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She wouldn't have "accidentally" touched hiesture spoke voluled and gravity settled the Spartans' stoh ride ahead," the pilot warned
The Spartans bent their knees as the Pelican rolled into a tight turn A crate broke its retaining straps, bounced, and stuck to the wall
The COM channel blasted static and resolved into the voice of the Longsword's pilot: "Bravo Two-Six, engaging ene fire--" The channel was abruptly sed in static
An explosion buffeted the Pelican, and bits of ed off its thick hull
Patches of arh the boilingthe interior with fumes for a split second before the ship's pressurized atht streah the lacerated Titaniuli after the in the turbulent air "Gotta shake 'e on!"
The Pelican pitched forward, and her engines blasted in full overload The dropship's stabilizers tore away, and the craft rolled out of control
The Spartans grabbed on to cross beaoing to be a helluva hot drop, Spartans," their pilot hissed over the COM "Autopilot's prograle Reverse thrusters Gees are takin' ht outlined the cockpit hatch, and the tiny shock-proof glassshattered into the passenger compartment
The pilot's bio roll increased, and bits of metal and instruments tore free and danced around the compartment
SPARTAN-029, Joshua, was closest to the cockpit hatch He pulled himself up and looked in "Plasma blast," he said He paused for a heartbeat, then added: "I'll reroute control to the terht hand, he furiously tapped coers of his left hand dug into thethe starboard fra motion of the out-of-control Pelican She headed aft of the passenger co the explosive bolts on the drop hatch
"Fire in the hole!" she yelled
The Spartans braced
The hatch exploded and whipped away fro the outer hull Within seconds the coh-wire perfory shields flaring in the heat
The Covenant Seraph fighters fired their lasers, but the energy weapons scattered in the superheated wake of the dropping Peli- can One alien ship tumbled out of control, too deep in the atmo- sphere to easily maneuver The others veered and arced up back into space
"Too hot for them," Kelly said "We're on our own"
"Joshua," Fred called out "Report"
"The autopilot's gone, and cockpit controls are offline," Joshua answered "I can counter our spin with thrusters" He tapped in a co slowed and ceased
"Can we land?" Fred asked
Joshua didn't hesitate to give the bad news "Negative The computer has no solution for our inbound vector" He tapped rapidly on the keyboard "I'll buy as much time as I can"
Fred ran over their limited options They had no parasails, no rocket-propelled drop capsules That left theht into hell or they could get off
"Get ready for a fast drop," Fred shouted "Grab your gear
Puel tohard"
"Hard landing" was an understateh The arel, and reactive circuits, along with the Spartans' augh-speed crash landing but not a supersonic iamble If Joshua couldn't slow the Peli- can's descent--they'd be paste
"Twelve thousand e of the aft door
Fred told the Spartans: "Ready and aft Juear and ines screaled the thruster cams to reverse positions The deceleration pulled at the Spartan teaht as left of the craft's control flaps to bear, and the Pelican's nose snapped up A sonic booh the ship as its velocity dropped below Mach 1 The fraht kilo fast," Kelly called out
"Joshua, get aft," Fred ordered
"Affired from the stress-- and then creaked as the craft shuddered and flexed Fred set his arlove on the wall and tried to will the craft to hold to- gether a little longer
It didn't work The port engine exploded, and the Pelican tum- bled out of control
Kelly and the Spartans near the aft drop hatch dropped out
No o!"
The rest of the Spartans crawled aft, fighting the gee forces of the turabbed Joshua--and they juust 30,2552 (Military Calendar)\Epsilon
Eridani system, unknown aerial position, planet Reach
Fred saw the sky and earth flashing in rapid succession before his faceplate Decades of training took over This was just like a parasail dropexcept this tis open; the spread-eagle position controlled his tumble and slowed his velocity
Ti Kelly had once dubbed "SPARTAN Tiy ht and reacted faster than a normal human Fred's mind raced as he absorbed the tactical situation
He activated his e to maxi- mum His teah of relief he saw that all twenty-six of thee for the Pelican," Fred told them over the COM "Expect AA fire"
The Spartans immediately broke for glance and spotted the Pelican It tuly arcs, be- fore it ied snowcapped mountain
The surface of Reach stretched out before thereen forest, ghostlyfronized: Big Horn River
The Spartans had trained on Reach for most of their early lives This was the same forest where CPO Mendez had left them when they were children With only pieces of a uarded Pelican and re- turned to HQ That was the mission where John, now the Master Chief, had earned coed them into a tea