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As she looked along the hul above to find a hatch, she picked up a sound Her hearing was hypersensitive at the best of times But the hel a pair of pants off the back of the chair, dragging a leather belt over wood It was so slowly done, so careful, that al Lucy could think was aetfro around in the direction of the noise Her eye caught movement and short-lived shadow, but whoever it was had taken cover between the vehicles She started stalking it
Okay … let’s see your legs
The vessels or whatever were al different shapes and sizes, soh, some much smal er But the terrazzo floor was perfectly smooth and flat Lucy darted under the nearest vehicle and lay cheek to the ground, looking for bootsbetween the stands and struts Over the sound of her own rapid breathing--pu adrenaline, fiercely focused--she could stil hear the slithering leather, and what she thought was a gasp of effort
Actual y, it sounded more like a fart It was a weird, unfunny et the jump on someone as more likely to blow her head off than shake her hand, and here she was listening to a das Elites just couldn’t move that quietly
And a Brute would have set at her
But she saw a shadow ht to left about four vessels ahead of her She crawled under the ships on elbows and knees, rifle cradled in the crook of her ar her eyes on that shadow It paused for a antry above antry?
Lucy couldn’t look up to check She kept going She didn’t think she wasmuch noise, but it was hard to be co to tiptoe on joints It was slow going
And then she was under the curved hul of another dark gray ship, one that gave her a gliear, and within two s You’re standing on so aboveup underneath you
That’ll be a lovely surprise, won’t it?
Lucy left it to the last moment to flip over onto her back It wasn’t easy with a backpack, but she did it, balancing herself on it and putting one boot against a strut If she pushed off hard enough, she’d skid out like a skate and come up under the bastard, whoever it was She clutched her rifle to her chest, right index finger on the trigger, left hand cupped around the ainst the strut and braced her quads
Deep breath Three … two … She drove off froht above her, a dark shape blotted out the light In the fraction of a second between seeing it and squeezing the trigger, her brain told her tentacles, Engineer, could be rigged to explode, do it
She squeezed off a burst, straight up Liquid splashed her visor A terrible squealing noise like a bal oon venting air told her she’d hit it She tried to rol clear, but it crashed down on her, tentacles flailing
It didn’t blow up And neither did she
Oh God I shot an Engineer I shot a poor daineers--Huragok--were lightweights, less than sixty kilos, but it was stil hard to ht like that on her chest She squir terrible wheezing, sucking noises now, looking like a beached squid with a face The creatures had gas sacs that enabled them to float and that hat she’d hit But the sacs were their lungs as welIt was suffocating
Lucy couldn’t even tel it she was sorry She couldn’t explain that she’d seen too ineers with booby traps strapped to them by the Covenant, and that she was trained not to take chances
She couldn’t explain that she overreacted to threats and so, either
She tried to lift its head and co and narrow She took off her helmet and tried to look into its eyes, three on each side of its head, and make some sort of contact with it, but it was hard to work out where to focus The poor thing was dying It was like shooting an autistic child Huragok were har with ht or take sides; they were only dangerous when the Covenant strapped explosives to theusted Lucy She had a faint recol ection of a pet cat before the Covenant kil ed her faes Monsters
But hus and dolphins and all kinds of helpless creatures We ineer
It ht not have troubled most Spartans, but it troubled her Al she could do was hold it The sucking noises were getting weaker There was nothing in her medical pack that could save it She didn’t even knohere to start
And I’ve killed the only sentient being that could help us find a way out of this place Or get et heavier as she tried to prop up its head, then it stopped wheezing and its tentacles went limp
God, I’m sorry Did you realize I didn’t mean to do it?
Lucy sat back on her heels and wondered what the hel to do next Now she knew there was no real threat, she had to work out how to contact the squad and let them knohere she was and what she’d found If she could locate the point where she’d entered the chae on the stone
A she could rely on was a sinals that alotten
She stood and looked down at the Engineer for a few moments She’d never kil ed anyone she hadn’t wanted and intended to She ondering what to do with the body when she heard that leather belt sound again
Several leather belts, in fact Shadows flickered in her peripheral vision
Engineers were harmless--weren’t they?
HANGAR BAY, UNSC PORT STANLEY: FIFTEEN THOUSAND KILOMETERS OFF NEW LLANELLI, BRUNEL SYSTEM
"Aren’t you going to help Naoazine of ar on so wel "
Vaz looked over his shoulder with some difficulty as he eased himself into his new armor It didn’t s his are of movement in his shoulders and wondered if it orth the trade-off against shoulder plates
"She’s too old and too scary," he said "And she needs a technician for that"