“I’ve got an idea.” Sam limped forward. “Hand me those warheads.” John did as he asked, so did Kelly.“We shoot out that window, set the timers on the warheads, and toss them down there. That should startthe party.”
“Let’s do it before they call in reinforcements,” John said.
They turned and fired at the crystal. It crackled, splintered, then shattered.
“Toss those warheads,” Sam said, “and let’s get out of here.”
John set the timers. “Three minutes,” he said. “That’ll give us just enough time to get topside and getaway.”
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He turned to Sam. “You’ll have to stay and hold them off. That’s an order.”
“What are you talking about?” Kelly said.
“Sam knows.”
Sam nodded. “I think I can hold them off that long.” He looked at John and then Kelly. He turned andshowed them the burn in the side of his suit. There was a hole the size of his fist, and beneath that, theskin was blackened and cracked. He smiled, but his teeth were gritted in pain.
“That’s nothing,” Kelly said. “We’ll get you patched up in no time. Once we get back—” Her mouthslowly dropped open.
“Exactly,” Sam whispered. “Getting back is going to be a problem for me.”
“The hole.” John reached out to touch it. “We don’t have any way to seal it.”
Kelly shook her head.
“If I step off this boat, I’m dead from the decompression,” Sam said, and shrugged.
“No,” Kelly growled. “No—everyone gets out alive. We don’t leave teammates behind.”
“He has his orders,” John told Kelly.
“You’ve got to leave me,” Sam said softly to Kelly. “And don’t tell me you’ll give me your suit. It tookthose techs on Damascus fifteen minutes to fit us. I wouldn’t even know where to start to unzip thisthing.”
John looked to the deck. The Chief had told him he’d have to send men to their deaths. He didn’t tellhim it would feel like this.
“Don’t waste time talking,” Sam said. “Our new friends aren’t going to wait for us while we figure thisout.” He started the timers. “There. It’s decided.” A three-minute countdown appeared in the corner oftheir heads-up displays. “Now—get going, you two.”
John clasped Sam’s hand and squeezed it.
Kelly hesitated, then saluted.
John turned and grabbed her arm. “Come on, Spartan. Don’t look back.”
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The truth was, it was John who didn’t dare look back. If he had, he would have stayed with Sam. Betterto die with a friend than leave him behind. But as much as he wanted to fight and die alongside hisfriend, he had to set an example for the rest of the Spartans—and live to fight another day.
John and Kelly pushed the pressure doors shut behind them.
“Good-bye,” he whispered.
The countdown timer ticked the seconds off inexorably.
2:35 . . .
They ran down the corridor, popped the seal on the outer door—the atmosphere vented.
1:05 . . .
They climbed up through the twisted metal canyon that the MAC round had torn through the hull.
0:33 . . .
“There,” John said, and pointed to the base of a charged pulse laser. They crawled toward it, waited asthe glow built to a lethal charge.
0:12 . . .
They crouched and held onto one another.
The laser fired.
The heat blistered John’s back. They pushed off with all their strength, multiplied through theMJOLNIR armor.
0:00.
The shield parted and they cleared the ship, hurtling into the blackness.
The Covenant ship shuddered. Flashes of red appeared inside the hole—then a gout of fire rose andballooned, but curled downward as it hit and rebounded off their own shield. The plasma spread alongthe length of their vessel. The shield shimmered and rippled silver—holding the destructive force inside.
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Metal glowed and melted. The pulse laser turrets absorbed into the hull. The hull blistered, bubbled, andboiled.
The shield finally gave—the ship exploded.
Kelly clung to John.
A thousand molten fragments hurled past them, cooling from white to orange to red and thendisappearing into the dark of the night.
Sam’s death had shown them that the Covenant were not invincible. They could be beaten. At a highcost, however.
John finally understood what the Chief had meant—the difference between a life wasted and a life spent.
John also knew that humanity had a fighting chance . . . and he was ready to go to war.
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SECTION III
SIGMA OCTANUS
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
0000 Hours, July 17, 2552 (Military Calendar) /UNSC Remote Scanning OutpostArchimedes , on the edge of the Sigma Octanus Star System
Ensign William Lovell scratched his head, yawned, and sat down at his duty station. The wraparoundview screen warmed to his presence.
“Good morning, Ensign Lovell,” the computer said.
“Morning, sexy,” he said. It had been months since the Ensign had seen a real woman—the cold femalevoice of the computer was the closest thing he was getting to a date.
“Voiceprint match,” the computer confirmed. “Please enter password.”
He typed: ThereOncewasAgirl
The Ensign had never taken his duty too seriously. Maybe that’s why he only made it through his secondyear at the Academy. And maybe that’s why he had been onArchimedes station for the last year, stuckwith third shift.
But that suited him fine.
“Please reenter password.”
He typed more carefully this time:ThereOnceWasAGirl .
After first contact with the Covenant, he had almost been conscripted straight out of school; instead, hehad actually volunteered.
Admiral Cole had defeated the Covenant at Harvest in 2531. His victory was publicized on every vidand holo throughout the Inner and Outer Colonies and all the way to Earth.
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That’s why Lovell didn’t try to dodge the enlistment officers. He had thought he’d watch a few battlesfrom the bridge of a destroyer, fire a few missiles, rack up the victories, and be promoted to Captainwithin a year.
His excellent grades gave him instant admission to OCS on Luna.
There was one small detail, however, the UNSC propaganda machine had left out of their broadcasts:Cole had won only because he outnumbered the Covenant three to one . . . and even then, he had losttwo-thirds of his fleet.
Ensign Lovell had served on the UNSC frigateGorgon for four years. He had been promoted to FirstLieutenant then busted down to Second Lieutenant and finally to Ensign for insubordination and grossincompetence. The only reason they hadn’t drummed him out of the service was that the USNC neededevery man and woman they could get their hands on.
While on theGorgon , he and the rest of Admiral Cole’s fleet had sped among the Outer Colonieschasing, and being chased by, the Covenant. After four years’ space duty, Lovell had seen a dozenworlds glassed . . . and billions murdered.
He had simply broken under the strain. He closed his eyes and remembered. No he hadn’t broken; hewas just scared of dying like everyone else.
“Please keep your eyes open,” the computer told him. “Processing retinal scan.”
He had drifted from office work to low-priority assignments and finally landed here a year ago. By thattime there were no more Outer Colonies. The Covenant had destroyed them all and were pressinginexorably inward, slowly taking the Inner Colonies. There had been a few isolated victories . . . but heknew it was only a matter of time before the aliens wiped the human race out of existence.
“Login complete,” the computer announced.
Ensign Lovell’s identity record was displayed on the monitor. In his Academy picture, he looked tenyears younger: neatly trimmed jet-black hair, toothy grin, and sparkling green eyes. Today his hair wasunkempt and the spark was long gone from his eyes.
“Please read General Order 098831A-1 before proceeding.”
The Ensign had memorized this stupid thing. But the computer would track his eye motions—make surehe read it anyway. He opened the file and it popped on-screen:
United Nations Space Command Emergency Priority Order 098831A-1
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Encryption Code:Red
Public Key:file /first light/
From:UNSC/NAVCOM Fleet H. T. Ward
To:ALL UNSC PERSONNEL
Subject:General Order 098831A-1 (“The Cole Protocol”)
Classification:RESTRICTED (BGX Directive)
The Cole Protocol
To safeguard the Inner Colonies and Earth, all UNSC vessels or stations must not be captured with intactnavigation databases that may lead Covenant forces to human civilian population centers.
Ifany Covenant forces are detected:
1. Activate selective purge of databases on all ship-based and planetary data networks.
2. Initiate triple-screen check to ensure all data has been erased and all backups neutralized.
3. Execute viral data scavengers. (Download from UNSCTTP://EPWW:COLEPROTOCOL/Virtualscav/fbr.091)
4. If retreating from Covenant forces, all ships must enter Slipstream space with randomized vectorsNOT directed toward Earth, the Inner Colonies, or any other human population center.
5. In case of imminent capture by Covenant forces, all UNSC ships MUST self-destruct.
Violation of this directive will be considered an act of TREASON, and pursuant to USNC Military LawArticles JAG 845-P and JAG 7556-L, such violations are punishable by life imprisonment or execution.
/end file/
PressENTER if you understand these orders.
Ensign Lovell pressed ENTER.
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The UNSC wasn’t taking any chances. And after everything he had seen, he didn’t blame them.
His scanning windows appeared on the view screen, full of spectroscopic tracers and radar—and lots ofnoise.
Archimedesstation cycled three probes into and out of Slipstream space. Each probe sent out radar pingsand analyzed the spectrum from radio to X rays, then reentered normal space and broadcast the databack to the station.
The problem with Slipstream space was that the laws of physics never worked the way they weresupposed to. Exact positions, times, velocities, even masses were impossible to measure with any realaccuracy. Ships never knew exactly where they were, or exactly where there were going.
Every time the probes returned from their two-second journey, they could appear exactly where they hadleft . . . or three million kilometers distant. Sometimes they never returned at all. Drones had to be sentafter the probes before the process could be repeated.
Because of this slipperiness in the interdimensional space, UNSC ships traveling between star systemsmight arrive half a billion kilometers off course.
The curious properties of Slipspace also made this assignment a joke.
Ensign Lovell was supposed to watch for pirates or black-market runners trying to sneak by . . . andmost importantly, for the Covenant. This station had never logged so much as a Covenant probesilhouette—and that was the reason he had specifically requested this dead-end assignment. It was safe.
What he did see with regularity were trash dumps from UNSC vessels, clouds of primordial atomichydrogen, even the occasional comet that had somehow plowed into the Slipstream.
Lovell yawned, kicked his feet up onto the control console, and closed his eyes. He nearly fell out of hischair when the COM board contact alert pinged.
“Oh no,” he whispered, fear and shame at his own cowardice forming a cold lump in his belly.Don’t letit be the Covenant. Don’t let it . . . not here.
He quickly activated the controls and traced the contact signal back to the source—Alpha probe.
The probe had detected an incoming mass, a slight arc to its trajectory pulled by the gravity of SigmaOctanus. It was large. A cloud of dust, perhaps? If it was, it would soon distort and scatter.
Ensign Lovell sat up straighter in his chair.
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Beta probe cycled back. The mass was still there and as solid as before. It was the largest reading EnsignLovell had ever seen: twenty thousand tons. That couldn’t be a Covenant ship—they didn’t get that big.And the silhouette was a bumpy spherical shape; it didn’t match any of the Covenant ships in thedatabase. It had to be a rogue asteroid.
He tapped his stylus on the desk. What if it wasn’t an asteroid? He’d have to purge the database andenable the self-destruct mechanism for the outpost. But what could the Covenant want way out here?
Gamma probe reappeared. The mass readings were unchanged. Spectroscopic analysis was inconclusive,which was normal for probe reading at this distance. The mass was two hours out at its present velocity.Its projected trajectory was hyperbolic—a quick swing near the star, and then it would pass invisibly outof the system and be forever gone.
He noted that its trajectory bought it close to Sigma Octanus IV . . . which, if the rock were in real space,would be cause for alarm. In Slipspace, however, it could pass “through” the planet, and no one wouldnotice.
Ensign Lovell relaxed and sent the retrieval drones after the three probes. By the time they got theprobes back, though, the mass would be long gone.
He stared at the last image on screen. Was it worth sending an immediate report to Sigma OctanusCOM? They’d make him send his probes out without a proper recovery, and the probes would likely getlost after that. A supply ship would have to be sent out here to replace them. The station would have tobe inspected and recertified—and he’d receive a thorough lecture on what did and did not constitute avalid emergency.
No . . . there was no need to bother anyone over this. The only ones who would be really interested werethe high-forehead types at UNSC Astrophysics, and they could review the data at their leisure.
He logged the anomaly and attached it to his hourly update.
Ensign Lovell kicked up his boots and reclined, once again feeling perfectly safe in his little corner ofthe universe.
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CHAPTER SIXTEEN
0300 Hours, July 17, 2552 (Military Calendar) /UNSC destroyerIroquois on routine patrol in the Sigma Octanus Star System
Commander Jacob Keyes stood on the bridge of theIroquois . He leaned against the brass railing andsurveyed the stars in the distance. He wished the circumstances of his first command were moreauspicious, but experienced officers were in short supply these days. And he had his orders.
He walked around the circular bridge examining the monitors and displays of engine status. He pausedat the screens showing the stars fore and aft; he couldn’t quite get used to the view of deep space again.The stars were so vivid . . . and here, so different from the stars near Earth.
