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A red status light winked from Olivia The tea back
Ash rapidly blinked his green status light: the signal to open fire This was the best target they'd had all unfire surrounded him The fern exploded into a shower of confetti
A single Spartan hidden by the fern turned, their SPI ar silver from the staccato of stun rounds that peppered its surface Their foot caught on a root and they tunal, and his squad et stayed doith several bursts of well-placed rounds The ballistic gel underlayer of their ar down
After three seconds, he flashed red, and they ceased fire
Oliviaon the still-writhing Spartan's back
The target was now officially "dead"
Ash activated a NAV marker and alerted C and C for pickup of the "corpse"
The ground trembled, just for a moment, but all the Spartans in Tea for the source of the disturbance
Earthquake? Not likely There was no tectonic activity on Onyx That left only two possibilities: impact or detonation Neither was especially welcome
Ash le and eranite and quartz rottos, and fissures extended to the north-- up to and beyond the high fence of Zone 67
The Zone here the "ghost" of Onyx was supposed to be It'd been spotted once or twice according to other Spartan candidates: a single eye in the dark They just made up that stuff to scare plebes Ash had, however, heard of a Beta Company squad that had vanished near here and never been found
He looked around warily and spotted a naturally eroded tunnel that extended through a hill Ash pointed and Team Saber settled inside to assess the tactical situation
Ash pulled off his helmet, and wiped the blood from his nose and hair "Too close," he said
"Still, we got one," Holly said, pulling off her own golden h you sure gave it a good try" She scratched the fuzz on her head, which she had buzz-cut into a series of bear-claw scratch patterns The length was a-okay by the regs, but soot a little wild about the teasing, and she had been de
Dante ree Satisfied, he retrieved two black flash-bang grenades froht the trip wires"
Ash nodded He should have reprirenades Then again, Dante had near-ical abilities when it cao, and when they wouldn't That or he was the luckiest person he'd ever seen
Olivia kept her SPI heluard position outside Ash wasn't worried She was the best sneak in Gamma Company They called her "O" for short because she was as whisper-quiet as her vowel namesake
Ash turned to Mark "Head check," he said, and patted his friend on the back of his helmet
Mark pulled the helmet off, and Ash saw a nasty bruise on his cheek Mark ran his hands over his shaved head and worried the edges of that bruise
"I' of his ar sure it was perfect, and then slipped the helmet back on
They called Mark "The Mark," because he was their best ood with a sniper rifle, but better with a rifle on full auto in all-out target-rich free-for-all The ot
Ash spotted bands of rough onyx along the tunnel wall, black and white and streaked with flecks of gold He ran a gloved finger over the patterns, intrigued by the geological oddity
He then snapped out of it and focused on the here and now He slipped his helmet back on
"Audio check," Ash whispered over TEAMCOM
Green status lights winked back Good No one was deaf
A dull thump echoed off the distant
Team Saber instinctively dropped to a crouch Ash pulled his sidear one," Dante muttered "Artillery? One of the new four-forties?"
"I don't think the Lieutenant Commander would use artillery on us," Ash whispered
"Not normally," Holly replied "But this is the last test Maybe he's pulling out all the stops to figure out who'll get top honors"
Top honors Ash had pushed Tea their specialties; learning every lesson Endless Suether as a single razor-edged weapon Only two other teas Gladius and Katana Top honors would hts and respect It would mean they were the best That they'd won
Over TEAMCOM, Ash said, "O, you get a direction on that blast?"
Olivia's status light winked red
"Okay," Ash said, "we'll assume it's artillery for now I can't believe the Lieutenant Co it… but Mendez is another story You hear incoreen LEDs lit on his heads-up display, acknowledging the order
Ash had read somewhere that you never heard the artillery shell that killed you He had no desire to personally test that battlefield legend
"What's the plan for Katana and Gladius?" Mark asked
"Katana's down one," Ash replied "We'll focus on the weaker of the two We'll find--"
Another thuround shuddered
"Closer," Olivia whispered over TEAMCOM "Vector north"
Ash stepped out of the tunnel and took cover by a large boulder The others followed and their SPI armor blended into the rocky terrain
If this was another trap, then they were probably stepping out right into a sniper's line of fire But Ash didn't think so No one would use ordnance that big so close, not even Mendez
An explosion like that wasn't soether frorenades, either… so that eli it?
FortyZone 67 Electrified razor wire, motion sensors, and lanes of minefields otten around it--but they wouldn't The LC's orders had been crystal clear: DO NOT CROSS It would count as an instant disqualification for top honors
What about the other teams? Just a quick hop over and lateral move to flank him? No
None of them would risk a disqualification
There was a dust storm about three kilo smoke… and fire
A distantquartz dust, a hail of boulders, and roiling flame
Ash instinctively ducked, and his insides clenched
He'd seen big explosions before Nothing like that, though
"Two kilometers," Dante said "Felt that one in my bones"
They watched the stones rain from the sky
"A few Archer missiles e of the expanding cloud of dust If Ash didn't know better he'd have sworn they were vultures But Onyx didn't have raptorlike avian species
Ash zoonification on his faceplate At five-times he saw the dots had a three- fold sy his sniper rifle and sited through the scope
They were drones of some sort But not UNSC MAKOS Not Covenant Banshees fliers, either They were a few
Three dull steel boo like molten iron No obvious jets No cockpit There were a dozen of them
"Has to be an experie for neeapons"
"They wouldn't be 'testing' a aton worth of destructive force while ere so close,"
Ash countered
Or was this part of the final test? Soether to defeat? That would be Chief Mendez's style: change the rules in the middle of a test
The drones moved away from the ato short just on the opposite side of the Zone 67 fence, where they circled another butte
Ash spied ed bunker popped open, and heavy un fire strafed the drones
The lead drone's three booliold popped into place and fifty-caliber rounds iy shields!" Dante said "Has to be Covenant"
Ash reluctantly agreed with this assessame, no final honors test
The war had arrived on Onyx
He broadcast over an open COM channel: "Currahee C and C, coency"
No answer His radio light was green He was broadcasting, but no one was listening
"Radio check," Ash said to his teaet the Lieutenant Coincourt, too"