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One of the sleeping ones, a girl, dozed with one eye open Her shorn hair had been buzz-cut to mimic animal claw marks She couldn't be more than twelve She blinked, sat up, and esture to the others

They stopped and together turned to Dr Halsey

Their faces were young, but they had the well-developed physiques of Olympic athletes

These had to be Ackerson's SPARTAN-IIIs

Dr Halsey felt a curious ?" Kelly asked

"Fine," she answered, and continued to exaobs of metal, as if the place had been bombed

Near Mendez hat looked as if it had once been a computer workstation--now a solid lu she was looking at hiood to see you," he said, "but you and SPARTAN-087 have landed yourselves into a kettle of fish… boiling water and all If you're well enough, I can fill you in

But take your time; there's no rush if you feel sick"

"Indeed?" Dr Halsey said, and raised one eyebrow

She resented being treated like an invalid moron As if a minor acceleration-induced blackout had crippled her e uesses as to your 'kettle of fish'--just to test esture with his cigar "Please, Doctor"

"Where to start… ?" Dr Halsey tapped her lower lip, thinking "I suppose with you Chief

You were recruited by Colonel Ackerson and soeneration of Spartans"

The Chief's cigar dropped fro cards "These er to question thementation and discover what else has been accost the over their faces

Kelly shifted in her kneeling stance,to pounce Kelly was a finely honed weapon, but she had never learned how to conceal her eeneration Spartans made her nervous

That made her nervous, too

Dr Halsey knew her conclusions about these new Spartans had been correct, but there were so many more unanswered questions Mendez and Colonel Ackerson had had decades to produce and train two or three generations If this were true, then why had she never heard of these Spartans? Keeping a pilot prograeneration Spartans ere likely fighting and winning battles hidden was another matter entirely

The implications of that silence chilled her to the bone

For now, though, she had to at least appear to know everything

Dr Halsey stood and took a deep breath, s ash, vaporized aluminum, and the faint odor of carbonized meat

"Next," she said, "this bunker has been subjected to extreme temperature that approximately matches the blackbody radiation profile from the drones we encountered in space I surlanced at the young Spartans and the dents and flash-burn scoring on their armor

"A battle, I see, that has been rather one-sided"

"The drones," the girl with the stylized buzz cut whispered "What are they?"

"A question, good" Dr Halsey al step between her and the new Spartans: teaching them Trust would come later

"The drones, actually called Sentinels, are similar to those I have seen on an alien construct world," she explained "Their builders, called Forerunners, possess technology more advanced than the Covenant And they have just as y to destructive ends"

Dr Halsey turned and stepped toward the other unknown figure in full ca theoretical lines of speculation, let ic"

The unknown person stood nearly two and a half nize my work," she declared "You are a SPARTAN-II" Very few soldiers in the UNSC were so tall or ure nodded

Dr Halsey walked around this unknown Spartan

"Despite the UNSC policy of listing every Spartan asor wounded in action when killed," Dr Halsey continued, "I have kept track of those actually '' There was Randall in 2532, Kurt in 2531, and Sheila, in 2544"

She coazed directly into his mirrored faceplate

"Sheila is dead," Dr Halsey said "I personally witnessed her killed in the Battle of Mirideuess, I would say Kurt, because he s If I were running a secret Spartan program, he would have been the one to select to lead them"

The helmet's faceplate unpolarized and Kurt s you don't know, Dr Halsey?" Kurt said

She closed her eyes, suddenly weary, and then patted his gauntleted hand "It is good to see you alive"

She couldn't let slip exactly how happy she was to see Kurt One of her Spartans come back from the dead, it was a small victory in a war of endless defeats It redoubled her deter threats But she had to maintain control

Spartans responded to authority and coe to FLEFTCOM," she said "Get help, and perhaps discover what the Forerunners are looking for here"

Get help would translate as ships capable of translight flight, a way for Dr Halsey to lead the last re Spartans to safety

"Our COM options are nil," Mendez said, and snuffed his cigar on the concrete wall "All ships in orbit…" He shook his head "The Agincourt was destroyed days ago by drones"

"Destroyed?" Dr Halsey asked "They should have been able to outrun the siving them cumulative power to their weapon systems, thrust, and shield capabilities"

"The Beatrice was severely daines inoperable

There is no possibility for a Slipspace transition"

Dr Halsey lowered her voice, a whisper, but still loud enough so everyone could hear

"We must find a way off this world, or a way to contact the UNSC Another Forerunner ruin was recently discovered, a ring construct built for one purpose: the annihilation of all life in the galaxy

If the Onyx Sentinels are part of a si in the air

"Our COM options are not entirely nil," Kurt said He crossed his ar code-word secrecy, but there is apparently no alternative"

"Go on," Dr Halsey insisted

Kurt inhaled deeply then said, "There are two things First, these droneshere They may have always been here"

He relayed the contents of the flash communication from Endless Summer How Onyx was home to a vast top-secret coered their activation," he said

Dr Halsey's , the stone on Cote d'Azure, the alien passages and crystal under Reach

"When, precisely, did they appear?" she asked