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CHAPTER FOURTEEN
2037 Hours, November 27, 2525 (Military Calendar)
In orbit over Chi Ceti 4
John piloted the Pelican through the exit burn of their orbital path, then sent the ship toward the last known position of the Coate had moved ten million kilometers in-system from their rendezvous point
Dr Halsey sat in the copilot’s seat, fidgeting with her space suit In the aft compartment were the Spartans, the three technicians from the Da, however, were the AIs John had seen when they had first arrived All Dr Halsey had time to do was remove their memory processor cubes It was a tremendous waste to leave such expensive equipe detection gear, then said, "Captain Wallace netic field to deflect the Covenant’s plasma weapon Try and catch up, Petty Officer"
"Yes, ines to 100 percent
"Covenant ship to port," she said, "threeon the Commonwealth "
John bunification onscreen and spotted the ship The alien vessel’s hull was bent at a thirty-degree angle from the impact of the MAC heavy round, but it still moved at almost twice the speed of the Commonwealth
"Doctor," John asked, "does the MJOLNIR armor operate in vacuun considerations The suit can recycle air for ninety ainst radiation and EMP as well"
He then spoke to Sam over his COM link "What kind of ?"
"Wait one, sir," Sam replied His voice returned a moment later "We have two rocket pods with sixteen HE Anvil-IIs each"
"I want you to asse pods"
"I’her on her nose--instead she buainst the faceplate of her suit’s helmet "May I ask what you have in mind, Squad Leader?"
John left his COM channel open so the Spartans would hear his reply
"Requesting permission to attack the Covenant ship, ma’am"
Her blue eyes widened "Most certainly not," she said "If a warship like the Commonwealth couldn’t destroy it, a Pelican is certainly no reed "But I believe we Spartans are If we get inside the enemy ship, we can destroy her"
Doctor Halsey considered, tapping her lower lip "Hoill you get onboard?"
"We go EVA and use thruster packs to intercept the Covenant ship as it passes en route to the Coht error in your trajectory, and you could miss by kilometers," Dr Halsey remarked
A pause
"I don’t miss, ma’am," John said
"They have reflective shields"
"True," John replied "But the ship is da in order to conserve power--and if we have to, we can use one of our oarheads to punch a small hole in the barrier" He paused, then added, "There’s also a large hole in their hull Their shield may not cover that space entirely"
Dr Halsey whispered, "It’s a treer risk to sit here and do nothing After they finish with the Coht them anyway Better to strike first"
She stared off into space, lost in thought
Finally she sighed in resignation "Very well Go" She transferred the pilot controls to her station "And blow the hell out of them"
John climbed into the aft compartment
His Spartans stood at attention He felt a rush of pride; they were ready to follow hiot the warheads," Sam said It was hard tohis face He was the largest Spartan--even ot one" Sam continued as he handed John a ed Stuck on a patch of adhesive polyrab thruster packs and o EVA Everyone else--" He et into the forward cabin If we fail, they’ll be co after the Pelican
Protect Dr Halsey"
He moved aft Kelly handed him a thruster pack and he slipped it on
"Covenant ship approaching," Halsey called out "I’ out your atmosphere to avoid explosive decoet one shot at this," John said to the other Spartans "Plot an intercept trajectory and fire your thrusters at es course, you’ll have to uess correction on the fly If you roup outside the hole in their hull If you miss--we’ll pick you up after we’re done"
He hesitated, then added, "And if we don’t succeed, then power down your systems and wait for UNSC
reinforceht another day Don’t waste your lives"
There was a moment of silence
"If anyone has a better plan, speak up now"
Sareat plan It’ll be easier than Chief Mendez’s playground A bunch of little kids could pull it off"
"Sure," John said "Everyone ready?"
"Sir," they said "We’re ready, sir!"
John flipped the safety off and then punched in the code to open the Pelican’s tail The mechanism opened soundlessly in the vacuu through space--but the vertigo quickly passed
He positioned hi a safety handle overhead
The Covenant ship was a tiny dot in the center of his helmet’s view screen He plotted a course and fired the thruster pack on maximum burn
Acceleration slammed him into the thruster harness He knew the others would launch right after him, but he couldn’t turn to see theht identify the Spartans as inco missiles--and their point-defense lasers were too damn accurate
John clicked on the COM channel "Doctor, we could use a few decoys if Captain Wallace can spare therew rapidly in his display A burst fro at one hundred million kilometers an hour, even a minor course correction meant that he could miss by tens of thousands of kilometers John carefully corrected his vector
The pulse laser on the side of the Covenant ship glowed, built up energy, until they were dazzling neon blue, then discharged--but not at him
John saw explosions in his peripheral vision The Commonwealth had fired a salvo of her Archer e detonations--utterly silent
John’s velocity now almost matched that of the ship He eased toward the hull--twenty meters, ten, fiveand then the Covenant ship started to pull away fro too fast He tapped his attitude thrusters and pointed himself perpendicular to the hull
The Covenant hull accelerated under hi closer
He stretched out his arertips a --it felt selassy, shiy shield
Dalanced to either side The huge hole in their hull was nowhere in sight
He slid over the hull, unable to grab hold of it
No He refused to accept that he had made it this far, only to fail now
A pulse laser flashed a hundred meters away; his faceplate barely adjusted in time The flash nearly blinded him John blinked and then saw a silvery film rush back around the bulbous base of the laser turret
The shield dropped to let the laser fire?
The laser started to build up charge again
He would have to act quickly His ti had to be perfect If he hit that turret before it fired, he’d bounce off If he hit the turret as it firedthere wouldn’t be ht John set his thrust harness on afuel charge He closed his eyes, saw the blinding flash through his lids, felt the heat on his face, then opened his eyes--just in time to crash and bounce into the hull
The hull plates were sanic crenellations--perfect fingerholds The difference between his momentum and the ship’s nearly pulled his arhtened his grip
He hadthe hull toward the hole the Commonwealth ’s MAC round had punched in the ship
Only two other Spartans waited for hi?" Sam’s voice crackled over the COM channel The other Spartan lifted her helmet’s reflective blast shield He saw Kelly’s face
"I think we’re it," Kelly said "I’ any other responses over the COM channels"
That meant either the Covenant ship shielded their transmissionsor there were no Spartans left to coht aside
The hole was ten ed e and saw that the MAC heavy round had indeed passed all the way through He saw tiers of exposed decks, severed conduits, and sheared h the other side, black space and stars
They climbed down
John immediately fell down on the first deck
"Gravity," he said "And with nothing spinning on this ship"
"Artificial gravity?" Kelly asked "Dr Halsey would love to see this"
They continued inward, scaling the ravity and free fall, until they were approximately in the middle of the ship
John paused and saw the stars wheel outside either end of the hole The Covenant shipthe Commonwealth
"We better hurry"
He stepped onto an exposed deck, and the gravity settled his sto him an up-and-down orientation
"Weapons check," John told theuns had made the journey intact John slipped in a clip of ar with pleasure that the suit ieting syste the weapon and checked the HE warhead attached to his hip The tied
John faced a sealed set of sliding pressure doors It was smooth and soft to his touch It could have been made of metal or plasticor could have been alive, for all he knew
He and Sarabbed either side and pulled, strained, and then the ave and the doors released There was a hiss of atmosphere, a dark hallway beyond They entered in for was three h It made John feel small
"You think they need all this space because they’re so large?" Kelly asked