considering the human vessel. The Titan recoiled slightly while the Frigate spun backwards with its shield flaring from the impact of the light MAC round. The warship struggled to correct its forced heading as dozens of small lights shot from the sides of the carrier and arced toward the dazed enemy. The Archer missiles would do nothing against the still active shield and would only be wasted potential as the ship righted itself and prepared to fire. Barely a second after its spinning had ceased, it began again, another small round slamming into it and shattering its shield.

The tables of combat were easily turned as the Titan's missles reached their target and peppered its hull with explosives, only able to cause damage thanks to the extra shot fired from the Ingraham. The small ship caught up to the carrier and remained near, poised to attack the remaining Covenant threat. Both UNSC vessels watched as the destroyer now turned to meet them, having noticed its lesser comrade had been disabled. Both the Titan and the Ingraham drifted now, coasting as they put all of their energy into recharging their main cannons. The Lucid Disposition's easily chargable plasma weapons heated angrily before releasing its volitile energy. It corkscrewed toward the two human ships, its target not yet clear as it threatened to engulf them both. The two human ships slowed slightly as they spat two more metal slugs at their enemy, while dozens upon dozens of missiles left their pods to add to their assault.

The human rounds streaked past the torpedo that now seemed to veer toward the larger Titan. The carrier remained on its current heading as its overheated engines cooled, the plasma moving too close to avoid. The heated energy washed over the titanium-A hull of the Ingraham as it saved the more needed vessel from harm. The plasma ate away at the ship's superstructure as it maneuvered around the Titan in a sickening arc, the atmosphere within bursting out violently from the growing gash. Meanwhile, the human rounds found their target with ease and hammered into its shield, the ship wavering unsteadily as its protective bubble glowed white and shimmered with a lack of stability. Seconds later, the wave of Archer missiles hit, only a few being needed to break the strained barrier while the rest of the swarm bit into the destroyer's alien hull.

The Covenant ship shuddered slightly while the human frigate crumbled, unable to keep itself together as it sluggishly moved past the Titan in the opposite direction. Only six escape pods managed to shoot from the dying vessel as it slid by, before the Ingraham propeled itself away from the friendly carrier. The uncontrolable fires within the ship quickly spread to the reactors, causing the small ship to blossom into a bright display of destruction as shrapnel shot outward in all directions. The husk of a warship was soon taken by the cold elements of space, beginning its eternal drift in the grip of VerCrouse's gravity.

___________________________________________________

Vincent had his doubts concerning the Captain, but still harbored some sort of hope as he paced along the length of his bridge. He knew it was a bad habit, especially around his officers, but he failed to care about it as they took in the survivors from the Ingraham. He stopped as he stood before his main view screen once more, the camera fixed on the two now lifeless Covenant warships. Millay watched them carefully, noting every twitch that they displayed for him. The frigate was venting plasma from a main line that had been severed, meaning the possibility of repairs was nil, but the destroyer was simply sitting there. The damage from their assault was clearly visible along its hull, its smooth curves now deformed from the explosive power they forced upon it. He didn't think it was out of the fight as he tapped in its exact coordinates, sending them immediately to the nearest MAC station with a tag-on request for its immediate destruction.

With that done, he quickly turned and walked to Lieutenant Hall's station, placing a hand lightly on the back of her chair as he looked at her monitor, hearing her speak to him as he did. "All lifeboats recieved and accounted for, Captain. I've got the crew survivor list if you wish for me to send it to your terminal.." He detected the confusion in her voice, not understanding why he seemed to be so interested in who had made it. He didn't wish to waste time going through it himself as he asked her in a dll tone "Captain Sage?" The female officer swiftly scanned through the list before looking up at him and faintly shaking her head. Millay simply nodded to her before turning from the list and finding his own seat once more, finding he'd been up and about long enough as he did. His eyes locked with the Covenant destroyer onscreen, his mind wandering only for a moment as he silently mourned the loss of a great, unknown leader.

His brain clicked back into place as the enemy ship moved slightly, its engine cones flaring as its power was restored and it looked to get back into the fray. Vincent heard one of his officers alert him to the threat, as if he hadn't already seen it, and urged him to take action. He didn't bother seeing who held this odd panicked tone within their calls as he watched the vessel sluggishly advance toward them. He heard a faint pinging noise coming from his terminal, indicating he'd recieved a reply, before the destroyer's newly recovered shields vanished with a flash and the hull shattered into a billion fragments of debris and shrapnel. The Zenith had clearly recived his plea for action, and responded just promptly enough to preserve his ship. He now shifted his attention to the rest of the fleet, the two forces still clashing with worse odds than he faced.

Kyle baorded a longsword fighter that was preparing for lift-off on the ground, "Hey! Hold the door!" He ran and the pilot extended his hand and helped Kyle up, "Thanks man." The pilot took off her helmet, "Uhhhhh......I mean thanks miss." She smirked and and worked on the control console near the platform. He walked up to the front of the ship and looked at the pilot, "Hey I need you guys to take me to the Titan carrier. I have a message for the Admiral." The pilot turned around, "OK. We'll bring you to the titan." Kyle sat down in one of the seats. He shut his eyes, "Wake me when we get there."

The Monterey lurched through space, pushing in a starboard direction away from the Flag Ship, behind debris from a fallen ship. The Flag ship's lateral lines emitted their plasma and it ripped through space. The debris from the fallen vessel did it's job, allowing for the Monterey to charge it's MAC guns and arm it's SHIVA's in a last chance assault on the large Covenant vessel. Melted metal began to bubble on the debris within the miniature explosion; the Captain was sure that the Covenant were now angry. "Sir! All SHIVAs have been loaded, and MAC guns are at 78% and rising!" yelled the crewman. Flagg continued to stare at his holographic board, deciding upon his actions, "how many SHIVAs?" "Ten sir!" "I want the port MAC gun charged to 120% and all SHIVAs fired on my command." It was only a matter of moments now until they were in the Flag Ships range of fire once again, and it was sure to have it's lateral lines charged and ready for another assault upon the UNSC ship.

"SHIVAs, fire!" he called out, watching the streaks of missiles on his holographic board's infrared setting. "Ready the port MAC gun" said Flagg. The crewman typed a command on the keyboard, his index finger hovering above the execute button awaiting the command. Slowly and surely, the Monterey reappeared from behind the debris and Flagg said, "fire."

The crewman's finger plunged down upon the execute button, sending the large round screaming toward the Covenant Flag Ship. As it ripped across space, it did what it was supposed to. The Covenant Flag Ship's lateral lines flashed white for a moment before releasing the heated plasma, colored a facade of cool blue. Flagg had suspected that immediate calculations made by the enemies artificial intelligence would send the plasma rocketing toward the MAC round at an intercepting course, and he was right. As the plasma went to intercept the MAC round, the ten SHIVAs streaked inside the shields of the ship, exploding upon hull of the ship. There was some immediate damage to the vessel, as there was a chain reaction within it's lower sector, but it was almost immediately isolated by the ships artificial intelligence.

There was an explosion in the space between the Monterey and the Flag Ship, allowing for both militants to recharge their weapons. That was when there was the advantage of the UNSC; the Flag Ships shields faltered, leaving the vessel open to the merciless attacks of the UNSC. A Super MAC round from the orbital station was sent ripping through space toward the Flag Ship. With a sure ear shattering explosion, the round ripped into the monsters hull, going deep and mortally wounding the ship. "All personnel are to evacuate this ship now, get to the escape pods" he said, staring at his screen. The crewmen and women of the Monterey looked over their shoulders at him for a moment, before jumping up and exiting the bridge. Only Li said anything to him, and they were the last words he'd hear; "God speed." Randal stood up and approached his screen, "Kiora, it's time we give them hell; load the NOVA we have on board and set the timer for Tee minus one minute. It's been fine serving humanity with you." "As it has been with you, sir."