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CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
0616 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)
UNSC Pelican dropship, Epsilon Eridani Syste!" the Master Chief barked
The Spartans dove for safety harnesses and strapped in "All secure!" Kelly shouted
The Master Chief killed the Pelican’s forward thrusters and triggered a short, sudden reverse burn The Spartans were brutally slammed forward into their harnesses as the Pelican’s acceleration bled away
The Master Chief quickly shut down the engines
The tiny Pelican faced the Covenant frigate At a kilometer’s distance, the alien ship’s launch bay and pulse laser turrets looked close enough to touch on the view screen; enough firepower to vaporize the Spartans in the blink of an eye
The Master Chief’s first instinct was to fire their HE Anvil-II missiles and autocannons--but he checked his hand as he reached for the triggers
That would only attract their attentionwhich was the last thing he wanted For the nored them--probably because the Master Chief had shut down the Pelican’s engines But the ship also seele ships launched, and no plas
The dropship continued toward the docking station, their ate
Space around the Covenant ship boiled and pulled apart--and two nored the dropship Was it too small to bother with? The Master Chief didn’t care His luck, it see
He checked the radar--thirty kiloines to slow them down
He had to or they would crash into the station
Twenty kilo shook the dropship They slowed--but it wasn’t going to be enough
Ten kilo on," he told Linda and James
The sudden impact whiplashed the Master Chief back and forth in his seat The straps holding him snapped
He blinkedsaw only blackness His vision cleared and he noted that his shield bar was dead It slowly began to fill again Every display and monitor in the cockpit had shattered
The Master Chief shook off the disorientation and pulled himself aft
The interior of the dropship was atied down had come loose A and loose carriages filled the air Coolant leaked, spraying blobs of black fluid In zero gravity, everything looked like the inside of a shaken snowglobe
James and Linda floated off the deck of the Pelican They slowly moved
"Any injuries?" the Master Chief asked
"No," Linda replied
"I think so," Ja or did those Covenant ships take a shot at us?"
"If they had, ouldn’t be here to talk about it Get whatever gear you can and get out, double tirabbed an assault rifle and a Jackharam of C-12, detonators, and a Lotus antitank ed five intact clips of ammunition but couldn’t locate his thruster pack He’d have to do without one
"Noducks here Out the side hatch now"
Linda went first She paused, and--once she was satisfied the Covenant weren’t lying in ambush--
motioned the to the side of the Pelican in zero gravity, and took flanking positions at the fore and aft ends of the dropship
Space dock Garay metal arced in either direction On the surface were communications dishes and a few conduits--no real cover The docking bay doors were sealed tight The station wasn’t spinning The dockht when it detected the unsecured NAV database
The Master Chief frohen he spotted the tail end of their Pelican--cruines were ruined The dropship jutted out at an angle; its prow and the charges of C-12 that were supposed to have blasted them into a Covenant ship--now pointed into the air
The Master Chief started to drift off the station He clipped himself to the hull of the dropship
"Blue-Two," he said, "police those explosives" He gestured to the prow The
"Yes, sir" James puffed his thruster pack once and drifted up to the nose of the Pelican
The Spartans had trained to fight in zero gravity It wasn’t easy The slightestout of control
A flash overhead reflected off the hull The Master Chief looked up The Covenant ships were alive now
--lances of blue laser fire flashed and ines glowed and they moved close to the station
A streak crossed the Master Chief’s field of vision in the blink of an eye The center Covenant frigate shields strobed silver; the ship shattered into a cloud of glistening fraguns had turned and fired on the new threat
This was a suicide maneuver How did the Covenant think they could withstand that kind of firepower?
"Blue-One," the Master Chief said "Scan those ships with your scope"
Linda floated closer to the Master Chief She pointed her sniper rifle up and sighted the ships "We’ve got inbound targets," she said, and fired
The Master Chief hit hisCovenant ships
Trails of exhaust pointed right at the Spartans’ position There were tiny specks acco the pods; the Master Chief increased his display’s nification to maximum They looked like men in thruster packs--
No, they were definitely not ated heads--and even at this distance, the Master Chief could see past their faceplates and noted their pronounced sharklike teeth and jaws They wore armor; it shiy shields
These must be the elite warrior class Dr Halsey had conjectured The Covenant’s best? They were about to find out
Linda shot one of the EVA aliens Shields shimmered around its body and the round bounced off She didn’t stop She pu a pinpoint target in its neck Its shields flickered and a round got through Black blood gushed from the wound and the creature writhed in space
The other aliens spotted the plasma rifle and needlers
"Take cover," the Master Chief said He unclipped hi to the side of the dropship
Linda followed--bolts of fire spattering on the hull next to the molten metal Crystalline needles bounced off their shields
"Blue-Two," the Master Chief said "I said fall back"
Jaed to the nose free A shower of needles hit him One stuck the tank of his thruster harness--penetrated It remained embedded for a split secondthen exploded
Exhaust billowed froravity He slammed into the station, bounced--then rocketed away into space, tu end over end, unable to control his trajectory
"Blue-Two! Come in," the Master Chief barked over the COM channel
"Can--control--" James’ voice was punctuated with static "They’ve--everywhere--" There was more static and the COM channel went dead
The Master Chief watched his tea, his superhuth, reflexes, and deterainst the laws of physics
He didn’t even know if James was dead For the moment, he had to assume that he was--put him out of his mind He had a et every UNSC ship in the area to ed out of her thruster harness
The suppressing fire fro pods descended toward the station, touching down at roughly three-hundred-meter intervals
A pod landed twenty meters away Its sides uncurled like the petals of a flower Jackals in black-and-blue vacuum suits drifted out Their boots adhered to the station’s hull
"Let’s pave a path out of here, Blue-One"
"Roger that," she said
Linda targeted spots their energy shields didn’t cover--boots, the top of one’s head, a fingertip Three Jackals went down in quick succession, their spacesuits ruptured by her marksmanship The rest scrambled for cover inside the pod
The Master Chief braced his back against the dropship and fired his assault rifle in controlled bursts The ravity played havoc with his aiht towards them
The Master Chief switched to full auto and blasted his shield with enough rounds to send the alien flying backward off the station He spent the clip, reloaded, and got out a grenade He pulled the pin and lobbed it
He threw it in a flat trajectory The grenade ricocheted off the far side of the pod and bounced inside
It detonated--a flash and spray of freeze-dried blue vented upward The explosion had caught the ene pod I’ll cover you" He leveled his rifle
"Yes, sir" Linda grabbed a pipe that ran along the station and pulled herself hand over hand When she was inside the pod, she flashed hiht on his heads-up display
The Master Chief crawled toward the prow of the Pelican As he crested the ship he saw that the station ar with Covenant troops: a hundred Jackals and at least six Elites They pointed toward the Pelican and slowly started to advance on their position
"Corenades froed them into the C-12 on the nose of the ship He pushed off and propelled hirabbed him and pulled him into the interior of the open pod Bits of a dozen dead Jackals pasted the inside