Halo_ The Fall of Reach - Eric Nylund [121]
rumble of the engines shook the decks as the ship accelerated in-system.
“ETA twenty minutes at best speed, sir.” The battle for Reach could be over by the time he got there. Captain Keyes wished he could move through Slipspace for short, precision jumps like the Covenant. That carrier had materialized a kilometer behind thePillar of Autumn . If he had that kind of accuracy, he could be at the rally point now—and be of some use. Any attempt to jump in-system, however, would be foolish at best. At worst, it would be a
fatal move. Jump targets varied by hundreds of thousands of kilometers. Theoretically, they could reenter normal spaceinside Reach’s sun. “Cortana, give me maximum magnification on the fore cameras.” “Aye sir,” she said. The view on the forward screen zoomed in—jumped and refocused on planet Reach. Twenty thousand kilometers from the planet, a cluster of a hundred UNSC ships collected at rally point
Zulu: destroyers, frigates, three cruisers, two carriers—and three refit and repair stations hovering over them . . . waiting to be used as sacrificial shields. “Fifty-two additional UNSC warships inbound to rally point Zulu,” Cortana reported.
“Shift focus to section four by four on-screen, Cortana. Show me those Covenant forces.” The scene blinked and transferred to the approaching Covenant fleet. There were so many ships Captain Keyes couldn’t estimate their numbers.
“How many?” he asked. “I count three hundred fourteen Covenant ships, Captain,” Cortana replied. Captain Keyes couldn’t tear his gaze away from the ships. The UNSC only won battles with the
Covenant when they outnumbered the enemy forces three to one . . . not the other way around.
They had one advantage: the MAC orbital guns around Reach—the UNSC’s most powerful nonnuclear weapon. Some called them “Super” MAC guns or the “big stick.” Their linear accelerator coils were larger than a UNSC cruiser. They propelled a three-thousand-ton
projectile at tremendous speed, and could reload within five seconds. They drew power directly from the fusion reactor complex planetside. “Pull back the camera angle, Cortana. Let me see the entire battle area.”
The Covenant ships accelerated toward Reach. The fleet at rally point Zulu fired their MAC guns and missiles. The orbital Super MAC guns opened fire as well—twenty streaks of white hot metal burned across the night.
The Covenant answered by launching a salvo of plasma torpedoes at the orbital guns—so much fire in space that it looked like a solar flare.
Deadly arcs of flame and metal raced through space and crossed paths.
The engines of the three refit stations flared to life and the platelike ships moved toward the path of the flaming vapor.
A plasma bolt caught the edge of the leading station—fire splashed over its flat surface. More bolts hit, and the station melted, sagged, and boiled. The metal glowed red, then white-hot, tinged with blue.
The other two stations maneuvered into position and shielded the orbital guns from the fiery assault. Plasma torpedoes collided with them and sprayed plumes of molten metal into space. After a dozen hits, clouds of ionizing metal enveloped the place where the three stations had been.
They had been vaporized.
The last of the Covenant plasma hit the haze—scattered, absorbed, and made the cloud glow a hellish orange.
Meanwhile, the fleet’s opening salvo and the Super MAC rounds hit the Covenant fleet.
The smaller ship-based MAC rounds bounced off the Covenant shields—it took three or more to wear them down.
The Super MAC rounds, however, were another story. The first Super MAC shell hit a Covenant destroyer. The ship’s shield flashed and vanished—the remaining impact momentum transferred to the ship—the hull rippled and shattered into a million fragments.
Four nuclear mines detonated in the center of the Covenant fleet. Dozens of ships with downed shields flared white and dissolved.
The other ships however, shrugged off the damage; their shields burned brilliant silver, then cooled.
The surviving Covenant vessels advanced in-system—a third of their