Well I am listening to this.
KrankysFirebrand48 The DSN Trident shook violently, and the lights in the bridge flickered.
Fire from both Redford and UNSC ships hammered the already heavily damaged shields even further, each shot making ripples like raindrops falling into a pond. The UDM was at least exchanging equal the amount of firepower, most of it directly into the UNSC destroyers in close range with an enormous wrath of fire and brimstone. Plasma, lasers, beams of particles tore through the defences of the UEG ships as the close range engagement favoured their weapons. The weapons were as accurate as they got. With the speed and range, the UNSC destroyers small profiles did not matter, as most shots found their mark and evasion was near impossible. The fleet occasionally fired their particle weapons at the main rebel fleet group. Now incoming Mac shells were a threat. They braced again. The ships were shaken to the point that men fell out of their seats onto the floor on the bridge. Alarms blared. In his see-through display, the captain, on the floor, could see the shields on the 2d imagine of his fleet turn red and disappear. The AI announced: ”Warning, shields are temporality down. The ship will experience direct hits to the hull. Warning, shields are temporality down. The ship will experience direct hits to the hull.”
”Cal’ dangit, charge the spinal weapon.”
”Initiating charging sequence, sir.”
He sat up on his chair again. The front of the ship started humming ominously, so did the bow of the other heavy cruiser which was engaged in heavy fighting next to the DSN Trident.
”Incoming EMP and fusion missiles, sir.”
”Shoot em down.”
The point defence woke up from their slumber, next to their bigger brothers that were the plasma turrets, turning towards the missiles. They spewed out streams of bullets creating a storm of point defence fire that destroyed missile after missile as they approached through the onslaught. Most EMP missiles were shot down, but multiple fusion missiles hit the ships, explosions soaked straight into the hull. The heavy cruiser furthest away from the fleet, to the left (from their perspective), took the most missiles, destroying weapons systems and making a hole in the bow of the ship in which crew members were launched out of into the harsh, unforgiving void as fire streaked past them.
Tungsten MAC slugs hammered through space like bolts of lightning at the UDM fleet. The advanced calculations each of the ships AI's had made in less than a microsecond were perfect kill shots lined up. Missile trails snaked through the vacuum of space as they trailed off towards their targets at high speeds. The main section of the fleet continued to fight at long range while the second group of destroyers.
UNSC Augusta DD-365 Halberd-Class Heavy Destroyer
The deck vibrated under Crewman Mathew Jones's feet as the Augusta's two mac guns fired. Over the ships, the intercom rang the Captain's voice. **All hands brace for impact." Matthew had seconds to react, hoping the ship's shields and armour would stop what was about to hit them. He prayed the rumours of shields being able to stop a glassing beam were true but it could also be boiled down to boasting about the strength of the ship's defences.
The Augusta continued to lay down suppressive fire from its missiles and main guns healthy and injured UDM ships like the other destroyers were doing.
On the main bridge, a display screen showed the other destroyers apart of the group. Zoomed out it was a small blip on a map. The captain of the Augusta noticed that one of the destroyers, the Guinevere was positioned a bit closer than the rest. Switching a screen that was attached to his command chair to the ship's exterior view from one of its many cameras watched the Guinevere as oncoming fire washed over her frontal armour plates. The shields flared a goldish yellow as they remained unbroken at the incoming fire. After watching for a few moments and switching between damage reports of his own ship and other systems he went back to watching the Guinevere. The shields finally broke and the ship's armour began to glance at the energy rounds. That would be the ship's anti-energy coating. Soon the hull began to have scorch marks and pinpoint holes from the plasma beams. The Guinevere remained on its course continuing to fight as it soaked up damage.
The Augusta suffered some minor damage to its rear armour as it was hit with quite a few shots from lances. Suddenly the Guinevere ignites. Its frontal armour is melting away at the extreme heat from the enemy lasers. as the shots penetrate the ship they hit one of the archer missile storage bays causing a large explosion on the upper back portion of the nose.
Out of the six destroyers, only the Augusta and another are left. The others are either too crippled to fight or are completely destroyed. After the battle it would be noticed that the wrong jump interval was given to the destroyer fleet causing them to be too close to the enemy.
The Augusta and the other destroyer attempt at a retreat to recover. The Augusta was the only destroyer left with the most functionality. The other survivor had a missing communications dish, a melted booster pod that would limit the ship's speed, and the main fusion reactor was leaking coolant from a few direct hits to its coolant lines from the damaged booster. Next they spin up their slipspace drives and return to the main fleet. Putting all the power they have into the shields and drive. As the two destroyers critically wait they notice something...
The Calvary Has Arrived
On the Augustas viewscreen showing ship positioning, it showed an oncoming fleet of blips approaching at very fast speeds. Aiming one of the ship's cameras towards their trajectory it only showed the stars. If you looked back at the viewscreen you would notice that these new blips would be labelled as Tempests
Back to the Cruiser and Frigate group from one of the cruisers who was given a carrier modification launched a squadron of SF-44 Tempest Stealth Fighters whose midnight black hull created an eerie look to them as they left the cruiser's hangar. Streaking towards the enemy fleet that was being harassed by the destroyer group to commence a bombing run over the least damaged ships to surprise them.
The ships engage their cloak and commence their bombing run. The stealth ships systems include a specially shaped angled hull that makes radar bounce off, an active camouflage system that can be used for a medium duration of time before overheating, and finally engine baffling to mask the heat of the engines. The main attack method they use is anti capital missiles, the secondary is a pair of retractable auto cannons and anti fighter missiles. The stealth craft are attacking from the main cruiser force and flying over to the UDM forces avoiding the main battle.
