The Third Battle of Earth was a bloody encounter for both warring parties. The battle effectively started its build-up when Vice Admiral Gennady Brodenko was called away with his dreadnought, the Majestic and her pair of escorting battlecruiser squadrons to defend a colony under United Colony Command attack. Over time, the fleet trickled away as the UCC pushed their attacks, finally leaving only seven warships commanded by Rear Admiral Rick Baird.
The UCC, of course, chose that moment to appear in-system with a single light cruiser squadron; and over the next month slowly called in more and more vessels. The United Nations Space Command home Defence Fleet didn’t have enough firepower to engage the UCC, and so were forced to watch helplessly as the UCC brought more and more vessels in-system, including their modified Firefly-class carrier Invulnerable, holding in an upper Earth orbit.
Eventually, Admiral Cartmann, the UCC’s commanding officer, sent a warning to the UNSC vessels to abandon Earth or be destroyed in twenty-four hours time. Brodenko and a battlecruiser squadron had been recalled a month previously, but no message had been received.
Soon after the surrender message was transmitted the UNSC fleet was reinforced with two battleships, the Sierra and Thanatos and the news that Brodenko was only twenty-five hours from Earth, still, it might not be enough to save them.
Mere hours before the deadline was due to expire, even more UCC vessels appeared in-system, making a total count of one battleship, sixteen battlecruisers, five heavy cruisers, six light cruisers, eight destroyers and fifteen frigates against the UNSC’s meagre two battleships, one battlecruiser, four landing dock assault destroyers and three frigates.
The battle itself opened when the UCC’s battleship, the Invulnerable fired two EMP-tipped particle accelerator cannon slugs at the two UNSC battleships, missing both but knocking them out of the fight.
The UNSC responded by charging straight out at the UCC fleet, trading salvos of missiles and MAC fire. Several lucky missiles from the UNSC fleet managed to break through the point defence arrayed against them and destroyed a pair of battlecruisers, leaving the UCC battlecruiser squadrons without command vessels.
Moments after the first salvo of missiles hit home Gennady Brodenko translated to Slipspace behind the UCC fleet, unleashing a massive salvo of ordnance at the UCC fleet, forcing the UCC to turn and engage forces coming at them from both directions, catching them in a pincer movement.
With the UCC distracted, the surviving landing dock assault destroyers launched their Starship Rapid Entry and Assault troopers in a very high velocity attack move that approached the edge of the extreme danger envelope. All in all, eighty marines made it to the Invulnerable, landing in and around Armoury Seven and Main Engineering.
The UNSCS Sierra managed to get its systems back up and running however, joining the fight at the end. It destroyed a Light Cruiser and damaged a frigate on its first salvo. A shot from its SMAC managed to destroy another Light Cruiser and Battle Cruiser.
Captain Charles B. Reed lead the attack on the Invulnerable, landing in the vicinity of Armoury Seven before neutralising any immediate threats. Unfortunately, the rest of his marines were killed in action in the Main Engineering sector by auto cannons.
Reed almost met the same fate, but a secretive AI allied with the UNSC who had been hiding on the Invulnerable for the last four years made his move, attacking the UCC’s resident AI, as well as destroying several key systems, including the reactor controls, before retreating when he realised he couldn’t win, escaping via the help of Charles Reed as he abandoned the doomed vessel after the allied AI set off the self-destruct mechanism.
Meanwhile, thanks to the appearance of a carrier battlegroup and the timely arrival of Brodenko, the UCC fleet was destroyed, save for the badly damaged Invulnerable, who fired a last shell from its particle accelerator cannon, gutting most of the Majestic’s systems, including the battle bridge, save for the engines and the navigation routines.
The crew abandoned ship; it was later learned, on the order of Vice Admiral Gennady Brodenko who insisted on staying on the flag bridge to pilot the dreadnought on an intercept course for the Invulnerable. The UCC battleship likewise turned on a collision course and both large vessels rammed at high speed, consuming each other in a nuclear fireball as their reactor complex’s exploded one after the other.
With the destruction of the Invulnerable the Third Battle for Earth was over, with the UNSC coming out victorious thanks to the timely arrival of reinforcements. However, the battle was won at a terrible cost; Vice Admiral Gennady Brodenko was killed instantly when the Majestic rammed the Invulnerable, and most of the remaining vessels had suffered damage ranging from light to severe enough to have been lucky not to break their back.
Also, the SREA troopers that boarded the Invulnerable were all killed in action save for Captain Charles B. Reed who managed to escape the dreadnought.
With the destruction of the UCC Fleet, word from outside revealed that the UCC had pushed their advantage, moving on systems still loyal to the UNSC. The Third Battle for Earth might have been over, but the greater fight was still there to be fought, and won or lost.