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"In " Cortana's voice was faint "Intersyste Inner doors open Override in progress System lockdo--"
The COM went dead
A hundred meters away, beyond the cracked , the atmosphere turned white for a split second then cleared Spaced every twentyBeyond, stars shone upon velvet black
Fred and Will's Banshees appeared off John's starboard ca- nard John pointed and together they dived, accelerating toward a bull's-eye pattern of cracks on the translucent portion of the wall
That web of fissures spread: fingers that stretched and split along the length of theslowed and stopped
John fired the Banshee's plasma cannons Fred opened fire as well, and four blobs of plaslassy surface fifty meters away
Theflexed, crackled, tiny flakes popped offbut the translucent material remained stubbornly intact
John was thirty meters from the surface--he'd have to veer off now, or iritted his teeth and braced himself
Ten saw lass filled the air It shattered
The entire length crumbled and instantly blasted into the vacuu the interior of the station
John tried to maneuver the Banshee He bounced into the repair bay, rolled the craft over and upright--fell off, tuh the air lockand drifted away into the darkness of space
He flailed his liravity, and the tether on his belt snapped taut He recoiled back toward the Banshee Linda held on with one hand and held out the other to him He climbed back aboard and tapped the thrusters to stabilize their pitch and yaw
Behind theineers, Grunts, Jackals, and Elites Clouds of metal junk bled fro ice crystals
The Covenant fleet moved as well--some cruisers closed with the station, others moved farther away There were five hun- dred alien warships without leadership from their command-and-control center, and they re in every direction
John spotted a dropship drifting a kilometer ahead, dead in space
He clicked his COM once and dropped a NAV ines once and let its inertia carry them to the dropship He hoped the rest of the Covenant Fleet was trying to figure out what had just happened and not paying any attention to one ently irasped the hull, and Linda scrabbled over him, opened the port access hatch, and entered Fred and Will drifted closer, and John helped them aboard
He hesitated and took another look at the Covenant fleet
Hundred of ships without control But how long would that last?
Even if the station's reactors chained and blew the Covenant still had enough force to destroy Earth's defenses and burn it to a cinder
All they had done was buy a little tie of the Covenant fleet That wasn't enough, but John wasn't sure what else to do
He crawled to the hatch, entered the ship, and sealed it be- hind him
Linda stood at the pilot's console while Fred stood beside her ine scheh its plaslowed
"Where to, Chief?" Linda asked
"Away," John said and looked at the syste the nearby planet "Get us into the moon's shadow But slow Try not to attract any attention"
His countdown tier," Linda said
The dropship spun about and gently moved away fro toward the tiny moon covered with black and silver pockmarks
Fred hunched over his console Thick spiky lines representing the Covenant F- through K-bands fluxed and flickered on his screen "Covenant COM channels are jammed," he reported
"Communiques and queries to and fro on And the station's COM channels are all full of those copied Cortanasand she's just repeating different syste over Fred's shoulder He pointed to one COM band with only a single spike
Fred looked at the Covenant calligraphy for a long moment, and then inhaled sharply "If the translation software is working right," he whispered, "that's the E-band it's one of ours"
Fred snapped on the external speakers Six tones beeped, stopped, and then repeated
"Oly Oly Oxen Free," John breathed "Send the countersign, Fred"
"Aye, Chief Sending now"
Who could have sent that signal? There was no other living Spartan in this system Unless it was Dr Halsey and Kelly Had they somehow tracked the voice of Admiral Whitcomb was loud and clear over the COM "Switch to en- cryption scheme 'Rainbow' "
John nodded to Fred, who ran a shunt from the Covenant COM into the data port in the back of his helmet "Decryption online," Fred reported
"Admiral," John said "With all due respect, sir, why are you here?"
"Lieutenant Haverson suggested we drop out of Slipspace on the edge of this systeather a little intel" The Adured that even if you took out that station hell, son, there'd still be a couple of hundred Covenant ships within spittin' distance of Earth Me getting there and warning the to do so about it here and now You've done your part, Chief Leave the rest to me"
There was a pause, then the Adet it done, didn't you, son? You got that station rigged to blow?"
"Yes, sir" John linked his mission ti"
"Perfect, Master Chief Bring 'e Your instincts are dead on We're on the far side of thefor you"
John motioned to Linda to increase their velocity She pushed the acceleration stripe to three quarters power
"Waiting, sir?"
"Whitcomb over and out" The COM went dead
John looked to Will, Fred, and Linda, and they all shrugged