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CHAPTER TWENTY

1800 Hours, July 18, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Sigrid nineteen by thirty-seven

The Master Chief surveyed as left of Caulars left

--balanced against the four hundred htered here

He said to Kelly, "Post a guard on the dropship, and put three on patrol Take the rest and secure the LZ"

"Yes, sir" She turned to face the other Spartans, pointed, hosts

The Master Chief turned to the Corporal "Are you in couess soyes, sir"

"As of 0900 Standard Military ti control of this operation All Marine personnel now report through our chain of command Understand, Corporal?"

"Yes, sir"

"Now, Corporal, brief me on what happened here"

Corporal Harland hunkered down and sketched rough maps of the area as he quickly recounted the brutal series of surprise attacks "Right here--grid thirteen by twenty-four That’s where they hit us, sir

Sooin’ on there"

The Master Chief scanned the crude maps, compared them with the area surveys displayed in his HUD, then nodded, satisfied

"Get your wounded inside the Pelican, Corporal," he said "We’ll be dusting off soon I want you to rotate by thirds on guard duty The rest of your et soed, we’ll be staying on Sigma Octanus Four"

The Corporal paled, then replied, "Understood, sir" He stood slowly--the long day of coht had taken its toll The Marine saluted, then moved to assemble his team

Inside his sealed helmet, John frowned These Marines were now under his commandand therefore part of his tea, so they had to be protected--not relied upon He had toin an already dicey mission

The Master Chief opened his COM link: "Teahts winked on his heads-up display--his Spartans acknowledging the order

He looked around at the destruction Thin sunlight reflected dully fros strewn across the battlefield Dozens of shattered Warthog chassis bled trails of smoke into the hazy sky Scores of burned corpses lay in the et a burial detail down here laterbefore the Grunts got to the dead

The Master Chief would never question his orders, but he felt a momentary stab of bitterness Whoever set these camps up without proper reconnaissance, whoever had blindly trusted the satellite transion, had been a fool

Worse, they had wasted the lives of good soldiers

Green Teaed in froh her reflective faceplate, but he could tell without checking his HUD that it was Linda by the way she movedthat, and the SRS99C-S2 AM sniper rile with Oracle scope she carried

She carefully looked around, verified that the area was secure, and slung her rifle She snapped a crisp salute "Reporting as ordered, Master Chief"

Red Team leader--Joshua--ran in from the east He saluted "Motion detectors, radar, and autoo over this one raphic oal one: we need to gather intelligence on Covenant troop disposition and defenses at Côte d’Azur Mission goal two: if there are no civilian survivors, we are authorized to remote detonate a HAVOK tactical nuclear mine and remove the enemy forces In the meantime, ill minimize our contact with the enehted the four streams that fed into the river delta near Côte d’Azur "We avoid these routes Banshees patrol them" He circled where Firebase Bravo had been "We’ll avoid this area as well--according to the Marine survivors, that area is hot Grid thirteen by twenty-four also has activity

"Red Leader, take your squad in along the coast Stay in the tree line Green Leader, follow this ridgeline, but keep under cover, too I’ll be taking this route" The Master Chief traced a path through a particularly dense section of jungle

"It’s 1830 hours now The city is thirteen kilometers from here--that should take us no more than forty minutes We’ll probably be forced to slon to avoid enemy patrols--but we all should be in place no later than 1930 hours"

He zoomed into a city map of Côte d’Azur "Entry points to the city sewer systehted the display with NAV points "--here, here, and here Red Team will recon the wharf areas Green takes the residential section I’ll take Blue Tearound will be li our heads down?"

"According to the Colonial Administration Authority’s file on Côte d’Azur, the sewer syste the top of the plastic conduits Tap into those and use ground-return transceivers to check in We’ll have our own private COM line"

"Roger," she said

The Master Chief said, "As soon as we leave, the dropship dusts off and will move here" He indicated a position far to the south of Alpha camp "If the Pelican doesn’t make itour fallback rendezvous point is here" He indicated a point fifty kiloency SATCOM link and survival gear there"

No one ear would be useless when the Covenant glassed the planet

"Stay sharp," John said "And come back in one piece Dismissed"

They saluted briskly, then sprinted to their tasks

He switched to Blue Team’s frequency "Time to saddle up, Blue Team," he called out "RV back at the bunker for orders" Three blue lights winked acknowledgement in his display

A moment later, the other three Spartans in his squad trotted into position "Reporting as ordered," Blue-Two announced

The Master Chief quickly filled them in on thethe nuke and ear"

"Affirmative Who’ll have the detonator, sir?"

"I will," he replied "Blue-Three" He turned to Fred "You have the explosives James, you’ll take our extra COM equipear: modified MA5B assault rifles, adapted to renades; couns that fired 450 Magnuh Grunt arle snal for pickup John would carry that "Let’s go," he said

Blue Teale-file line with Blue-Four in the lead; Jahtly staggered, with John and Kelly slightly to the left of Jaht up the rear

They roup to halt while he n of the enemy The rest of Blue Teae

John checked his HUD; they were one-quarter of the way to the city The teaood time despite the cautious pace The MJOLNIR assault arle like it was a stroll through the woods

As the teaave way to a hard, pelting rain The da the team to slow

Blue-Four stopped dead and raised his fist--the signal to halt and freeze John stopped in his tracks, his rifle raised and sweeping slowly back and forth, searching for any sign of enemy movement

Norear to locate ene le They had to rely on their eyes and ears and the instincts of their point man

"Point to Team Leader: enemy contact" James’ calm voice crackled across the COM channel "Enerees left"

With exaggerated slowness, Blue-Four indicated the danger area by pointing

"Affirh the motion trackers were of no use here, therh the thick sheets of rain, the Master Chief spotted three cold spots: Grunts in their chilled environmental suits

"Blue Team: enemy contact confirmed" He added the eneth, Point?"

"Lead, I ain, ten Covenant troops Grunts, sir They’reslowly Double-file formation They haven’t spotted us Orders?"

John’s orders said to minimize contact with the enemy where possible--the Spartans were spread too thinly across the battle area to risk a prolonged engageht for the Marine bunker

"Let’s take theed through the uely siy, purple-black hide was visible beneath the environmental suits Breath masks provided supercooled methane--the aliens’ at in two coluhly three meters apart

John noted with satisfaction that they seeuard had their plasma rifles at the ready The rest chattered at each other in a weird couttural barks

Easy, relaxed targets Perfect

He gave a series of slow hand signals to the rest of the team; they faded back until they ell away from the Grunts’ field of view

The Master Chief opened the squadwide COM channel "They’re seventy meters from this depression

--" He keyed a NAV point into the tea for the western hill and will probably follow the terrain to the top We’ll fall back now, and take concealed positions along the eastern hill

"Blue-Four, you’re our scout--stay near the bottouard passes you

Take them out first--they seem alert

"Blue-Two, you have overwatch at the top of the hill

"Blue-Three, back o bad"