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Voro, however, had not survived treachery and war and the sundering of an Age to be silenced now He willed hie to supplicate before Xytan was overwhelth to cross that distance with all watching

He stepped upon the center stage and his i over the crowd

"I agree hat you say," Voro declared "We ly, and all who ally with the if the disease upon the holy ring escapes It alaxy if we are to survive"

A h his fellows

Xytan nodded as well, and thenVoro step down

He gave a short bow to the Imperial Ad how he shook inside, without revealing to the others how stunned he was that he had survived

Xytan reappeared upon the stage

"Your words are Wisdom, Ship Master Voro Which is why I have summoned Jiralhanae Alpha leadership under a banner of truce to this world"

An outcry rose froathered Ship Masters

"I have no illusions that they coe our own a After we have dealt a decapitating blow to the Jiralhanae Alpha Tribes, ill be free to eradicate the infection that threatens to spread fro

"As for how to accomplish this," Xytan said, "I call upon Oracle Master Parala Ahre flickered off and an elderly Sangheili appeared in the center of the stadiuret Bent with age, a fierce intellect nonetheless shone in his ence," Parala said with distaste "The hu the first-discovered sacred ring construct They were at the second ring as well, and have apparently discovered yet another world of Forerunner design They alled Voro, he had seen for himself the human-captured Bloodied Spirit, and reluctantly attempted to accept the Oracle Master's words as truth

"Here," Parala said, "is an intercepted and translated huh the stadium air A translation overlaid the offensive human words and Voro listened as the incidents upon the second Halo relic were reported

"Parasitic infestation known as the Flood has conta to escape… unknown coordinating intelligence… Suggest FLEETCOM Nova-bomb the Delta Halo …"

Then alien icons appeared in the air, resolving into proper words: "SEND ELITE STRIKE TEAM TO RECOVER TECHNOLOGICAL ASSETS FROM ONYX SEND SPARTANS"

An eside these words

A collective e came from the Ship Masters

Voro strained to isolate the human word for demons from their objectionable speech… Spartans It heated his blood to a boil

Xytan's inored for reasons dogo to this world Onyx, to protect and secure the holy artifacts They will be of incalculable value in our iraphic hand to Voro "You, Ship Master Voro 'Mantakree, are now Fleet Master Voro Nar 'Mantakree Lead your newly asseroup to this world Destroy the demons and deny them their prize at all costs"

Voro fell to one knee

"It shall be as you say," he said "My task is holy My blood pure I shall not fail"

Secretly Voro wondered if these honors had been bestowed upon him to removed him and his "ords" from Xytan's chorus of unanimous ascent So be it He would accolorious

Kwassass punched the button in the black box and listened to the hu what it meant A threat To him All Covenant A promise of retribution

The sound distorted, slowed, and stopped The box was out of power

One of the Huragok watching gave an ultrasonic cry that shot through Kwassass's skull

The creature charged hirasped at his box It wrenched it froed and tried to take the box from their fellow

Did they understand what the huer?

There were ok around him than he had realized The shadows rippled with their buoyant bodies, each with six glassy black eyes firok rushed the box back to the Great Cylinder, to the panel where the box had been removed There were multicolored wires inside that ether Tiny sparks danced Red symbols flickered upon a display in the box, and the device spoke once ok were just as likely to fix so that worked perfectly

A dozen Huragok pressed closer around the device, all squirer eyes

The voice froain--now loud and clear: "This is the prototype Nova bomb, nine fusion warheads encased in lithium triteride armor When detonated it compresses its fusionablethe thermonuclear yield a hundredfold I am Vice Admiral Danforth Whitcomb, temporarily in colies that , you have a few seconds to pray to your daods You all have a nice day in hell"

Kwassass pushed his way through the throng of Huragok He had to get to the thing Pull those wires

There was a flash of the lorious heat than he'd ever-- A battle group of eighteen destroyers, two cruisers, and one carrier collected in high orbit over Joyous Exultation, and drew in a spherical forship, the Incorruptible

They shimmered blue-white and vanished into Slipspace

A heartbeat later Vice Ad the UNSC prototype Nova bonited between Joyous Exultation and its moon

Every ship not protected on the dark side of the planet boiled and vaporized in an instant

The atmosphere of the planet wavered as helical spirals of lu curtains of blue and green ripple over the globe As the therainst the there, coround and scorched a quarter of the world

The tiny nearby ments and clouds of dust

The overpressure force subsided, and three-hundred-kilometer-per-hour winds swept over Joyous Exultation, obliterating cities and whipping tidal waves over its coastlines

The Covenant Schis of its client races for a thousand years, and the genesis of their end--had truly begun

SECTION VI

THE GHOSTS OF ONYX

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

1700 HOURS, NOVEMBER 3, 2552 (MILITARY CALENDAR) \ ZETA DORADUS SYSTEM, PLANET ONYX \ NEAR RESTRICTED REGION ZONE 67

Kurt crouched, rowth, and waited for the Sentinels to move into position

There'd been no happy reunion with Blue Team, no time for explanations, not even a handshake; all there'd been ti The Sentinel patrol had been on them the instant they'd recovered the Spartans--an hour of nonstop cat and ood at hunting the four le fro, they had finally descended to their level

Their lateral spars flexed as if they could smell the trap The spars about each sphere then drifted farther part and both spheres moved within centimeters of each other

It reminded Kurt of cell division, only in reverse They were co" was, Kurt wasn't sure He was, however, sure he didn't like it