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It didn’t matter now Mal knew there couldn’t be a hundred, and one Brute could kil you as surely as six, twelve, or fifty They’d be logjammed in that sainst the to remember al that?" Mal asked "No? Too bad Stand to See you e get back, BB"

"Oh, I’ too" BB rotated and ment of me wil remain here to pilot the ship, but I’l transfer to the Mjolnir We’ve never done this for real before, by the way Have we, Naomi?"

"Why now?"

"Why not? I know I’ Cortana can"

Mal picked up a little rivalry there He’d have to ask about Cortana later BB’s hologram suddenly vanished and Osman pul ed a data chip out of the command console If BB had any physical entity at al , then that chip was as near as da

"Put your pants on, BB," Mal said It was a sobering sight, al that power and knowledge--and their lives, like it or not--in a smal wafer of silicon and crystal "There’s ladies present"

Naomi took the chip from Osman and stared at it for a moment "There would be better occasions to try this for the first time"

"Oh, you’ve done dry runs with other AIs," BB said cheerful y "Why not just plunge in? I can iht to your brain, do that crossword you can never quite crack…"

Naomi real y didn’t look happy about it Quiet misery was her default expression, but Mal watched it twist into real disive in to it She slotted the chip into her hel the helmet onto her head, "that I cal the shots"

BB didn’t say a word Maybe integrating into Naomi’s systems had shut him up for once Mal decided to keep a watchful eye on the relationship

Everyone was getting on fine: better than fine, in fact, a real y close-knit and easy-going tea they needed was a Spartan saddled with an AI she didn’t want

But that wasn’t a probleiven that they were the two y the UNSC had ever produced

They were stuck with each other

BRIDGE, UNSC PORT STANLEY: TEN MINUTES LATER

Philips was stil sitting quietly at the co to the voice traffic, but Osman felt utterly alone in the ship as she looked out of the viewscreen at Piety

The nearest that she could get to experiencing the HUD data that her team relied on was to have their helmet cam feeds overlaid on the viewscreen It was a cheap and si a projector that could display a few centimeters in front of the plate But it made al the difference to her She felt less helpless, a littleto theht to fight

"BB, move Devereaux’s POV to the left, please, and keep the others on the right" The individual screens showing the caainst the black backdrop of space, they were vivid and sobering "Thanks Perfect"

"Iine that al scrunched up in your visor instead of spread out across a viewscreen," Phil ips said

"Yes, there’s a lot going on in those HUDs Distracting" Moveht her eye The dropship wasinto position

"And upside down"

Osman could see the inverted tail of Piety ahead The Jiralhanae were stil unaware that they had stalkers They couldn’t detect Port Stanley electronical y and they couldn’t physical y see her They had reasonable forward visibility, but none aft, so they wouldn’t realize they were being attacked until they felt the dropship grapples slaainst their hulNo, ed in a U-turn toward the hangar and saw Port Stanley’s bow doors wide open like a maw

"Devereaux," Os you, then break off and get clear We’l take her out fro it won’t come to that, ma’am This is like old-style subes things and col ides with the other, of course Not that bit at al "

Osht-hand side for the outputs from Naomi, Vaz, and Mal The helmet cam views tilted back and forth between the black and navy bluethe eth of the hangar deck The three of theh the various permutations of ways to enter Piety

"Stand by," Oso, Devereaux We’l work around you"

"They’re stil chattering, Captain," Phil ips said "I’l let you knohen I lose the signal"

Osman counted down to herself as if she was the one ould take the decision to fire the EM pulse But that was the task of BB’s frag power and an accuracy far beyond even the best huat framed upside down in Devereaux’s HUD as the dropship moved up past the corvette’s bows When she looked up, the dropship was passing above her, inverted Port Stanley stil had a clear line of sight with Piety It was al a… now, " BB said

There was no sound, no light, and no inal, Captain"

Only the indicator on the console told her that BB had fired The dropship settled neatly on top of Piety’s hul and the grapples extruded fro nacel es to latch on to it Os she could do now; no orders, no advice, nothing She just had to watch

Ten seconds … eleven … The Engineer hadn’t fixed things yet, then, or else the creature was confined so inside Piety--total darkness, drives dead, shouts and curses, Brutes stu to restore power and stil with no idea yet of what had happened to them Behind her, the comms speakers fizzed briefly as if the radio had coain The EMP indicator lit up and faded The dropship’s drives were at ful thrust now, blue-hot rings in the blackness, and the crew of Piety would be feeling vibrations as the dropship began forcing her around in a loop