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―With you, we can do this," Eric said ―Felicia can assemble them all into a team for the

snatch-and-run; brass trusts her word They‘re all old CMA vets We‘ve been planning this for a long ti stuff like this on every op Aler on the mission weon and the bank was too far away from the action"

―But now that we found you, it‘s like it wasinto my eyes ―This is the one It‘s perfect"

Under the haze of alcohol, the teaain, I felt like I‘d refound ainst everyone

I was scared, but I didn‘t want to let theht beside them Hell, I‘d been created beside the to let thes I had about this crazy sche left to lose

War had stripped us of erous But it had forced us into a close bond at the beginning, and reinforced it e‘d found each other again after all these years

I didn‘t want to lose theain

WE DIDN‘Tcome in by SOEIVs for this mission, but by Pelicans They came out of orbit far from Covenant detection and then flew for hours until we reached the edge of our new combat zone

The se of small mountains Its center plaza sat on top of where fourriver that trickled out the valley

Our Pelicans ca a rock ravine on either side as they flew up, over, and then back down, just feet over the ground Risky, but again, the Covenant were none the wiser

So far

A hundred ODSTs fanned out through the city, cluy

I stood in the middle of the plaza road and watched it all with Felicia and Eric

Downriver the Covenant had thrown together a daanic ships zoomed around overhead, and thousands of Grunts operated a constant huround

We could hear the operations in the distance of the evacuated, eerily quiet city

―Do you knohat the city‘s called?" I asked

―Mount Haven," Felicia said

Two heavy ically located buildings in the city‘s center Manned by two ODSTs, Amey and Charleston, both were picked out by Felicia, and there in case the Covenant decided to co They also had rocket launchers at their feet for an extra punch if needed

The other two members of that team, Orrin and Dale, stood with rocket launchers down the street

Sita stood with Felicia, holding a BR55 battle rifle slung under her ared by a doorith a pair of SMGs

The eight of us were the base teaun in the nosethe ninth This was base caes of the city, ostensibly to reduce the chance of their getting hit by Covenant fire if things got hot; but it was really just an order by Felicia to keep them out of view of the city center

Teams of ODSTs moved off downriver, and within ten s around the river plaza and us, left behind to keep Mount Haven ―secure"

There was an empty Jim Dandy‘s restaurant nearby City Hall stood quiet with its facade of marble in the shadows

The stately, two-story bank stood there, waiting for us

―Okay, let‘s go!" Felicia shouted

Orrin and Dale set their launchers up against the side of the bank and rigged explosives on the bank‘s thick front doors

They blew off with a surprisingly ood at this

They would be old CMA professionals that Felicia dug up

―We have twentyready to come back for the pickup,"

Felicia said as she led us into the bank ―So everybody move, move, move"

Sita, Teller, Orrin, and Dale all ran with her The next obstacle was getting a door down; Dale quickly wired it up

Another explosion later and ere through

―Think we can risk the elevator?" I asked

―Backup power is running still," Dale said ―It‘s a small pebble-bed nuclear reactor deep

underneath the city It‘ll keep"

There were three more thick doors to blast But there was no one to worry about the alarms we continually set off So it all went fast

The final explosion revealed a long tunnel with flickering lights, thick bars lining the roo each side, with one final vault just beyond

―Jackpot," whispered Teller He licked his lips

On h as my chest

Each sub roo

WE MOVEDquickly, using a motorized pallet dolly that just fit in the elevator The first two sub rooold bars into empty ammunition chests in the back of Eric‘s Pelican

It filled up quickly, and there was a lightness in the air as we cracked jokes and iined e‘d do with our share

The Pelican alold, and we had toa layer of chests full of gold to the ay

―Any more and she won‘t fly," Eric warned

―There‘s just one et a few more chests in here, then we‘re done," Felicia said

Back under the bank we detonated the door to the last vault The lights flickered fro from the dust that had been kicked up Shadows filled the rooled to co and steadied, and we realized that the shadoere still

They were human-shaped shadows

A hand reached out frorabbed at me ―Are you here to save us?" asked a tiny voice, and I looked down into the large, wide blue eyes of a little boy

―THANK GODyou came," said an older man, a schoolteacher who‘d been chosen to stay with the

children while the adults arht the Covenant

That had been days ago