Shake-Down

follows the maiden voyage of the UNSC Heimdall, the first in her class, and a quantum leap in UNSC technology. However, the journey doesn't promise to be smooth.

Chapter 1
The darkened officer's cabin was lit only by a pale, blue light, illuminating the face of Commander Arthur Self. He lay in the pull out bed of the modest cabin, looking at the tablet in front of him. On its pale blue page was an e-book, his favourite in fact, The Old Man And The Sea. He'd read it many times in his life, but sadly had to leave his favoured paperback copy at home. He'd read it at a great many junctions in his life, as a child, in Officer Candidate School, and beyond. Reading it gave him confidence, and he needed that more than ever. He turned in his bed, finding little comfort in its covers. He looked back to his tablet, returning to his story. In it, the ageing fisherman, Santiago, sets off alone, into the vast ocean, searching for the fish that will break his unlucky streak. Self scrolled down to the next page and began to read anew, until he was interrupted by a soft chime on the console beside his bed. He sighed and clicked the answer button, and was greeted by a clawing, terse voice.

"Commander, could you report to the bridge." the voice went "There's a situation you need to attend to."

"Of course Maia." he said, flicking off the comms and getting out of his bed.

The lights reacted, brightening and bringing the room to full illumination. His modest captain's cabin was considered the most luxurious room on the ship but was hardly luxurious itself. Big enough for two men two stand next to one another, arms stretched out, it had a bed, a desk, personal computer and an en-suite bathroom. Self walked to the bathroom and began to scrub up, catching glances of himself in the mirror. Under most conditions, he could be considered somewhat handsome, with refined features, and a shock of dirty blonde hair on his head, and light green eyes, almost like pale jade. However, the last few days sleep had eluded him, and he felt weary. Dark bags had formed under his eyes and his skin took on a paler tone. He pulled on his uniform and looked at himself in the mirror again. The functional uniform, designed to be fire resistant and resistant against spalling, was otherwise drab grey, aside from a flash of colour pinned to his chest. His ribbons, medals, awards given for bravery in combat, or so he was told. He thought back, he never really thought of his actions as heroic, or brave. He just did his job. He guessed actions like these earned him this command. He planted a thumb under the ribbon collection and removed it, placing it in a draw on his desk. Such things weren't necessary.

He thumbed the bulkhead door control and stepped out into the hall way, shoes clanking on the grating beneath him. Despite the ship officially being on night watch, it bustled with activity, as sailors ran back and forth, attending to the ships need, he siphoned past them, moving quickly up the decks. His cabin was only a short distance from the bridge, a intentional design feature. As he stepped onto the bridge, he looked about. Just under a dozen individuals sat at their stations, monitoring their consoles. Directly in the centre of the bridge was a holographic table, stood over it was his executive officer. Lieutenant Commander Robert 'Bobby' Trask was somewhat of an anomaly. In earlier times he would of been a enlisted man, coming from a poor family, with no college level education, but the toll of the Covenant war on officers had resulted in changes in procedure. Trask was selected as an officer candidate because of his surprising intelligence and ingenuity, though his brash nature limited his elevation through the ranks. Possessing a wide face, he kept his head shaved and most notably a series of jagged scars up the side of his face. The way he always told it, he got this from an insurrectionist terrorist in a knife fight, but Self had always suspected he'd been in a bad bar fight, and somebody had smashed a bottle and glassed him with it. The Navy would of covered the costs of the plastic surgery, but he refused, he wanted to show those scars. As Self approached the table, a three dimensional image of the ship rose from the holographic table and a secondary image sprung up alongside it. A young woman, covered in a greenish shroud, with an updone bun of hair. As he stepped up, Trask gave a salute.

"Commander on deck!" he yelled, snapping the other officers to attention

He returned the salute and leaned over the holotable "At ease. What's the situation?"

"Maia, what's the situation?" he asked, somewhat weary.

"Output from our reactor dropped 23%, thrust is down." she responded, her unusual voice grated on him.

"Why didn't you ask Lieutenant Commander Greene about this?" Self asked, running his temples with his fingers in irritation."

"We have, she has some kind of situation. We also have other issues on the ship that require your attention." Trask said, leaning over the table, and reaching out to interact with the hologram of their ship. The hangar bay has a malfunctioning electromagnetic catapult that had failed the last two launches, the lower hanger bay had a lift issue and was unable to carry vehicles from the the garage to the landing deck, and there were door malfunctions on at least a dozen bulkheads.

"Have maintenance crews been dispatched?"

"Aye skipper, but repair times vary. She's a finicky girl." Trask said, tapping the table. The ship was beginning to become a tomb for their careers.

"Overall efficiency?" he asked

"Dropping, sir. We're dropping behind the efficiency target set by the Navy." Maia began "Sir, I'll personally supervise maintenance crews, but we may have to take a detour."

"Detour? Are the issues that bad?" Self asked, looking at the hologram of the A.I.

"No, but crew morale is wavering. I've already listed out several possible options. Best being drydock at Garnet, which is 13 hours away." she said, her eyes narrowing, seeing if the commander tried to challenge her option

"Fine, we had a flexible flight plan from the Navy. Update Fleet Command with our course changes and then implement them. I'll be in engineering." he said, tapping the edge of the table with impatience "I want the ship back to operational capacity as soon as possible."

He walked out of the bridge and to the lift, then headed straight to engineering. They were only seven days into this journey and this ship was beginning to destroy their morale. They were in the most advance frigate ever built, and they'd been selected to crew it for its shake-down run. They had already performed space trials, and were now flying from Earth to Manheim fleet command for assignment. The ship was extraordinarily advanced, packed with the latest weaponry and systems, and exotic stealth features, but its rushed design and new focus on automation left other features wanting. They were small, niggly faults, but the constant tending the ship needed was putting them all on edge. Self was beginning to think this flight was going to end all of their careers.

As the heavy bulkhead opened to the engineering room, Self came upon a scene of chaos. Engineers ran back and forth in utter disarray, heading to consoles, terminals, switch boxes, trying to sort some catastrophic problem. Self weaved his way through the engineers to reach Lieutenant Commander Greene. Normally the chief engineer of such a vessel would be held by a Lieutenant, but given the new technologies involved in it, a more experienced hand was needed. As far as Self knew, Greene was some kind of wonder-kid who had been placed here especially to tend to the new reactor.

"Greene, what's wrong with the reactor? It sounds.... wrong." he shouted, walking up behind her. Even to his untrained ear he knew it, the takomak style reactor, roughly doughnut like in shape, usually produced a thrumming sound, but it's pace had slowed, and seemed to be off balance.

"Cooling shut down. Very Unexpected. Switched to the back up generators, this is spinning down right now." she shouted back, very concisely, as she laboured over her console.

"What? The reactor's down?" Self yelled, stepping up beside her. Shouldn't we be having a critical failure?"

Greene sighed with exasperation and turned to him "We ran the calcs with Maia. There's enough power in the reserve generators and enough plasma still in the system so she will keep running until the cold reboot is done. It'll take just under two hours."

"And the problem with the cooling system?" Self asked, raising an eye brow.

The precocious young woman raised an eye brow back, the dirty bandanna wrapped around her head to hold back her hair raising with it "Its already sorted, an error in one of the manifolds.

Greene just shook his head and stepped back "If anything changes, contact me immediately. As soon as we're back online, contact me for that too, I'm going to the mess hall." he said, stressed by the entire ordeal. He felt like the old man out to see, searching for the fish that would change his luck around. The Heimdall was a little more than he could chew though.

Chapter 2
The next ten hours passed with little incidence. After getting lunch, he'd performed routine inspection, lead several drills and had even gotten a little nap in there. The reactor had come back online without incidence, and was now firing at maximum efficiency. He may just get to his destination with his sanity intact.

They were now less than an hour from their destination, and a little stop may just calm them all down. He was performing an inspection down in the launch bays for their embarked squadron of Super Sabre starfighters when the ship's alarms suddenly rang out and Maia's voice, with its annoying tone, came onto the PA.

"All hands, prepare for realspace insertion procedure and full stop, I repeat, all hands, prepare for realspace insertion procedure and full stop."

As she said, the ship suddenly tore its way back into real space and then shuddered to a halt. The well drilled crew braced, barely moving from their positions and stations.

"Commander Self, report to the bridge immediately."

Self wasted no time running through the ship to reach the bridge. They weren't due to leave slipspace for another half hour. Something was wrong.

As he reached the bridge, his assembled crew looked to him. Trask was the first to step forward.

"Sir, we've just received a distress call from Garnet. It seems a Covenant raiding group has breached the UNSC outer perimeter and has made it deep into the systems. They've already dropped out of slipspace, and are closing on the planet." Trask said, his tone grim.

Maia's hologram flickered in on the table, her hands drawn over a holographic map of the system, showing the planet Garnet, and the relative position of the Covenant ships. Four ships, made up of a destroyer and three heavy corvettes, approached the planet at high speed. The defences were not substantial enough to defend the world, with just a few corvettes for policing local traffic and a few guns on the orbital UNSC station.

"Maia, your analysis?" he asked, turning to the artificial intelligence, she turned up from her diagram to look at him "Likely a raiding group. Their intention is not conquest but economic. They'll take as many slaves as they please, then likely glass the world. Nearest UNSC vessel is the Autumn-class cruiser Endurance, at an hour away. By that time, the Covenant will likely already be gone."

"And what are our options?" Self asked, leaning over the table

"I've dropped us out of slipspace behind the planet's moon. We have remained undetected. I would advise us to hold position and wait out attack. This ship is too valuable to allow it to be destroyed." She said coldly.

"That's insane Maia, that's a colony full of people they're going to kill!" Trask shouted, his fist slamming on the table, distorting the holograms for just a moment

"Trask, calm down." Self said, motioning for him to back up a little bit, before turning back to Maia "What are our offensive options?"

"While we possess the element of surprise and similar levels of armour and shielding, we lack enough ordnance to destroy them all in a single blow. The resulting counter attack would destroy us." Maia said, displaying a simulation of their attack

"We can't just stand by Maia. We have to try something." he said, tapping on the planet "Time until the Covenant reach the planet?"

"They will be in the optimum position to launch assault craft and ordnance in twenty minutes. We can intercept them easily within that time. I must advise against this course of action sir. The human term for such an event would be 'vainglorious'." she said, staring at him again.

"No, its called being human. We can't simply stand by while we have the strength to stop it. Order all hands to battle stations, spin up our reserve reactors. I want all our guns heated up." Self said, stepping past the table and to his chair, facing over the front of the bridge and out across the vessel. The windows around them closed as armoured shrouds dropped down and were replaced with holographic replacements. He flicked a switch on his console, opening up a PA to the rest of the ship.

"Crew, this is Commander Self. I know you were expecting some R&R today, but circumstances have changed. A group of Covenant raiders is approaching the planet Garnet at highspeed, and we have moved to intercept. We are heavily out numbered, and out gunned. However, we have to delay them, long enough for reinforcements to arrive." he paused for a moment, and swallowed "There's a good chance we won't survive this. I expect each and every one of you to do your duty as a member of the UNSC."

He clicked off the comms and relaxed back into his chair. The lighting shut off for a moment, to be replaced by red emergency lighting. They'd entered red alert, and the crew was no ready.

"Sir, all crew stations report ready status, and engineering reports the secondary reactors have span up to full capacity. All weapon stations are hot, and I've taken the precaution of loading and spinning up the MAC." Maia said, now appearing on the small holographic tank next to him.

"Good work Maia. Mister Orz, set an intercept course" he said, his navigation officer nodding his head in reply.

The ship began to accelerate, her engines flaring, as she pulled clear of the moon that covered them, then moved around slowly, coming to face the ships ahead of them. It began to accelerate, aligning with the largest of the group, the kilometre long destroyer.

"Course set sir, accelerating." Orz replied.

Self felt it as the ship began to accelerate, the artificial gravity taking a moment to catch up to them. The ships appeared as distant purple blips, but as they closed they became larger.

"Why haven't they reacted yet?" Trask asked, uneasy in their seat.

"We're fitted with advanced stealth technology. They won't pick us up until we're close or firing on them." Arakita, the weapons officer, responded.

"Arakita, give me missile targeting solutions on the escorts, keep the main gun trained on the destroyer." Self ordered, his voice unwavering.

Trask looked around the bridge. All the crew at their stations were leant forward, their bodies tense, but Self... Self was leaning back, looked relaxed. This man had been wound up to such a degree over the last few days, a man who'd been so tense and irritable that it had even began to unnerve Trask, but now... the focus this battle provided, it had relieved him. Trask knew he'd won medals for bravery, but never knew exactly how brave he'd been. Now he understood a little of his commanding officer.

"Sir, I must advise against this course of action. Our first round will fail to cripple any vessel. The destroyer possesses enough shields to survive fire from our main gun, while the secondary vessels have enough armour to survive the initial bombardment." Maia asked, kneeling beside him.

"What are the status on our countermeasure systems Lieutenant Simms?" Self asked, not even breaking his line of sight on the enemy

"Decoy launcher is spooled up, and our torpedo jammer is ready sir." Simms said, turning to him

"Simms, fire ion flares and activate the jammer twenty seconds after firing. As we close to less than 500 kilometres to the enemy, fire our RADAR jammers."

Simms didn't respond, but began to program the defence systems to adapt to this.

"Sir, we're entering firing range for the missile batteries. On your go commander." Lieutenant Arakita said, turning to face him

"Wait until we hit the 10,000 kilometre mark, fire the main gun and the missiles."

"Aye skipper." he responded, programming in the firing solutions.

"Maia, read us a count down of the distance."

"Of course sir, initiating. We're 30,000 kilometres, and closing."

Aside from Maia's countdown, the bridge went silence. The only things that could be heard was the electronic buzz of the consoles, the rattle of the ship as it continued to accelerate and the breathing of the tense crew.

The ship screamed through the void towards the Covenant who were now becoming more visible on the front view screen. They were travelling in a tightly packed formation, with a handful of smaller fighters already out to escort them. While their own fighters were loaded and ready to launch, they had not been given the order to launch themselves, at least not yet.

"20,000 kilometres sir."

"Load the KCP slug, prepare the gun to fire." Self ordered, still sitting back in his chair.

"15,000 klicks, and accelerating." She said, now counting down ever 500 kilometres "11,000... 10,500..."

The crew tensed up, in that moment, as Maia read out the last digit. They hit the 10,000 mark.

"Arakita, fire, now!" Self shouted, almost leaping forward in his chair.

The main gun fired, the entire ship chiming like a bell and decelerating as the super structure absorbed the recoil. The sides of the ship lit up, and the archer pods opened up and let loose their payloads, the missiles ejecting from the hulls in a spray of fire and smoke, veering off before the manoeuvring thrusters kicked in, aligning them with their target then accelerating away from the ship.

The tungsten slug let loose from the ship rode to the enemy as a streak of light, a trail caused by the optical illusion of the slug travelling so quickly. It streaked into the bulbous form of the Covenant destroyer, hammering into its upper hull. The shielding, a silvery-white aura, flared brightly, the slug pulverising itself on impact. The Destroyer shook and began to list to its side, the engines straining to compensate for the sudden force of impact. As the slug vaporized, it created a brilliant flash of heat, but it certainly didn't end its life there. Chunks of the slug ricocheted off the destroyer, spraying the Corvette to its portside with shrapnel, still travelling at 30,00 metres a second. These chunks of shrapnel passed through the ship, causing utter chaos, tearing through decks, de-pressurising them and igniting the very air inside through friction and super-heating. One of the engines was struck, and the starboard gun battery, igniting the plasma batteries in a halo of fire. The stricken corvette listed to the side, the force of impact, and sudden engine failure causing it to waver in the gravity well of the planet beneath them. This was suddenly intensified by the waves of a hundred missiles falling upon it and its comrades. Rocked by explosions, the ship was torn apart, and lost all power, its lights flickering out, and its engines, already belching out thick plumes of plasma and fire, gave out, surrendering it to the gravity well of the planet below. The archer missiles on the other vessels had less impact, as their point defences had just enough time to activate and ward off a few, the others only causing slight damage.

"Orz, power to emergency thrusters, evade them then shift us into a gravitational sling around Garnet!" Self ordered, now almost out of his chair.

The helmsman inputted the necessary adjustments, with Maia adjusting the ships micro-thrusters and internal gravity. Lieutenant Simms activated the counter-measures as ordered, firing off a mixture of bright blue ion flares, jamming the Covenant's plasma torpedo guidance, and VAMPR decoys, jamming their targeting sensors and communications. The few torpedoes that fired from the confused and now dazed raiders struck upwards then spiralled off course, as the counter-guidance system on the Heimdall worked its magic, preventing them from homing in upon it.

Barely missing their opponents, they began to to slingshot their way around the planet. USing the planets own gravity, they'd accelerate around it much faster than is usually possible. Their flank just entered the edge of the upper atmosphere, leaving a thin trail of flame as it did. The crew, having held their breath during the breath encounter, let out a collective sigh.

"Maia, assessment!" Self demanded, leaning back in his chair

"We have taken no hits. Two enemy vessels have been damaged, another has seemingly been crippled. The destroyer now lacks shields but is otherwise operational.

"Okay, before we re-enter visual range, I want us dropped to battle speed, and our fighters and drones launcher. Switch the main gun to an incendiary round and prepare the secondary guns for close fire, we'll home in upon them and destroy them at close range." Self coolly ordered.

As the Heimdall came close to completing a circuit of the planet, her forward thrusters fired, and she began to decelerate, while the hanger bays opened. Inside, the freshly fuelled and freshly armed Super Sabre fighters entered launch positions, then were fired off, the on-board catapult flinging them clear of the ship, followed by smaller Warlord-class Drones. The fighters entered a phalanx in front of her, holding position as they came back around. Bringing back up his comms, he thumbed a direct line to the squadron leader.

"Commander Getz, hold position and keep the fighters off our back, and don't let your boys stray too far away, we'll keep you covered with out point defence guns.