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CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
2010 Hours, July 18, 2552 (Military Calendar)
Sigma Octanus IV, Côte d’Azur
It was time to arm the nuke
The small device held the power to destroy Côte d’Azur--wipe the Covenant infection clean off the planet
John carefully re strips on the HAVOK tactical nuclear device and attached it to the wall of the sewer The adhesive on the black half sphere stuck and hardened to the concrete He slipped the detonator key into a thin slot on the unit’s face There were no external indicators on the device; instead, a tiny screen winked on his heads-up display indicating the nuke was armed
HAVOK ARMED, flashed across his HUD AWAITING DETONATION SIGNAL
The device--a clean thirty-nala problee on a starship would be unable to penetrate the steel and concrete overhead
John quickly rigged a ground-return transceiver, placing it on the pipes overhead He’d have to set up another unit outside to relay the signal undergrounda hot line that would trigger a nuclear firestorm
Technically, his mission parameters had been fulfilled Green and Red Teams would have the civilians evacuated soon They had scouted the region and discovered a new Covenant species--the strange floating creature that disasseineer stripping down a device to learn its secrets
He could leave and destroy the Covenant occupation force He should leave--there was an ar at least a platoon of the black-armored veterans--on the streets above
There were threein the air as well The advance Marine strike forces had been slaughtered, leaving the Spartans no backup His responsibility noas to ot out intact
But John’s orders had an unusual amount of flexibilityand that made hiion and gather intelligence on the Covenant He was positive there wasin Côte d’Azur’s museum The Covenant had never before been interested in human history--or indeed, in humans or their artifacts of any kind He had seen a disarht hand to hand rather than pick up a nearby hu the Covenant had ever used hu out the reason they seized and were protecting thein his book
Was it worth exposing his tea their livesor spending the hile?
"Master Chief?" Kelly whispered "Our orders, sir?"
He opened Blue Tea in Use your silencers Don’t engage the enemy unless absolutely necessary This place is too hot We’ll just poke our noses in--see what they’re up to and bug out"
Three acknowledghts winked on
The Master Chief knew they iment He just hoped he orthy of that trust
The Spartans checked their gear and threaded silencers onto their assault rifles They slipped silently doide side passage of the sewer
A rusty ladder ran up to the ceiling, and a steel plate had been welded in place
"Thermite paste already set up," Fred reported
"Burn it" The Master Chief stepped to the side and looked away
The ther harsh shadows into the cha red circle in the steel
The Master Chief cliainst the plate--pushed It popped free with a metallic snap
He eased the plate down and set it aside He attached the fiber-optic probe, fed it up through the hole
All clear
He flexed his leg h the hole, pulling hiht hand held the silenced assault rifle as if it were no heavier than a pistol He braced for inco happened
He moved forward and surveyed the small room The stone-walled cha units Each unit held jars filled with clear liquid and insect specimens Boxes and crates were stacked neatly on the floor
Kelly entered next, then Fred and Janals," Kelly said over the COM channel
"Jaotten a piece of us, though"
"Spread out," the Master Chief ordered "Get ready to juets too hot
Otherwise, initiate the standard distract-and-destroy"
The clatter of alien hooves on ht
The Spartans melted into the shadows The Master Chief crouched behind a crate and unsheathed his combat knife
The door opened and four Jackals stood in the door fra their already ugly vulture faces The blue-white glow of the energy shield pulsed through the dark chaht That should play hell with their night vision
The Jackals held plasma pistols at the ready in their free hands; the barrels of the guns moved erratically as the aliens whispered to one anotherthen steadied as, in careful, slow h "delta" formation--the lead Jackal a roup approached the Master Chief’s hiding spot
There was a slight noise: the clink of glass bottles on the other side of the room
The Jackals turnedand presented their unshielded backs to the Master Chief
He exploded fro place and jammed his blade into the base of the closest Jackal’s back He snapped his right foot out, caught the back of the next Jackal’s head, crushing its skull
The rey shields interposed between thehs from silenced MA5Bs Alien blood--black in the harsh blue-white light--
spattered across the inner surfaces of the energy shields as the silenced rounds found their round
The Master Chief policed their plasenerators cla orders to collect intact specience had not been able to replicate the Covenant’s shield technology But they were getting close
In the meantime, the Spartans would use these
The Master Chief strapped the curved piece of e buttons on the unit and a scintillating film appeared before him
He handed the other shield devices to his teammates
He pressed the second button and the shield collapsed
"Don’t use these unless you have to," he said "The huive us awayand we don’t kno long they last"
He got three acknowledghts
Kelly and Fred took up positions on either side of the open door She gave hile file, up a circular stairwell
She paused a full ten seconds at the doorway to the ed on the main level of the museum
The skeleton of a blue whale was suspended over the main foyer The dead hulk reminded the Master Chief of a Covenant starship He turned away from the distraction and slowly moved over the black marble tiles
Oddly, there were no uarding the place
but none inside
The Master Chief didn’t like it It didn’t feel rightand Chief Mendez had told him a thousand tigered their line andThere were displays of the local flora and fauna: gigantic flowers and fist-sized beetles But their motion sensors were cold
Fred haltedand then, with a quick hand signal, waved John to move up to his position
He stood by a case of pinned butterflies On the floor, facedown in front of that case, was a Jackal It was dead, crushed flat There was an ie boot where the creature’s back had been
Whatever had done this had easily weighed a ton
The Master Chief spotted a few blood-s away fro
He flipped on his infrared sensors and took a long look around--no heat sources here or in the nearby roonaled the tea held scientific displays There were static electric generators and quantu arrows and wriggling lines A cloud chah its misty confines--the Master Chief noted it was unusually active This place rerave;’s classroo The word GEOLOGY was carved on the entry arch
Through that arch there was a strong infrared source, a razor-thin line that shot straight up and out of the building The Master Chief only caught a gliainit was so bright his IR sensors overloaded and automatically shut down
He waved James to take the left side of the arch He had Kelly and Fred drop back to cover their flanks, and the Master Chief edged to the right of the arch
He sent a fiber-optic probe ahead, bent it slightly, and poked it around the corner
The room contained display cases of mineral specimens There were sulfur crystals, raw emeralds, and rubies There was a monolith of unpolished pink quartz in the center of the room, three meters wide and six tall