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They nodded.
The Master Chief highlighted the four streams that fed into the river delta near Cote d’Azur. “We avoidthese routes. Banshees patrol them.” He circled where Firebase Bravo had been. “We’ll avoid this areaas well—according to the Marine survivors, that area is hot. Grid thirteen by twenty-four also hasactivity.
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“Red Leader, take your squad in along the coast. Stay in the tree line. Green Leader, follow thisridgeline, but keep under cover, too. I’ll be taking this route.” The Master Chief traced a path through aparticularly dense section of jungle.
“It’s 1830 hours now. The city is thirteen kilometers from here—that should take us no more than fortyminutes. We’ll probably be forced to slow down to avoid enemy patrols—but we all should be in placeno later than 1930 hours.”
He zoomed into a city map of Cote d’Azur. “Entry points to the city sewer system are—” He highlightedthe display with NAV points. “—here, here, and here. Red Team will recon the wharf areas. Green takesthe residential section. I’ll take Blue Team downtown. Questions?”
“Our communications underground will be limited,” Linda said. “How do we check in while keepingour heads down?”
“According to the Colonial Administration Authority’s file on Cote d’Azur, the sewer systems here havesteel pipes running along the top of the plastic conduits. Tap into those and use ground-returntransceivers to check in. We’ll have our own private COM line.”
“Roger,” she said.
The Master Chief said, “As soon as we leave, the dropship dusts off and will move here.” He indicated aposition far to the south of Alpha camp. “If the Pelican doesn’t make it . . . our fallback rendezvouspoint is here.” He indicated a point fifty kilometers south. “ONI’s welcoming committee has stashed ouremergency SATCOM link and survival gear there.”
No one mentioned that survival gear would be useless when the Covenant glassed the planet.
“Stay sharp,” John said. “And come back in one piece. Dismissed.”
They saluted briskly, then sprinted to their tasks.
He switched to Blue Team’s frequency. “Time to saddle up, Blue Team,” he called out. “RV back at thebunker for orders.” Three blue lights winked acknowledgement in his display.
A moment later, the other three Spartans in his squad trotted into position. “Reporting as ordered,” Blue-Two announced.
The Master Chief quickly filled them in on the mission. “Blue-Two.” He nodded to Kelly. “You’recarrying the nuke and medical gear.”
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“Affirmative. Who’ll have the detonator, sir?”
“I will,” he replied. “Blue-Three.” He turned to Fred. “You have the explosives. James, you’ll take ourextra COM equipment.”
They double-checked their gear: modified MA5B assault rifles, adapted to mount silencers; ten extraclips of ammunition; frag grenades; combat knives; M6D pistols—small but powerful handguns thatfired .450 Magnum loads, sufficient to crack through Grunt armor.