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This fanfiction article, UNSC Lead to Gold, was written by A Fellow Stalker. Please do not edit this fiction without the writer's permission. |
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The author of this article, UNSC Lead to Gold, urges anyone who reads it to provide feedback on the quality of the article. Thank you! |
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The UNSC Lead to Gold was commissioned in 2538 as one of the many ships meant to help stem the tide of the Covenant horde. The ship's construction was delayed three times due to workers dying or being seriously injured while building the ship, and the first commander was hit by a car the day before he was to see his new ship. Rumors that the Lead to Gold was cursed began to spread like wildfire, and they only got worse as the ship continued its service.
The command was given to the newly promoted Commander Donovan Franco. Franco served for an entire year, the only incidents being a brawl in the ships cafeteria that left two dead and an exploding pipe in the showers which had killed three others. Only two days until his anniversary on the ship, Franco began getting ready to use his leave when the atmospherics on the ship broke down due to poor maintenance. A flaw due to budget cuts during the construction became known when the crew realized the bridge and surrounding areas had no emergency oxygen masks, and a quarter of the crew suffocated, along with their commander.
The next captain, Commander Helena Koch, lead the ship for three more years. During her first year, the ship found itself in the middle of a Covenant invasion fleet and took a full broadside of plasma, killing nearly a hundred crew members. The ship managed to limp away from the battle and receive repairs and fresh replacements, and found itself nearly being destroyed only a few months after, once again being forced to face extensive repairs and new crew.
With the ships reputation reaching even the highest brass in the navy, the Lead to Gold was assigned to safely patrol the inner colonies. This continued for two more years until a miscalculated jump ended with the ship ramming a shipyard dock, wiping out the command deck and a good chunk of the ship, along with Commander Koch. Although the UNSC wished to scrap the cursed vessel, the lack of able ships to fight the Covenant or shipyards to make them was beginning to be felt, and attempted to correct things by giving the ship an experienced captain.
Commander Fatima Fati was given charge of the ship, her previous vessel, the Diomedes Rift having been destroyed along with nearly all hands after taking down two Covenant corvettes. Many, including the weary and demoralized crew, hoped Fati would be able to use her extensive experience as a ship commander in order to whip the ship back into shape, as it was slowly falling into disrepair and negligence. Fati however, was diagnosed with clinical depression after the loss of nearly her entire crew and attempted suicide shortly before being sent to the ship, and was soon sent home.
With Fati gone, Commander Ayugai Toshiko was given the ship after being demoted from rear admiral for accusations of abusing the men under her command. Toshiko had a reputation for being an extremely strict leader and punished any minor insubordination or the smallest failure with prejudice. For six long years, Toshiko worked the crew to their limit, doing everything in her power to whip the ship from the rust bucket it had become into a respectable fighting vessel.
Her work showed when the Lead to Gold participated in the retaking of Gaikoku Kusa and the ship performed admirably, destroying two Covenant ships and assisting in the destruction of two others, as well as evacuating so many civilians that the hallways of the ship were packed. The entire ship was given a commendation and the Lead to Gold managed to participate in several more major battles throughout the Human-Covenant War.
With the reputation of the Lead to Gold slowly dissipating, Kusa celebrated by pushing the crew even harder. Just as talks of giving her a promotion began, she was murdered by disgruntled crew members who were sick of her strict and cruel method of working with the crew in what became known as the Lead Mutinies. Once the UNSC got hold of the ship and reinstated order, thirty men were dead and another twenty to be executed for their crimes.
The ship was finally to be scrapped at the shipyards of Sargossa Mantion, a large industrial planet which had expertise in the breaking of old ships. The then Lieutenant Karl Peiper, who had arrived only a week earlier, was given the task to get the ship into port before the UNSC could find a better place to put him. Peiper, who was dour and sure that he was destined to die horribly, was sure that the Lead to Gold and the ragtag crew of the ship would be the ones to cause it.
Once Peiper had the ship in sight of Sargossa Mantion, he began to relax, but a Covenant fleet jumped into the system before he could dock the ship. During the battle, Peiper managed to destroy two Covenant corvettes that had been crippled by the much larger ships in the UNSC fleet and swooped the planet into high orbit, rescuing as many civilians as he could. When Peiper saw that the Covenant were beginning to glass the planet, he gave up and jumped away.
For his 'valor' over the course of the mission, Peiper was promoted to commander and given the Lead to Gold. Satisfied that some higher power despised him, Peiper began serving as commander of the vessel, trying his best to delay his inevitable demise.