"ALL HANDS PREPARE FOR-"

  Before I finished the announcement, we were struck by plasma cannon fire. In response, we continued to pour fire on the heavy cruiser.

  Shit went from bad to worse. They were in and among us, so we had to maneuver hard to get a chance at hitting anything with our Mac's. Problem was, we maneuvered like a brick. We were heavy, and it showed.

  Our coil guns spit dense slugs of metal at the heavy cruiser as we twisted around and flipped into a turn. We were getting hit, but so far it was scaring our thick armor.

  I looked at the battle overall, and saw the Marathon coming about. "Captain, The Nile is moving for a firing solution on the Heavy cruiser!" I said.

  "THE HALCYON'S BEEN CORED!" The sensor operator yelled.

  "Readjust course to cover the Nile, get a Mac solution on any harassers." The captain ordered.

  "Fighters are swarming." I say. I imput commands to the ship for our point defense guns. The guns stopped targeting anything near us, and focused fire on the strike craft spilling from the covenant ship's.

  Tracers began spewing in focused arcs, and I watched as our network began chewing on the tiny, fast ship's. Our own Fighters began to finally launch, causing more chaos throughout the battle.

  "Plasma torpedoes inbound! Halcyon is moving. Crippled, but guns are up. Reports that Mac is offline."

  Me maneuvered finally frigate. roper heading towards the starboard of the Nile, and ahead was a frigate. She was harassing the side of the cruiser, and a beam of plasma lanced out. It struck the cruiser and then attempted to speed away.

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  We followed on its tail, and finally the captain ordered. "Mac 1, fire."

  The ship shook as the port Mac gun spit its multi-hundred ton round at the frigate. It struck her aft, and her shields bloomed. No ricochet. A good hit.

  "Mac 2, fire."

  Another good hit, and her shields glowed brighter. Our coilgun batteries focused fire, giving the shields no time to rest, before finally, they broke. Our guns began chewing through the giant frigates engines, and it tried to maneuver.

  We kept up the firing, and we managed to strike one of their beam weapons. It was spitting plasma at us even still, striking us even as we dodged shots. Eventually, their shots died out, and the ship tumbled as a halberd used the small Mac in its battery to finish her off.

  We turned about and came head to head with a light cruiser. It shot its beam, and a deep canyon in our hull formed. "Decks open to void, casualties reported. 1 M60 and 2 M710's are gone."

  "Mac 1 at 90% sir!" I called out.

  "Keep ahead, fire Mac at that light cruiser. Focus fire all guns!" He barked

  "CAPTAIN, THE NILE CRIPPLED THE HEAVY CRUISER! SHE'S LISTING!" A cheer rang out. Our biggest threat was crippled, and likely to be finished off.

  Our guns were spitting hate at the approaching light cruiser, and it's shields poped. A few seconds later, our Mac gun went off, crumpling the light cruiser. We kept up the fire, and as we passed, our turrets finished it off.

  "Halcyon is spitting pods sir. Hostile fighters are targeting..." Came the call. Grimaces sprouted on every face.

  "Continues escorting the Nile. Point Defense, do what you can." He said, strain evident in his voice. This was a shit situation, with no winning in the cards.

  "Captain, covenant heavy cruiser is destroyed."

  As I watched, the battle wound down, and the covenant ship's began to pull away. They continued firing as they retreated, and we took another beam from a light cruiser.

  We turned, and fired Mac 2, and broke her shields. A Halcyon fired its main Mac a bit later, and the light cruiser spun into an uncontrolled tumble. We kept firing what little ammunition we had left, and she eventually blew up.

  In the end, 1 frigate, 1 light cruiser, and 1 Heavy Corvette limped away. In trade, the Marathon Class Heavy Cruiser 'Nile' was heavily damaged, losing most of its secondary armament, and a ton of its armor.

  The Halcyon Class Light Cruiser had been forced to abandon ship after severe damage to most systems, loss of multiple reactors, loss of main weapon, loss of all secondary armaments, and more. It's crew was targeted on escape, though from what I can tell, half of the total pods survived.

  1 Halberd Class Light Destroyer was killed with all hands. No pods in the void...

  1 Stalwart Class Frigate was crippled. It's engine had been cut clean off, and it was very carefully not doing anything. It had acted as a semi-mobile point defense zone.

  4 Paris class Heavy Frigates were destroyed with varying amounts of their crew still alive. 1 was crippled, and the last 3 were heavily damaged.

  The Spiteful Rebuke had her fore armor completely melted, along with anything there. 1 M33, 3M60's and 5 M710's had been destroyed. Our armor on the rest of us pas damaged severely, but still holding. A total of 14.9% of crew were reported dead or missing, along with 19.8% wounded.

  ...For my first battle... This had been a glorious victory... I could hear the cheering and champagne already... God help us all.