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"Probably not Depends what’s happening e get there"

"We’l be there in ht or not?"

"At thein on a very unreliable comms link I’l have to , and we’l be in Acroli long before it’s in position"

"I hope you’ve got an exact location"

"Nes’alun keep It’s not marked on charts"

"But it’s a smal town"

"Yes"

"Okay, orry about hoe knock on doors e get there A keep’s got to be obvious, right?"

Vazdown his ar his rifle "Females" He checked the optics "Ree-head? Do they look any different?"

"Not a lot," BB said "You won’t want a date It’s the jaws Ghastly kissers"

"Then they’d better hand Phyllis over" Vaz was i cheered up "I believe in equality I’l shoot anyone"

He got up and walked to the front of the co the safety rails as he went Naomi stil had the shutters up She hadn’t taken off her hel at the bulkhead, ar on her HUD Mal placed a mental bet that it was the latest ONI reports on Venezia It was too easy to forget that once they’d retrieved Phil ips, a queue of otherpatiently for they is," Vaz said "Are we playing nice with ‘Telcarab Phil ips?"

"Wel , there’s the interesting thing," BB said "Osman told hi words like hostage on the comms channels"

Naomi lifted off her helmet and tidied her hair with one hand If Mal hadn’t known better, he’d have thought she’d just woken up "Even if he doesn’t think Phil ips is a hostage, the others roup here"

"I always assume the worst," Mal said

"So do I" Devereaux sounded as if she’d leaned out of her seat "It’s you-can’t-see-hts flashed up on the bulkhead repeater "Deflective caic I didn’t think we stil had it"

"Just because it didn’t fool Covenant sensors doesn’t mean that Farmer Giles can spot us," she said "There’s stil value in hiding behind a tree, you know"

Mal caught hi that nobody would wonder what that funny whining noise was overhead, as if any god would care about what happened to one ODST Carbon nanotube cloaking was very old and largely useless now, but Kilo-Five wasn’t going up against a high-tech enemy This was pitchfork country It would do

"It doesn’t make us completely invisible," he said "Or silent"

"No, but it makes us pretty darunting sounds, as if she real y was coled hair BB didn’t coave him permission to die"

Naomi flipped her helmet over between her hands like a basketbal"I don’t believe anyone’s dead until I see a body"

It wasn’t like her to join in unless she was asked a specific question Mal’s first thought was that she meant her father, but then he remembered that she’d been real y cut up to hear that the Master Chief was official y MIA with a strong unofficial dash of KIA Maybe she meant him It was hard to tel with so ht home

"We’l be over Acroli in six minutes" Devereaux stil seemed more worried about Phil ips than she’d admit "Ideas on how to identify Nes’alun, BB?"

"Wel , a fare, probably"

"You’re a natural-born navigator"

Six er than it sounded Mal sealed his helmet and checked the video feeds One was the exterior careenery that threw long shadows in the late afternoon and a little stone-built town beyond It looked like half a dozen s barns But as the town rushed up on the holes in so sections of roof, and the charred reround It wasn’t exactly pitchfork fighting, then

"Wel , it’s all dae, BB," Mal said "Next idea?"

Tart-Cart slowed and looped around the settle to salvage their property, and a couple of them looked up as the dropship passed overhead, but they went back to clearing the rubble They’d heard it but they couldn’t quite see it

They probably thought the noise was coot to have coordinates to find the place," BB said "If I could get hold of hiely Arbiter supporters"

"Location Any clue at al would do"

"Wait one"

"See, BB, ere baby ODSTs in training, the sarge i when retrieving hostages"

BB went a little acid "You can go back and ask Sarge, then, Staff"

A rough stone building that looked like a kid’s idea of a fort stood a couple of klicks away from the settlement

"Okay, what’s that over there?"

"Another keep"

"And what’s that muzzle flash?" Mal knew perfectly hat it was He’d seen enough plasma fire to last him a lifetime "I bet that’s Nes’alun"

A s Tart-Cart slowed to side around the fields, Mal could see that it wasn’t so e of shots About twenty hinge-heads crouched in the cover of loal s and shabby outbuildings, focused on the a an assault A couple of shots spat out froe ducked, then fired back Then it went quiet again

This had to be the farain and now Mal could see the state of thewas blocked with al kinds of wood, and black smoke streaks radiated from the stone door frame like sooty petals It looked like they’d tried to stor the keep because the blokes are away fighting, I suppose," Mal said "Which means they could be back anytime, so the ones down there can’t wait forever"

"What do you want to do?" Devereaux asked "Set down and observe for a while?"