Alpha One - Chris Burton [68]
Hoskins was on the Bridge. He sat in his command chair, with his first officer and his bridge officer sitting either side of him. He opened a ship-wide comm channel and started his announcement, choosing his words carefully.
“This is Commander Hoskins. The Halo 7 will form part of the front line offensive, together with the Flagship and the Defiant. I am pleased to advise that we have been given a Field Operational Upgrade to a B Class ship of the line and we are considered central to the success of this Task Force.“
“We have just crossed into the Ionian System and we are maneuvering to our new position at the front of the fleet. We are still under battle operation conditions and we will maintain our operational status until we detect Sentinel activity on our short range scanners., There will be no access to external comm links for the immediate future. You will have taken the opportunity already, I am sure, to speak to your families. Now is the time for quiet contemplation, rest and anticipation for battle. We have prepared for this battle for a long time. The ship is ready, the crew and the fleet is ready and soon the waiting will be over. “
Hoskins closed the channel and turned towards Commander Jacques.
“Well that’s done. Now we wait.”
He didn’t like motivating, cliché-filled speeches, but there was little else you could do when you must broadcast to the ship, when the whole crew were in a state of contemplation in the natural but uneasy calm before battle.
Jonathan Hoskins had already contemplated what lay ahead. He was apprehensive, but he didn’t show it. He was a leader by example and he was ready. Ready to come to the fore, when conflict commenced.
Part Two
Chapter Thirty-Two
The Battle Commences
Admiral Thomas Rose watched on as the initial skirmishes of the battle commenced. From the Central Command room on his Flagship, the Pacific. Now he could see the entire fleet and the vast and swelling numbers of the Sentinel Fleet.
Certainly General Yoshi’s Fleet outnumbered Alpha’s considerably. This was a constant, a known factor, and his battle strategy had assumed that Alpha would be outnumbered by fifteen to one. There was, though, a significant unknown factor. Rose had commanded two previous assaults against the Sentinel’s Northern Fleet and on both occasions he was successful. There was something about this Southern Fleet.
The ships were the same, the formations the same, but something was different. Something Rose could not put his finger on. Yes, some of the newer and larger ships had their new advanced Dark Shielding, which was certainly going to make their detection much more difficult and yes, the Sentinel Commanders responded to Alpha’s advances in a more accurate and calculated way. This didn’t explain the overall feeling they fought a different enemy.
Admiral Rose was fifty-five years old and was nearing the end of his ‘active’ military career. He was the most senior and most highly-decorated Admiral in active service, and certainly the most respected and the most tactically astute. There was no question, either from the Senior Bench or from the ranks, that Rose was the best man for the job.
Today, Rose knew he would have to utilize his tactical skills to gain the initiative. He was supported by a three-strong team of senior commanders, who between them had a vast array of experience, and it was this team that he turned to.
“Ladies and Gentlemen. There seems to be a coherence to the Sentinel