Halo_ The Fall of Reach - Eric Nylund [122]
Plasma charges collected on the lateral lines of the Covenant ships. They fired. Fingers of deadly energy reached across space . . . toward the UNSC fleet.
One Covenant ship sat in the center of the pack, a gigantic vessel, larger than three UNSC cruisers. White-blue beams flashed from its prow—a split second later five UNSC vessels detonated.
“Cortana . . . what the hell was that?” Keyes asked. “Lovell, push those engine superchargers as hot as you can make them.”
“Running at three hundred ten percent, sir,” Lovell reported. “ETA fourteen minutes.”
“Replaying and digitally enhancing video record,” Cortana said.
She split the screen and zoomed in on the huge Covenant ship, replaying the video as the large ship fired. The Covenant energy beams looked like pulse lasers . . . but tinged silver white, the same scintillation effect that they’d seen when their shields were hit.
Cortana switched back to view the doomed UNSC destroyerMinotaur . The lance of energy was needle-thin. It struck the vessel on A deck, aft, near the reactor. Cortana pulled the view back and slowed the record frame by frame—the beam punctured through the entire ship, emanating below H deck by the engines.
“It drilled through every deck and both sets of battleplate,” Captain Keyes murmured.
The beam moved through theMinotaur , slicing a ten-meter-wide swath.
“Projected beam path cut through theMinotaur ’s reactors,” Cortana said.
“A new weapon,” Captain Keyes said. “Faster than their plasma. Deadlier, too.”
The large Covenant ship veered off course and accelerated away from the battle. Perhaps it didn’t want to risk getting too close to their orbital MAC guns. Whatever the reason, Keyes was grateful to see it withdraw.
The UNSC forces slowly scattered. Some launched missiles to intercept the plasma torpedoes, but the high-energy explosives did nothing to the stop the superheated bolts. Fifty UNSC ships went up like flares, burning, exploding, falling toward the planet.
The orbital Super MAC guns fired—sixteen hits and sixteen Covenant ships were blasted into flame and glittering fragments.
The Covenant fleet split into two groups: half accelerated to engage the dispersing UNSC fleet; the remainder of their ships arced upward relative to the plane of the system. That group maneuvered to get a clear shot around the cloud of vaporized titanium from the refit stations. They were going to target the orbital guns.
Plasma charges collected along their sides. The orbital guns fired. The super-heavy rounds tore through the clouds of ionized metal vapor, leaving
whorls and spirals in the haze. They impacted eighteen incoming Covenant ships—ripped through them like tinfoil, with enough momentum to pulverize their hulls. Six Covenant ships cleared the interfering cloud of vapor. They had a clear shot. The Super MAC guns fired again. Plasma erupted from the sides of the nearby Convent ships. The Super MAC rounds hit the vessels and obliterated the enemy. The streams of plasma, however, had already launched. They streaked toward the orbital guns—
impacted and turned the installations into showers of sparks and molten metal.
When the haze cleared, fifteen of the Super MAC orbital installations remained intact . . . five had been vaporized. The Covenant ships engaging the fleet turned and fled on an out-system vector. The remaining UNSC ships did not pursue. “Incoming orders, sir,” Lieutenant Dominique called out. “We’re being ordered to fall back and
regroup.” Keyes nodded. “Cortana,” he said, “can you give me damage and casualty estimates for the fleet?” Her tiny holo image coalesced in the display tank. “Yes, Captain,” she said. She cocked an eyebrow at
him. “Are you sure you want the bad news?” Damage estimates scrolled across his personal screen. They had taken heavy losses—an estimated twenty ships remained. Nearly one hundred shattered and
burning UNSC vessels floated, lifeless, in the combat area.
Captain Keyes realized that he was holding