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 Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2006 9:46 pm
Five of the massive Magnetic Accelerator Cannon Orbital Defense Stations silently hovered in orbit above Belfast Base. With these being the latest and greatest models to have been produced, with a more rapid rate of fire, they would easily wipe out any small Covenant force that decided to threaten the only major ship-building facilities of the UNSC that remained active. Even though these structures could easily defend the base, they struggled to be the homes of the thousands of personel that drifted by continuously on their usual routes. With Reach gone, VerCrouse was now desperately needed for the UNSC to remain as some form of a threat to the Covenant. With thoughts on human extermination in mind, the Admiralty gladly dedicated a few dozen vessels to guarding Belfast. Even though they had to keep the Covenant from destroying or capturing this base, they could only separate their main forces so much. After the losses at Reach, most of the remaining vessels have been called back to Earth. VerCrouse is one of the only remaining places besides Earth that the UNSC has some form of control over. With only five MAC Stations, however, many questioned how long this base would survive with a large support fleet. Reach had over two-times as many of them, and they were ripped to shreds. Of course, no one thought that the Covenant would actually attack in such great numbers again. Defenses: UNSCDF - ODA348 Arta Defense Platform UNSCDF - ODA349 Mani Defense Platform UNSCDF - ODA350 Uppsala Defense Platform UNSCDF - ODA351 Bristol Defense Platform UNSCDF - ODA352 Zenith Defense Platform VerCrouse UNSC Naval Forces:UNSC Marathon-class Cruiser Pflanzer (Sixth Fleet Flagship)UNSC Marathon-class Cruiser MontereyUNSC Marathon-class Cruiser AmengaldUNSC Carrier Kasperek UNSC Carrier TitanUNSC Destroyer Farragut , DDG-86 UNSC Destroyer Nitze , DDG-98 UNSC Destroyer Decatur, DDG-72UNSC Destroyer Stethem, DDG-104 UNSC Destroyer Ramage , DDG-113 UNSC Destroyer Chafee, DDG-94 UNSC Frigate Shinobi , FFG-169 UNSC Frigate Ingraham , FFG-173UNSC Frigate Thach , FFG-121 UNSC Frigate Vandegrift , FFG-149 UNSC Frigate Klakring , FFG-107 UNSC Frigate Jarrett , FFG-178 UNSC Frigate Geiger , FFG-177 UNSC Frigate Kearsage , FFG-132 UNSC Frigate Bataan , FFG-168UNSC Frigate Nassau, FFG-170UNSC Frigate Arago , FFG-164 UNSC Frigate Fitzgerald, FFG-143 CCS-class Assault Carrier Resilient Travesty
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Posted: Sat Aug 19, 2006 11:28 pm
UEF Valkyrie Rose QD3-18-F Heavy Transport Ship/Light Cruiser
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Posted: Wed Sep 06, 2006 3:05 pm
Deforming the Sillouette of space, the UNSC Armengald appears like a specter in the night. Heading towards the Planet. Its thrusters slowed their mighty thrust and the ship began to become sient. The light from the planet illuminated the battle damage of the outer armor.
At the ships aft end, something seemed to break the silence. Drop Pod A3 on Deck D5 began launching proceedures as the monstorus doors opened, pushing the small craft out with incredable force as it plummited towards the planet....
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Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2007 8:19 pm
Rear Admiral Roland Delaney gazed at the large screen he stood in front of on his Orbital Defense platform, appearing to display simply a large spot of empty space away from his planet. They'd recieved reports from several of their monitoring stations a good distance from VerCrouse, all stating that one large mass was on a course toward them. Of course, they never painted a perfect picture for them, so they couldn't be sure of what it was just yet. If it was friendly, it would have called home and told its parents it was heading back, but this wasn't the case. Roland simply watched and waited, eager to know what was nearing his point of command.
Over one-hundred kilometers from the nearest OD station, a fairly empty point of space cracked and sizzled, before peeling back and allowing a small Covenant Frigate to enter back into reality. The sleek vessel was only halfway out of its slip-space tunnel before three MAC rounds ripped directly through the ship's shields and armor and easily shattered the vessel. Without a means to maintain their exit vector, slip-space was once against closed off to the universe and sealed away the rest of the wreckage for eternity. Only small chunks of the once advanced ship remained in normal space for the UNSC to clean up, the five "smart" AIs of the MAC platforms having worked with their slipspace drones and calculated the optimal point of entry into regular space for the vessel if it had planned to examine their planet and fired three shots several seconds ago. They would take no risks.
The Admiral knew they'd come looking for their lost ship soon enough with greater numbers, so they would now have to worry about the upcoming assault on their base. He sighed and rubbed his tired eyes, having been staring at a screen for hours now and needing some form of a break, but knew it wasn't possible...especially now. He had to contact Earth somehow and ask for possible reinforcements. He doubted he would get any, especially after sending out some of his own ships toward the rescue of some UNSC forces on some unknown planet. He hadn't been told all the details, but he had his orders. They hadn't heard anything from them in a while, though, so he assumed they wouldn't arrive to help. The only help he actually expected was from Captain Vincent Millay and the rest of his battlegroup, not knowing where the hell they were coming from as he began planning for their upcoming battle.
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Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2007 7:36 pm
///AUTOMATED REROUTE: UNSC SLIP-S PROBE XB-021-049/// REROUTE ENABLED///
///AUTOMATED REROUTE: UNSC SLIP-S PROBE XB-015-026/// REROUTE ENABLED///
///AUTOMATED REROUTE: UNSC SLIP-S PROBE XB-007-009/// REROUTE ENABLED///
///AUTOMATED REROUTE: UNSC SEC-III SAT BD-000462/// REROUTE ENABLED///
///AUTOMATED REROUTE: UNSC SEC-III SAT BD-000224/// REROUTE ENABLED///
///AUTOMATED REROUTE: UNSC SEC-III SAT BD-000045/// REROUTE ENABLED/// ENCRYPTION CODE REQUIRED/// FILE ACCESS GRANTED///
United Nations Space Command Priority Transmission
01724H-99
Encryption Code: Theta
Public Key: N/A
From: Captain Vincent Millay , Commanding Officer , UNSC Titan/ (UNSC Service Number: 00769-19485-VM)
To: Rear Admiral Roland Delaney , Commanding Officer , UNSC VerCrouse Naval Forces/ (UNSC Service Number: 01938-19344-RD)
Subject: Theta Group Approach
Classification: RESTRICTED (BD Directive)
/START FILE/
Delaney,
We're finally returning from our classified mission, which I'm sure you're no doubt aware of. We've suffered losses to our Marine divisions, but none to our ships. You can take some comfort in knowing you've got a few more guns to guard that wreck of a planet you call a fortress. We have all the same warships and more. We've got a captured Covenant warship behind us, so don't go blasting away. We've become allies with a group of Pirates, whose ships will all be tagged against our radar. Specifications on the captured vessel, Pirate ship lists, and our incoming coordinates are attached. Specifications on our mission aren't on the menu yet, but will be when I've had a good deal of rest. Oh, and remember: DON'T SHOOT.
Respect,
Millay
/END FILE/
Press ENTER to open linked attachments
Press ENTER to close the file.
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Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2007 6:03 pm
Space wavered unsteadily before tearing itself open once more near the UNSC front lines of VerCrouse, only with a slightly different outcome. Rather than being greeted with massive MAC rounds like the poor Covenant Frigate, the UNSC forces that appeared remained intact. There was a large Carrier with a much smaller Frigate close by, followed by the even more massive Covenant Assault Carrier known as Resilient Travesty, which had by then been scanned and looked through fairly well. The UNSC would have written the moment a Covenant vessel was captured intact and successfully brought back to UNSC-controlled space, had their focus not been on what followed their allies. Only a dozen of the largest Pirate vessels appeared, the rest of their ships without slip-space capabilities housed safely within them as they entered hostile territory, mostly thanks to politics.
The battle group gladly accelerated toward the planet and its fairly safe surrounding forces, Vincent gazing upon the ships that encircled it with a good sense of relief. They'd been against overwhelming odds for too long, and it'd do them good to even get a little assistance thanks to greater numbers. He quickly opened up a channel with their guardian Frigate, the Ingraham, and watched as Captain Alfred Sage's face appeared in the corner of his personal side-screen. Whenever he saw the man these days, he could only think of how amazingly short he truly was when met in person, though he still managed to respect him somewhat after he was assigned along with the Shinobi to guard his and Resnick's ships during their fairly dangerous mission. He decided to save a long farewell for later in life as he spoke through their COM channel. "Sage, split off, resupply, and join the rest of the fleet in orbit." The man simply nodded in acknowledgement, saluted quickly, and cut off the channel.
The relatively tiny Frigate curved away from the Titan, heading towards one of their MAC platforms to resupply as ordered. He watched the vessel leave his side and gave his silent thanks, before turning his attention toward their own target, the center Orbital Defense station in their formation of five, which acted as their staging center above Belfast. The place also acted as a home for Rear Admiral Delaney, who he was sure expected him to visit as soon as possible once his Carrier docked and began the long and annoying task of repairs, taking inventory, finding out what is missing and replacing it, as well as issuing a little down time for their over-worked soldiers. He quickly input one more command into his terminal before getting up finally, walking from his bridge to find his superior. His command easily slipped through the Titan's computers to ever Marine barrack and mess hall on his ship, ordering them to get off their asses, get off his ship, and to get some rest. Vincent still felt he had plenty of work left to do, and, sadly, they'd all have to be dealing with a great new threat.
______________________________________________________________
Every Pelican within the Titan's massive docking bay fired up its engines as the order to leave was given, each being fairly overloaded with Marines. The tiny ships slipped into the 'open', before darting towards VerCrouse, passing beneath a much larger Marathon-class Cruiser as they moved into the planet's gravity, letting it take them down and over Belfast Base, which was going to be their home for some time now.
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Posted: Mon Jan 22, 2007 5:14 pm
0500 HOURS, NOVEMBER 2, 2552 (MILITARY CALENDAR)
BETA SYGMA SYSTEM , VERCROUSE UNSC MILITARY STAGING AREA ,
UNSCDF-ODA350 UPPSALA DEFENSE PLATFORM
_____________________________________________________________
A passing by Marathon-class Cruiser was easily dwarfed by the Uppsala Station as it stood defiant against any enemy, the barrel-end of the massive Magnetic Accelerator Cannon it housed pointing out toward the unlimited void that hid its target. Captain Vincent Millay wandered deep within the armored hull, becoming too used to the artificial atmosphere and gravity the UNSC provided as he headed off to meet with the Admiral. He'd given what he would say to the old man very little thought. He didn't bother dressing formally and stuck with his usual Captain's uniform. He'd been told that any formalities would have to be skipped due to an urgent matter, and he could only feel a slight sense of dread upon hearing that, thinking he should prepare for the worst as he moved through the station.
He casually glanced to his right, through the thick, reinforced windows beside him that lined this passage as he admired the ships around him. He was happy to see so many UNSC vessels in once place, the last time he'd seen such a thing being at Reach before it was taken from them. He shifted his attention back to the inside of the station, nearing his purpose for being up here. He strode up to a large doorway that looked slightly different from the others, and grinned as it parted automatically with a small hiss. The room within was the lively bridge of the station, dozens of officers scrambling about to order and confirm orders concerning the dozens of ships that made up their fleet.
The most calm man in the room, almost with a gloomy aura about him, was Rear Admiral Roland Delaney. He simply stood there and stared at a large screen which appeared to have readouts scrolling along it, possibly from one of the vast numbers of Clarion Spy Drones that surrounded the planet and constantly observed the space around them. Once he was behind the man he quickly stomped his foot down in the process of straightening up to announce his presence, saluting quickly and deciding he didn't want to act too comfortable around an Admiral with so much subordinates around. The man slowly turned to gaze at the source of his interruption, his face hiding his fatigue well, though his tired eyes gave his long hours of worry away.
The Captain expected some form of mild joy to be exposed upon the man seeing Vincent alive once more, but any of that was lost in his words as he spoke to him in a dull tone. "At ease, Millay...We've got a problem..." Vincent saved any disappointment for later, and shoved back any false hopes of a break for him and his crew as he brought his hand down and focused his attention on the screen behind the Admiral as he decided to reply in his usual manner. "Sir, there's a problem for the second largest fleet in the UNSC?" Millay let a slight grin tug at his mouth at his own words, while the Admiral could only nodd and turn back toward his screen, tapping on a side display. The now darkened display lit up as numbers and figures scrolled across it excitedly, before being replaced with strange images of an oddly colored area of nothingness, lacking even the light of stars.
Vincent licked his dried lips slightly before deciding to tell the Admiral what they were seeing. "A slipspace probe's readout..." He'd used the things before, but rarely found out too much using them, especially with how much they could malfunction. The elderly man nodded and reached his hand up to the screen slowly. "Not long ago, our most distant probe recorded and sent back...this." Matching the Admiral's words perfectly, a strange, amazingly blury image drifted past the screen. Despite the fact that these probes were useless in his opinion, and the fact that the information they provided was always sketchy at best, Vincent couldn't help but recognize the angled hull of a massive Covenant ship as the Admiral continued. "Shortly after that, the transmission was suddenly cut off and we lost contact with it, as well as with Remote Sensing Station Kezar, which was in charge of that sector..."
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Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2007 4:33 pm
0520 HOURS, NOVEMBER 2, 2552 (MILITARY CALENDAR)
BETA SYGMA SYSTEM , VERCROUSE UNSC MILITARY STAGING AREA ,
IN ORBIT ABOVE BELFAST
_____________________________________________________________
Almost every ship the Sixth Fleet had to offer was now clustered around Belfast and the Five Kings, as some enjoyed calling their only orbital platforms in their pentagon formation directly above Belfast. The Titan shuddered as its engines flared, the large warship slowly drifting from the docking area of the Uppsala station, before accelerating toward the rest of the vessels that dotted the space near VerCrouse. The Covenant would most likely use the exact same route as their missing ship, meaning the UNSC could surprise them with a wave of metal and missiles.
Vincent watched on the main screen as Frigates and Destroyers gathered around their assigned positions. The Carriers and Cruisers were safely placed in positions where they could use the cannon fodder in front of them as cover from the enemy's super-heated assault. Millay had sent down his Marines for only two real reasons. The first was that he felt they'd deserved some form of break on a real planet breathing in real oxygen after the hell they'd been through. The second was that, even though they had a good number of ships and weapons, he believed they'd be needed down on the surface more than on his ship.
The Captain watched as nearly a hundred Pelicans left their respective ships and headed toward VerCrouse, their engines appearing as small spots of light that moved against the stars around them. Every one of them was overloaded with almost twenty combat-ready Marines and either a Warthog or Scorpion weighing them down and helping them to plumet towards the base with ease. Vincent felt now would be the perfect time for any of the religious members of the UNSC to say a prayer or two, watching around two-thousand soldiers head down to their deaths.
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Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2007 1:06 pm
"Your from Earth? Huh, I would've put you somewhere in the colony worlds."
The trio of pelicans broke through the atmosphere. The screen cleared the inferno and it became less polerized. Linda pulled the ship to the right in a slow dive through the clouds. She glanced at the motion detectore and switched on the over head comm.
"Listen up, little boyos! LZ's going to be warm and I'm not stoping my ship. You know where the EZ is. You have a mandated two days before you'll get picked up. Call if you finish before that. You know where we live. Lock an' load soldierlings. ETA 30 seconds. Hooah!"
She flicked the switch back off and accelerated the drop ship till it was almost hurtiling towards the ground.
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Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2007 4:15 pm
0525 HOURS, NOVEMBER 2, 2552 (MILITARY CALENDAR)
BETA SYGMA SYSTEM , VERCROUSE UNSC MILITARY STAGING AREA ,
IN ORBIT ABOVE BELFAST
_____________________________________________________________
Captain Martin Flagg gazed out of the UNSC Monterey at the Frigates and Destroyers, getting into position. He watched closely as several hundred pelicans deployed down to Belfast, including some of his own. Well, several hundred was an understatement, it was more like something closer to a thousand, each carrying more than a dozen troops in them. "We're sending them to their deaths" he muttered under his breath. "What was that sir?" asked Lily who was stationed at the MAC Controls. The Captain looked over at her smiling brightly, brushing off his disturbing coldness for the moment. "Oh, it was nothing. Just complimenting the scenery." The Ensign looked at him for a moment as if trying to read his mind, and turned away giving up. Captain Flagg nodded his head absentmindedly and turned his attention toward the monitors.
"Kiora, are you ready for battle?"
"Yes sir, and if you don't mind me asking, why aren't we moving into position?"
"I was just about to ask you to do that for me."
The engines roared to life deep within the Monterey as the ship board AI, Kiora, moved them into position with the rest of the fleet. "Bring her in slowly, Kiora." The Monterey shuddered as the thrusters ignited one last time before they settled into position along with the rest of the fleet. Flagg sighed, exhaling a breath he didn't even realize he was holding. "All right, now that we're settled let's pop a cork of Champagne" he said, easing into the flow of things. Personally, Martin hated the false gravity, but hated null gravity more, so he had gotten used to the feeling. But even though his feet were firmly planted on the deck of the bridge, his mind wandered to another matter of great importance to him.
"Johno, open up a direct link for me please?" asked the Captain. The el-tee at the COM Controls nodded his head, "yes sir. To whom may I ask?" Captain Flagg smiled for a moment, his hazel eyes glittering in the dim light. "Why, my good old friend Captain Millay, on board the UNSC Titan." Martin sat comfortably in his chair for a moment while the Johno worked on the COM link, placing his hands behind his head. "All right, COM link established in three... two... one... mark!" The Captain cleared his throat and then spoke, "this is Captain Martin Flagg of the UNSC Monterey, forgive the lack of video communication. Our COM System was damaged in a miniature confrontation on the outskirts of the Sigma VII system with some Free Lancers. I heard about your little" he paused, "encounter, on the Desert World from a little birdie I know. How's your headache my friend?" A smile found its' way onto Captain Martin Flagg's face as he reclined in his chair.
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Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2007 4:41 pm
Chath Tiu "Your from Earth? Huh, I would've put you somewhere in the colony worlds." The trio of pelicans broke through the atmosphere. The screen cleared the inferno and it became less polerized. Linda pulled the ship to the right in a slow dive through the clouds. She glanced at the motion detectore and switched on the over head comm. "Listen up, little boyos! LZ's going to be warm and I'm not stoping my ship. You know where the EZ is. You have a mandated two days before you'll get picked up. Call if you finish before that. You know where we live. Lock an' load soldierlings. ETA 30 seconds. Hooah!" She flicked the switch back off and accelerated the drop ship till it was almost hurtiling towards the ground.
"Hoo-ah!"
The word was sucked out of his mouth because of the roller coaster effect. Coop snapped the gun from his side and held it firmly between his fingers. He began to count to thirty in his head. Landing wasn't something he had much experience in and wasn't sure how they would stop. He just hoped everything worked out.
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Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2007 3:04 pm
Linda switched the comm back to general just in time to here another pilot's voice boom over:
"...Three circuits over them then it's back up to the Titan."
Two other green acknowledgement lights blinked on in the upper right hand corner of the screen. James flicked on they're own to join the duet.
"I've kind of taken a likening to you, so come back in one piece, 'kay boyo?"
Linda grinned and pulled back on her stick, slowing the pelican enough so if and when the soldiers jumped, their bones wouldn't be turned to dust on impact. James yelled back out into the man room of the drop ship, not bothering with the comm system.
"This is your stop, soliderlings! Move out! Antoine, stay on the rear gun."
All but one of the dozen or so marines on board unclipped the safety restraints and filed off the pelican in two files to drop the dozen feet or so to the ground. They immediately moved off into the more protective brush and trees.
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