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PROLOGUE

NOVEMBER 2552, LOCATION UNDEFINED LAST VERIFIED REALSPACE LOCATION:

THE CORE OF THE PLANET ONYX

It’s a beautiful sunny day The oak branches are swaying gently in the breeze and the air’s scented with unseen blossom

And we’re trapped

Did you ever run and hide as a kid? Ever sla because you were sure you’d never be found, and then realize you’d locked yourself in? Did you panic or breathe a sigh of relief? I suppose it al depends on what you were hiding fro from the end of the world

For al we know, it’s already happened If there’s anyone left out there, they don’t even knoe’re here We alaxy--me, Chief Mendez, and a detachment of Spartans Correction: three of my Spartans--Fred, Kel y, and Linda--and five others who are so else entirely, five I didn’t even know existed until this week, and if there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s not knowing

You’ll explain yourself to ot more ti out of his pants pocket and gazes wistful y at it like a pilgri it back

"You can read Forerunner, Dr Halsey," he says, i over us at thewhat’s real y on our minds He has his secrets, and I have mine "Do you know the syht about now"

He’s staring up at a sun that can’t possibly be there, set in an artificial sky that runs froht at the other We’re not on Onyx any longer--not in this dimension, anyway

"Chief, this is the most advanced doo to reassure, him or me "A civilization sufficiently advanced to build a boet to address the food supply Would they?"

It’s a permanently lovely day inside this Dyson sphere, and beyond its wal s is … actual y, I don’t know any longer It was Onyx Now it’s somewhere in slipspace Every tiy, so else pops up and confounds me They must have shared our sense of beauty or bequeathed us theirs, because they rass, rivers, almost landscaped perfection

Mendez pats his pocket as if checking so is stil in there "Better hope they evolved beyond the usual procurement charlie-foxtrot, too, then Or we’l have to live off the land"

"We’ve got unli"

Mendez has knowntime Over the years he’s perfected that hoary old CPO’s careful y blank expression that looks alust I know that now I can see it

But you’re in no position to lecture me on ethics, are you, Chief? I knohat you’ve done The proof’s right in front ofat them

Mendez walks away in the direction of the two recon teaés and Ackerson’s little project, these Spartan-IIIs--look i useful They don’t handle idleness welWe made warfare the sole focus of their lives

Noe don’t know if there’s stil a war outside to fight, or even a galaxy left to fight it in

But that’s fine by me My Spartans are safe here That’s al that matters Safe if the Halo Array fires, anyway I don’t know if this is the haven it appears Perhaps it’s already got tenants We’l find out the Navy way, Mendez says

"Okay, Spartans, the cahborhood" Mendez unslings his rifle and looks at Fred

"Conserve rations until we know if there’s anything on the ht, Chief Radio check, people" Fred, Spartan-104, has been e of forty-one "Priorities, in this order-- secure the area, locate a food supply, and find a way to revive Team Katana and the others"

How many Spartan-IIIs did Ackerson create? Five are already in suspension here, with three other men we can’t identify, but we have no idea yet how to open their Forerunner slipspace pods They’l have an interesting story to tel e do

Fred gestures to take in the terrain "Treat this as an acquaint Spartan-Twos faet out of here, we’re ready to fight effectively Kel y, Dr Halsey, Tom, Olivia--you’re with Chief Mendez Linda, Lucy, Mark, Ash--with me Move out"

Just as Fred turns to walk away, I catch his eye He was never s, but he can’t hide them from me anyway I know al my Spartans better than their htly as if he’s blocking out an unbearable world, just a fraction of a second, and then it’s gone We’ve buried our dead here Two of those Spartan-IIIs, just into their teens, just children … and Kurt never ht you were dead already, Kurt Now I’ve lost you twice

Fred pats Lucy on the shoulder "You okay, Spartan?"

She gives hi, too traumatized to speak Mendez trained these kids He knew He knehat Ackerson was doing with et that, Chief

Kel y slows and drops back to walk beside me I’m not twenty-one anymore and I certainly don’t have the stride of a two-meter Spartan, or even these … new ones My God, they’re too small How can they be Spartans?

"You’ve fal en on your feet again, Dr Halsey," Kel y says "Some rabbit hole Did you knoas here?"

"I should stop trying to look as if I know everything, shouldn’t I?"

"You think we’re going to lose this war I knoe’re not"

"I extrapolate fro soo to save my Spartans? This far I lured them to Onyx, the safest location I could think of, because I knew they’d never abandon their posts any other way I lied to them to save them