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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.