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  “Yes, sir. It’s…a long story.”

  The Admiral twisted the end of his mustache, glanced at his wristwatch, and smiled. “We got the time, son. Let’s hear it.”

  John sat on a rock and recounted to the Admiral what had happened since he had left Reach: the recovery of the NAV database on Gamma Station, the Pillar of Autumn’s harrowing escape, the discovery of the Halo construct and its eccentric caretaker, 343 Guilty Spark. He hesitated, then described his encounters with the Flood and subsequent destruction of Halo, ending with his capture of the Covenant flagship.

  During the story, Lieutenant Haverson and the others from the dropship arrived. They remained silent as the Master Chief told the tale.

  The Admiral listened without speaking a word. As John finished, the man gave a slow, low whistle and sat contemplating it all.

  “That’s one hell of a tale. And if it had come from anyone but you, I’d order a psych exam.” He stood and paced. He stopped and frowned. “I believe it all…but something still doesn’t add up.” His face wrinkled as he thought. “Can’t quite put my finger on it, though.”

  “Sir,” Lieutenant Haverson meekly said. “Pardon me for asking, but how is it you are alive? Here?”

  The Admiral smiled. “Well, that’s another long story, Lieutenant. Let me give you the short-and-sweet version.” He leaned against the cavern wall and crossed his arms over his chest.

  “The second those Covenant bastards entered the system I knew Reach was history. The Covenant don’t do anything halfway. Everyone planetside was busy evacuating—which was the right thing to do—but I had to stay behind.” Several emotions played across the Admiral’s face: concern, amusement…and then his features settled into a firm stare as he looked into the past, recalling what happened.

  “We’d been working on a new bomb, called the Nova. It was a cluster of nukes, each with a lithium triteride casing. Now, these things, in theory, when they detonate, not only make a big bang like you expect a nuke to—but they also force their tritium cases together in one big superheated and pressurized center.” He made a fist and slammed it into his other palm for emphasis. “Boosts the yield a hundredfold.” A grin spread across his face. “Planet killers. We had planned to use these things in space battles to level the playing field.”

  His grin faded and he stroked his mustache. “Well, things didn’t quite turn out as planned, and we got caught flat-footed with those Novas on the ground. So I decided to repurpose them.”

  Lieutenant Haverson’s face wrinkled with confusion. He didn’t dare interrupt, but the Admiral saw his expression and said, “Think, son. All that ordnance around with plenty of Covenant to blow up.”

  Haverson shook his head. “I’m sorry, sir. I still don’t understand.”

  “Intelligence officer, huh?” Whitcomb snorted and turned to the Master Chief. “What would you have done?”

  “Arm them, sir,” the Master Chief replied. “Activate the fail-safe tampering detonators and start a countdown timer. Say, two weeks.”

  The Admiral nodded. “I gave it only ten days. There’s no need to give them too much time to tinker.”

  He set one of his heavy hands on Lieutenant Haverson’s shoulder, and Haverson flinched. “They are two possible outcomes to this plan, Lieutenant. Either the Covenant pack up the Novas and take them home for study—a possibility I pray to God happens. A bomb like that would crack their home world in half. Or the bombs stay here—and they’ll stop the Covenant on Reach.”

  “I see, sir,” Lieutenant Haverson replied in a whisper, then glanced at his watch. “This was how many days ago?”

  “Got plenty of time left,” the Admiral told him. “Around twenty hours.”

  Lieutenant Haverson swallowed.

  “There’s just one snag in that plan, though.” The Admiral removed his hand from Haverson and his gaze settled onto the dirt floor of the cavern. “I had a team of Marines—Charlie Company—that got wiped out before we could get to those Novas.” He sighed. “Brave kids. A damned waste of good men. That’s when I picked up Red Team on coded COM. I ‘convinced’ them to lend me a few of your Spartans. We got to the Novas, armed them, and we’ve been raising eight kinds of hell down here with hit-and-run exercises—just to keep everyone busy, you understand. Wouldn’t want to get bored.”

  “And the rest of Red Team, sir?” the Master Chief asked.

  Whitcomb shook his head. “We got one last transmission from them before they said they were falling back.” He walked to the table, unrolled an old paper topological map, and pointed at Menachite Mountain. “Here. Where ONI had their CASTLE base.” He paused. “But the Covenant are tearing that mountain apart, rock by rock. I want to believe they’re still there…but we’ve counted at least a dozen companies. Those Covenant have air support, close orbit patrols, and, on the ground, armor. The place is a fortress. Could anyone survive?”

  The Master Chief scrutinized the lines on the map and had an answer for the Admiral. “They’re underground,” he said. “The CASTLE facility. We did a lot of training there. The Covenant can fill up those tunnels with only so many search parties.”

  “Then you think they all have a chance?”

  “Yes, sir. More than a chance. I’d guarantee they’re in there. That’s where I’d be.”

  The Admiral set his fingertip on the representation of Menachite Mountain, tapped it twice, thinking, and then suddenly looked up. “You got into this canyon in a captured Covenant ship, right? A dropship?”

  “Yes, sir.” John hadn’t told him that. Despite his brusque manner, the Admiral knew his business.

  “Then we’ll go get them, son.”

  “Sir!” Lieutenant Haverson said. “With all due respect, sir, our first priority should be to get back to Earth. The intelligence we’ve gathered on the Halo construct, the technology aboard the flagship we’ve captured…Cortana’s Slipspace calculations alone could turn the tide of this war for us.”

  “I know all that,” the Admiral replied tersely. “And you’re three hundred percent correct, Lieutenant. But”—he tapped the map again with his meaty forefinger—“I won’t leave a single man or woman behind on this planet for the Covenant to tear apart for sport. No way. And that goes double for a Spartan. We’re going in.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Time: Date Record Anomaly Estimated 0610 Hours,

  September 23, 2552 (Military Calendar) Aboard

  Captured Covenant Dropship, Epsilon Eridani

  System, En Route to Surface of Reach.

  Polaski accelerated the captured dropship to its maximum velocity—just under Mach 1. The craft arced up and joined the long convoy of Covenant ships—troop transports, scavenger drones, and Seraph fighters—as they descended from a higher orbit down to the surface. The formation of alien vessels headed straight toward Menachite Mountain.

  Covenant communiqués scrolled across a screen next to the pilot’s seat and then ceased.

  “Incoming transmissions from the convoy…I guess they don’t like strays,” Polaski muttered calmly, looking at the Covenant calligraphy.

  “They’re not shooting,” the Admiral said, gripping the back of Polaski’s seat. “We’re fine. Just fly, Warrant Officer.” He turned to the Master Chief. “Get ’em ready, son.”

  The Chief nodded and moved aft to the rest of the squad. His three Spartans as well as Lieutenant Haverson, Locklear, and Sergeant Johnson stood over an array of weapons laid out on the deck. Anton ticked off the inventory: “Shotguns, a fuel rod gun, Jackhammer rocket launchers, plasma and HE pistols, and every type of grenade—take your pick.”

  The Chief picked up five clips of ammunition for his MA5B assault rifle, three frag grenades, and a shotgun for close work. Nothing fancy—he wanted to keep it simple so he could keep one eye on the rest of his team.

  Locklear hefted the fuel rod gun, grunting from the exertion. The weapon glowed an eerie green along its fuel casing.

  Grace relieved him of the too-heavy w
eapon and shouldered it with ease.

  “Make sure you get a handgun,” the Chief told Locklear. “We’ll be in close quarters underground.”

  “Roger that,” Locklear said.

  “We’re close,” the Admiral called out.

  The Master Chief moved back to the cockpit to watch. The line of dropships and drones maneuvered toward a pile of truck-sized stones that had been carved from the mountain. A spiraling hole, ten kilometers across, sat where Menachite Mountain had once risen majestic and impregnable, covered with forests and glaciers.

  It was only a strip mine now, with a single shaft drilled down its center. A Covenant cruiser hovered over the shaft, and the purple glow of a grav lift knifed into the hole.

  “That’s our LZ,” Whitcomb announced. “Polaski, I want you to drive this crate straight down—but ease up a tad on the engines and let their grav beam do the work. It’ll take us all the way down to whatever’s at the bottom.”

  “With respect, Admiral,” Polaski said, “I’m not sure we’ll fit.”

  The Admiral squinted at the hole. “We’ll fit,” he said. “I have every confidence in you, Warrant Officer. Now make it quick. I don’t think anyone topside is going to think us going down there is a good idea.”

  “Yes, sir!” Her eyes locked onto the hole. “No problem, sir.”

  The Master Chief marveled at the Admiral’s lack of fear. He trusted the man’s judgment; he had been criticized during his campaigns for unorthodox tactics and strategies, but his insight had been proven correct each time. The Master Chief, however, also had observed that the higher up the chain of command you received your orders, the more likely those orders would demand the near impossible.

  “Hang on,” the Chief called up to his team.

  Polaski nosed the Covenant dropship over and plummeted into the dark purple scintillating grav beam. The instant they entered the field, the ship jumped, accelerated, and shuddered into the hole drilled through solid rock.

  Cut off from the thin shreds of sunlight above, the ship went dark. The internal running lights glowed a faint blue.

  “We’ve got no room to maneuver in here,” Polaski whispered.

  Lieutenant Haverson climbed forward. “Admiral Whitcomb, sir, I see how we can get in—assuming this hole leads somewhere—but it’s the other part of your plan that’s unclear. What’s our exit strategy, sir?”

  The Admiral’s steely glare pinned Haverson. “I’ve got it figured out. You just shoot when I tell you to and keep it all puckered up tight. Got it?”

  Haverson clenched his jaw, looking extremely unsatisfied. “Yes, sir.”

  Polaski focused intently on the walls of the tunnel rushing toward her craft. “Short-range sensors have a contact,” she said. “It looks like the bottom of the shaft. ETA sixty seconds at this speed.”

  The Admiral leaned closer to the Chief and whispered, “We’re gonna get hit heavy by whatever’s down there. You make sure you hit them back three times harder. Then you get Anton on point and see if he can’t locate your Spartans. I’m guessing they’ve gone to ground.”

  Before the Chief could reply, the Admiral moved aft and grabbed an assault rifle and two HE pistols. He clipped plasma and frag grenades to his belt.

  “Thirty seconds,” Polaski called out. She cut the engines, and the dropship coasted on the grav beam only. “There’s something down there,” she said. “Is that sunlight?”

  The dropship emerged into a titanic room—three kilometers across, circular, with a dozen galleries circumscribing the space. Overhead, a holographic sun and a dozen moons wheeled along its domed ceiling. Except for the hole drilled into the mountain by the Covenant, the holographic projection was perfect.

  The Admiral scrutinized the room, and his dark eyes locked onto a gathering of Covenant forces on the floor, near one edge of the great room. “There,” he said, and pointed. “I make out about a hundred of them: a few Elites, Jackals, mostly Grunts. Looks like they’re clearing a cave-in and not ready for company yet. Good.

  “Polaski, land us half a kilometer from ’em and then dust off. I want you back in that hole ASAP. Plug it up. We don’t want to leave our back door wide open.”

  “Aye, sir,” Polaski replied.

  Admiral Whitcomb addressed Li. “You’re our rear guard, son. Stay here and guard the ship with Polaski. Sorry.”

  “Sir! Yes, sir,” Li replied. The Master Chief detected a hint of bitterness in the Spartan’s voice for drawing what he undoubtedly would think was soft duty.

  Their dropship eased lower until it was a meter above the blue tiles of the room; the side hatches opened. The Chief jumped out first, followed by Anton, Lieutenant Haverson, and Locklear. From the hatch on the opposite side leapt the Admiral, Sergeant Johnson, and Grace.

  The dropship immediately rose into the hole in the ceiling, far enough in to be shielded from any stray ground fire.

  “Move, everyone,” the Admiral growled. He pointed at Grace and Locklear. “You two, fire long-range weapons. Everyone else, haul ass. Take them out, people.”

  The Admiral’s plan was sound. He wasn’t risking the dropship—their only means of escape—by landing too close to the enemy. They still had the element of surprise; the Covenant would have never anticipated an assault on the heart of their operation.

  But how long would this advantage last? How long before that cruiser blasted their dropship to atoms? The Covenant were not their most dangerous enemy. Time was.

  Grace paused, muscled the fuel rod gun to a forty-five-degree angle into the air, and launched a round. The alien weapon hissed and spat a glowing sphere of energy. The blast arced over the half-kilometer distance, impacted, and exploded in a green flash. Grunts and Jackals flew through the air.

  Locklear fired two Jackhammer rockets, then dropped the spent launcher. The pair of rockets connected with a cluster of Elites who had—until a second ago—been running the show. The twin explosion obscured that end of the room with billowing clouds of dust, fire, and smoke.

  The Master Chief motioned for his team to spread out and move forward at a jog.

  Ahead there were silhouetted Grunts and Jackals in the dust clouds, screaming and shooting at the air, each other, anything that moved.

  “Keep moving,” the Master Chief said. “Move while they don’t know what’s hit them.”

  Anton paused and knelt next to a set of tracks dug into the tiled floor. “Kelly’s been this way,” he reported over the COM.

  The Master Chief clicked on Red Team’s COM frequency. “Kelly? Fred? Joshua? Spartans, acknowledge this signal.”

  Only static answered him.

  A hundred meters from the stunned Covenant work crew, a stray plasma bolt fired from the hazy, rubble-strewn region detonated a few meters from the Master Chief. He sent a spray of automatic fire across the area, hoping to force the enemy to keep their heads down.

  Grace halted and fired the fuel rod gun again. A second glowing burst of radioactive energy flashed overhead and detonated along the far wall.

  In the intense light, the Master Chief saw that a dozen Jackals had braced themselves along the wall and overlapped their energy shields to create a phalanx. Behind them five Elites readied plasma rifles.

  “Down,” he shouted, and dived to one side.

  Grace hit the floor and rolled away. Plasma bolts sizzled over their heads, and the Master Chief’s shields drained as a shot hit too close. The barrage turned several of the blue tiles around him into a crater of blackened glass.

  “Grenades—up and over those shields, Spartans,” Admiral Whitcomb bellowed.

  The Master Chief and Anton primed plasma grenades and hurled them from their prone positions. They hit the far wall and dropped into the cluster of Elites and Jackals—behind their shields. There was a pair of blue flashes, and the enemy formation blew apart. Jackals scattered and ran.

  Grace fired the fuel rod gun, hit the broken phalanx formation, and blew them literally to bits. She dropped the weapon. “
Rad counter at max dosage,” she called out. “This thing’s too hot to use anymore.”

  “Back away!” the Chief ordered. “Those things have a fail-safe!”

  Grace sprang back, just in time. The fallen fuel rod gun sparked, sputtered, and then blew with the force of a frag grenade. Blackened, twisted tile rained down on them.

  Locklear jogged up and fired at the Grunts fleeing the excavation. They weren’t armed. Locklear mowed them down without remorse.

  From a pile of shattered stone, a pair of battered Elites struggled to rise. Blood and bone exploded outward from their chests, and they spun around toward the source of this force—boulders pushed away from the blocked passage. Three Spartans emerged from their cover, assault rifles smoking from their recent discharge.

  John knew instantly the three were Kelly, Fred, and Will.

  He ran forward to meet them.

  Fred lowered his weapon. “Anton…Grace…John?” he said disbelievingly.

  The Master Chief opened a COM channel to his Spartans. “It’s me. I wish I had time to explain everything. I will—later. Let’s get the hell out of here first.”

  Kelly quickly reached out and swiped her two fingers across John’s faceplate.

  He wanted to return the smile, but at that moment Admiral Whitcomb, running full force, skidded to a stop next to the Spartans. He was followed in short order by Haverson, Locklear, and Johnson, who kept looking over his shoulder to scan the huge empty room around them.

  “Is this everyone?” Admiral Whitcomb asked.

  “No, sir,” Fred replied. “There’s one more.” He turned and extended his hand back into the partially collapsed tunnel. “Ma’am? It’s safe to come out.”

  For a heartbeat the Master Chief forgot that he was in the heart of an enemy’s camp; he forgot about the war, that Reach had fallen, and everything else he had gone through in the last few days. He had never thought he would see her again.

  Dr. Halsey emerged from the partially caved-in tunnel. She brushed dust from the hem of her skirt and lab coat with one slender hand.