第5页
“Excellent news,”the Captain said. He sighed, and added, “But we’re pulling you out, Chief.”
“We’re just getting warmed up down here, sir.”
----------------------- Page 13-----------------------
“Well, it’s a different story up here. Move out for pickup ASAP.”
“Understood, sir.” The Chief killed the uplink. He told his team, “The party’s over, Spartans. Dust-off infifteen.”
They jogged double-quick up the ten kilometers of the beach, and returned to their dropship—a Pelican,scuffed and dented from three days’ hard fighting. They boarded and the ship’s engines whined to life.
Blue-Two took off her helmet and scratched the stubble of her brown hair. “It’s a shame to leave thisplace,” she said, and leaned against the porthole. “There are so few left.”
The Chief stood by her and glanced out as they lifted into the air—there were wide rolling plains ofpalmgrass, the green expanse of ocean, a wispy band of clouds in the sky, and setting red suns.
“There will be other places to fight for,” he said.
“Will there?” she whispered.
The Pelican ascended rapidly through the atmosphere, the sky darkened, and soon only stars surroundedthem.
In orbit, there were dozens of frigates, destroyers, and two massive carriers. Every ship had carbonscoring and holes peppering their hulls. They were all maneuvering to break orbit.
They docked in the port bay of the UNSC destroyerResolute . Despite being surrounded by two metersof titanium-A battle plate and an array of modern weapons, the Chief preferred to have his feet on theground, with real gravity, and real atmosphere to breathe—a place where he was in control, and wherehis life wasn’t held in the hands of anonymous pilots. A ship just wasn’t home.
The battlefield was.
The Chief rode the elevator to the bridge to make his report, taking advantage of the momentary respiteto read Red Team’s after-action report in his display. As predicted, the Spartans of Red, Blue, and GreenTeams—augmenting three divisions of battle-hardened UNSC Marines—had stalled a Covenant groundadvance. Casualty figures were still coming in, but—on the ground, at least—the alien forces had beencompletely stonewalled.
A moment later the lift doors parted, and he stepped on the rubberized deck. He snapped a crisp salute toCaptain de Blanc. “Sir. Reporting as ordered.”
----------------------- Page 14-----------------------
The junior bridge officers took a step back from the Chief. They weren’t used to seeing a Spartan in fullMJOLNIR armor up close—most line troops had never even seen a Spartan. The ghostly iridescentgreen of the armor plates and the matte black layers underneath made him look part gladiator, partmachine. Or perhaps to the bridge crew, he looked as alien as the Covenant.
The view screens showed stars and Jerico VII’s four silver moons. At extreme range, a smallconstellation of stars drifted closer.
The Captain waved the Chief closer as he stared at that cluster of stars—the rest of the battlegroup. “It’shappening again.”