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"All external power off-line," Lash ordered "Ablative baffles locked Recheck engine dampers, and full power to counter sensor array"

The crew scrambled to make the Dusk virtually invisible

Green LEDs lit on Commander Lash's status board "Transition," he said

"Stand by," Lieutenant Durruno said fro with Lieutenant Commander Cho in the core room In four, three, two-- now"

Stars snapped on the forward viewscreen A sun blazed to the left

"New course zero three zero by zero three zero," Commander Lash said "One-quarter full"

"Aye, sir," Durruno said, "answering new heading"

It was a good idea to alter trajectory on a transition exit in case son of their appearance manifested Over the seven years he'd been on a prowler Lash had learned that this class of ship was one of the slowest, most underpowered, and most poorly armed vessels in the UNSC fleet Invisibility was their only defense

Lieutenant Yang's display lit with carrier wave patterns "Signals," Yang cried "Not our guys Too many--at least a hundred of them!"

Durruno at NAV craned her head for a better look, and then snapped back to her station

"Signal origin near the fourth planet," she said "Magnifying and enhancing starboard camera view"

The central screen panned to starboard and the inified a thousandfold

There were a hundred or more Covenant ships, a Covenant superbase or orbital city… and dwarfing all this was a ring-world construct as large as a moon

For a split second Lash couldn't think He was all ani portion of his ht portion of that i," he whispered

Yang stared, !"

"Sir, yes" Yang shook his head clear "I'es Make absolutely sure we are locked down tight Very tight"

"On it, sir"

"Durruno," Commander Lash said, "move us dead slow into that asteroid field, at two point four AU"

"Aye, sir" Her hands shook, but she plotted the new course

"There's no trace of In A into his display "Or the Redoutable, Paris, or Coral Sea"

"Detectingsaid, his voice now oddly steady "They o to full power," Coe officers tensed

"Sir," Waters said "I see weapons discharging in the region… directed plasnified the viewscreen until the ies of Covenant ships blurred Flashes of fire and lances of lightning crisscrossed the dark

Lash whispered, "Who the hell are they shooting at?"

Major Voro 'Mantakree drew his needier pistol and fired at the back of Ship Master Tano's head

The crystalline spines thucked into the Ship Master's skull and exploded--spraying blood, brains, and bits of skull over the conitude of his treachery was unprecedented What Sangheili1 Major would dare disobey a Ship Master who had led seven glorious caainst their enee of the one of the fleet's most renowned cruisers?

But how could Voro let this continue?

1 Sangheili: the Elite name for their race Tano 'Inanraree had lost his ious fervor was laudable under most conditions, it was not if it killed the entire crew of the Incorruptible… and destroyed their race

Voro stepped over the body of his friend and for officer and bolstered his weapon

The U-shaped bridge seeht a little harsher than it had a raphic consoles appeared covered in icons he couldn't understand Voro blinked his nictating e officers

Sangheili froion--Uruo Losonaee at Operations and Zasses Jeqkogoee at Navigation--stared with ar Pewtrunoee at the Co

But the bonded Lekgolo2 pair responsible for security on the Incorruptible tensed; their ar steps toward Major Voro Their spines fanned in anger

One of their duties was to protect the Ship Master, and failing that, they were to enact revenge on his assassin

In truth, the bonded pair, Paruto Xida Konna and Waruna Xida Yotno, were a mystery to Voro He had seen them tear enemies in half with their "hands" while in the e, and afterward pause to recite war poetry How could any truly understand the Lekgolo? Inside their thick arestalt as alien as anything Voro had ever encountered

More pragmatically, they were indestructible--at least to Voro with his one pistol

Lekgolo ar

Voro stood tall and unapoiogetic

The Lekgolo stared at hiolo: the Elite name for the Hunter race colonies pulsed in harmonic unison to produce a subsonic rumble, words that were ether "You have done the Ship Master an honor"

Voro resu They were his now to command and to send into battle As was the Reverence-class cruiser Incorruptible

"Does anyone else have words about this?" Voro asked his bridge officers

They looked to one another

Y'gar, the eldest bridge officer, stepped forward His sole vanity was his left eye, which had been blinded in combat He had refused to have the cataract repaired

"Tano was devout to the end," Y'gar said "But his reasoning, in light of recent events, was not sound This was regrettable, but necessary… Ship Master"

There it was: Voro was Master now All the honor his All the responsibility his as well

He glanced at Tano, spilling his lifeblood over the command console, and set a hand on his esture "Re sound and three Unggoy3 appeared and carried Tano off the bridge, sponging up the re aside "Let his blood reoy scurried away

The stain would forever remain on Voro's soul; it could stay on the deck as well, a reminder of the price he had paid for their survival