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Had he pressured a young and inexperienced lieutenant to flank a superior enemy? Had he sent in air support with orders to saturate-bo- nore a direct order from him, either

He ran his team roster up onto his heads-up display: twenty-two Spartans, six wounded so badly they could barely walk, and four battle-fatigued Marines who'd been through hell once already They had to repel a massive Covenant force They had to extract Admiral Whitcomb, too And as usual, their survival was at best a tertiary consideration

He had weapons to defend the installation: grenades, chain-guns, andway to look at the tactical situation He was thinking about defending the installation when he should have been thinking about what Spartans were best at-- offense

He keyed the SQUADCOM "Everyone catch that last transhts winked on

"Good Here's the plan: We split into four teahted the wounded Spartans and the four Marines on the roster "--fall back to this location" He uploaded a tactical map of the area and set a NAV s, but leave them and stealth it if you encounter any resistance Your mission is to secure the area This will be the squad's fallback position

Keep the back door open for us"

They ied The Spartans knew that ravine like the backs of their hands It wasn't marked on any map, but it here they'd trained for months with Dr Halsey

Beneath the ence had converted into a top-secret facility It was fortified and hardened against radiation, and could probably withstand anything up to and including a direct nuclear strike A perfect hole to hide in if everything went sour

"Team Gamma" Fred selected Red-Twenty-one, Red-Twenty-two, and Red-Twenty-three from the roster "You'll extract the Adenerators We'll need the extra crew"

"Affirmative," Red-Twenty-one replied

Technically Fred was following Whitcomb's order to extract him froh, was that he would have probably been safer staying put

"Teah Red-Four

"--you're on generator defense"

"Understood, Chief"

"Tea orders, sir," Joshua said

"We're going to that valley to kill anything there that isn't human"

Fred and Kelly faced the three Banshee fliers that had been dragged into the makeshift compound Fred peered inside the cockpit of the nearest craft and tabbed the activation knob The Banshee rose a lowed a faint electric blue, and it started to drift forward He snapped it off, and the Banshee settled to the ground He quickly tested the other two, and they also rose off the ground

"Good All working"

Kelly crossed her ar pulled up and skidded to a halt in front of them, Joshua at the wheel The rear held half a dozen Jackhammer er's seat, one loaded with the dark, ereen duct tape that every sol- dier in the UNSC ubiquitously referred to as "EB Green"

"Mission acco

Fred grabbed a launcher, a pair of rockets, and a roll of tape fro these e hit the Cove- nant on the other side of the ridge," he explained "Each of you secure a launcher and some ammo in a Banshee"

Joshua and Kelly stopped what they were doing and turned to face him

"Permission to speak, sir," Kelly asked

"Granted"

"I'ht, Fred, but those odds are a little lopsided even for uslike ten thousand to one"

"We can handle a hundred to one," Joshua chi and support, but against these odds, a frontal assault see to be a frontal assault," Fred said He wedged the launcher into the crath of tape and handed it over

Fred smoothed the adhesive strip and secured the launcher in place "We'll play this one as quiet as we can," he said

She considered Fred's plan for aus into their linesthen what?"

"As much as I'd like to, we can't use the tac-nukes," Joshua h enough to block the EMP It'll burn out the orbital defense generator"

"There's another way to use theht up its gravity lift--and detonate the nuke inside The ship's shields will danetic pulse"

"It'll also turn that ship into the biggest fragrenade in history," Kelly re," Joshua said, "we end up in the uys"

"We're Spartans," Fred said "What could possibly go wrong?"

CHAPTER FOUR

0711 hours, August 30,2552 (Military Calendar)\Epsilon

Eridani systehorn Valley, planet Reach

The alar to his feet with a startled yelp The squat alien, a Grunt clad in burnished orange armor, fumbled and dropped his motion scanner He keened in fear and retrieved the device with a treed, the Elites would use his body as reactor shielding If his ht do far worse than kill hiive him to the Jackals

Zawaz shuddered

Fortunately, the scanner still worked, and the dihed with relief Three contacts rapidly approached the moun- tain that separated Zawaz's cadre fro klaxon but relaxed as his detector identified the contacts--Banshee fliers