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Suddenly they were pulled back A sensation of flight, then A blessed nu up for a moment to see that she‘d done it--that Henry and Lopez, frah away to close the door on both the her and Clarence, but they didn‘t mean any harm They would never mean her any harm

Clarence writhed in the e, ―Don‘t let them take me!" It was too late for that She wanted to say, ―Relax, Clarence You‘ve got ht Don’t want to wake up Not now Not for this sad party

Last thing she re in Henry‘s shadow, as Henry fired point-blank into the Flood and into her Thought she saw Lopez raising an are as the Flood repurposed her

Lopez, 1624 hours

Lopez, tired as hell, blinked, and

Henry roared, deep and eternally Covenant, and next to the discord of the Flood, so welcome and familiar to Lopez‘s ears He fired into the mob that had taken Benti, ah to knock an infected prisoner off its feet Raised his cricket bat Lopez opened fire, taking no specific aiht back only to be taken away

The aone All her kids gone

She couldn‘t see the anymore Couldn‘t pick them out Couldn‘t spareanyone

A handful of infection forhts Shot thereen powder

She dropped and Henry swung his bat, s an infection form she hadn‘t seen away from her

She rolled back into the airlock Slapped the controls as Henry joined her, beating away at a transforreen froth before the airlock sealed

With infection for a crazy line around the airlock, chasing the zooots Had no sords left to use on the his bat

Four popped Punched the last so hard against the wall the panel dented, green sludge on his fist He reeled back fro them from his face

Safe

They looked at each other The s at the door

The ship‘s PA crackled again

―Shiva ar launch sequence in forty-five seconds--"

The airlock door dented inward, and both flinched, taking a step away fro There was only room for one This alien, this enemy, had carried Benti to safety On this ship ofto go down Some little backwater side action, maybe a footnote in some ONI operative‘s field report

And beyond the door, so, bad universe, Sergeant

Henry‘s four jaws flexed Lopez narrowed her eyes Put her finger on the trigger Noticed Henry‘s grip on the cricket bat tighten

Covenant aren’t the worst of it

No

But they were pretty damn hideous

―Sorry, Henry," she said, ―but there‘s only one pod"

She pulled the trigger

Click

No ammo

Lobbed the last curse she had in her, and hefted the rifle like a club

―thirty seconds--"

The Covenant Elite snarled, jaws spread, and raised his bat

And they went at it

ICON

ICON Soldiers forged from youth to serve as tools of eapons of direct and conclusive destruction--the men and women of the classified ra the Human-Covenant War

Prepared for the harsh realities of coainst known eneinable--and terrifyingly alien--the Spartan-IIs, and later the Spartan-IIIs, delivered nuht of the Covenant

Altered to a level far beyond that of norram were humanity‘s best, and possibly only, hope when faced with the threat of extinction from an advanced alien collective bent on our eradication in the nah the flah the silent vacuuhout the hulimpse at ultimate victory

Thus came a ―Demon"--a hero, a soldier, afactor--one ie Like his brothers and sisters, he was trained to fight, to win, a master of the latest weapons of war But Spartan-117, the Master Chief, had one intangible asset few others possessed--luck

Added to an uname, or heated combat--Spartan-117‘s uncanny coood fortune ainst iive in, never one to relent, the Master Chief, and each of his fellow Spartans, did e the eneunfire, with every battle won

PALACE HOTEL

ROBT MCLEES

THE HASTILYconcocted mission to board the Covenant carrier that dominated the sky over New Mole Scarab--one of the Covenant‘s ultra-heavy ground-based weapons platforroup out of the air, leaving Master Chief Petty Officer ―John" Spartan-117 to pull hie

―Aside fro on the ground with no viable means of transportation to our objective, I‘d say we‘re in pretty good shape" Cortana‘s voice seemed to come from just over the Spartan‘s shoulder The AI had been put in his care a little over a o and he still wasn‘t used to the inti over his left shoulder, half expecting to see her

―We have one of the top-ranking members of the Covenant leadership within our reach--there‘s a Prophet Hierarch on that ship On top of that? We‘re still alive, Chief And while there isn‘t anything I can do about the Covenant being here, I aently to devise a viable solution to our other probleer cover the few abandoned vehicles littering the toll plaza afforded him As he closed in on a row of toll booths, he found his eyes drawn to the we Underpass It looked like a kiln--exhaling heat and light Cutting across the plaza was a s to the tunnelthe face of the city‘s faed A dull smile crossed his lips behind his visor as he considered his options He thought back The correct choices have always been this obvious He had always been able to see the tiger and the lady--doors had never factored into the equation

A thin whine fronaled the arrival of Banshees John dashed beneath the canopy of concrete that sheltered the island of toll booths--he was less concerned about the Banshees‘ effectiveness as attack aircraft and ainst one of the boothspolycarbonateThe attendant, still seated within, wasn‘twith the charred reonomic seat bolted to the floor

―His nae fifty-ter, three adult children The oldest still--"

Cortana rattled off before John cut in

―He just sat there--the position of his feet," John pointed at theshoes with his chin for eet away From his position he would‘ve been able to see the tee forty-seven even before it crested the bridge--that‘s a little over eight hundred ear a shake test then ?" Cortana challenged ―Do the words ‗transfixed with terror‘to you? You may find this hard to believe, but "

With a barely noticeable shrug he began looking for a path to thethe line of booths until he found a straight shot with no obstructions It was seventy-three meters to the entrance That meant he would be out in the open for about four and a half seconds--enough time for one of the Banshees in the air overhead tohis rifle and hunkered down

Kelly had always been the fastest in their class--easilywho had ever lived--but as he tore across the plaza, he was certain that his performance would have made even her take notice

Once he ithin the tunnel, John slid to a stop against a burnt-out sedan He unlimbered his rifle and considered the path ahead This section of the tunnel was littered with vehicles; soutted or otherwise destroyed, others merely abandoned The area would have been perfect for an ah it The vehicles appeared to thin out soet there would require patience And so he began snaking his way through the environ quickly but cautiously between cover He checked thehis eye on his ar intently for any sound that see his way deeper into the underpass, he heard s-on froside a lorry in pale green Technique Electronics livery and looked off to his right The Moi Avenue junction was sealed off by heavy blast doors

―The main route is locked down as well," Cortana huffed; the frustration in her voice was un for Cortana to continue The we route, a 390-meter tunnel that resurfaced in the center of New Moain entrance into the city without being spotted by the ene and he hoped it was from a maintenance creho could release either set of blast doors; if not, his only choice was to head back to the surface

―That‘s it?" John asked, finally ―It‘s locked down and nothing else?"

―I‘ the local net," Cortana replied ―I‘ll have it in a ed around the cab of one of the omnipresent SinoViet lorries About thirty meters away, near the blast door, were two M831s--the primary UNSC wheeled troop carriers that had

becoht lorries over the past feeeks--and a squad of Marines ere busily pulling any useful bits of equiphost battalions out of Eridanus Two," Cortana said with a near-audible sigh of relief ―First Battalion, Seventh Regiment; more specifically, this is Third Squad, First Platoon, Kilo Conaled the Spartan‘s arrival to the rest of the squad and reet him