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He switched to the Red Team COM channel: “Red Team, report.”
Joshua’s voice crackled over the link: “Red Leader, sir. We’ve got something for ONI. We’vespottedsome new type of Covenant race. Little guys that float. They seem to be some sort of explorer or scientisttype. They take things apart, then move on, like they’re looking for something. They do not, repeat not,
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appear hostile. Advise that you do not engage. They raise a pretty loud alarm, Blue Lead.”
“You in trouble?”
“Dodged trouble, sir,”he said. “But there is one snag.”
“Snag.” The word was charged with meaning for the Spartans. Getting caught in an ambush or aminefield, a teammate wounded, or aerial bombardments—those were all things they had trained for.Snags were things they didn’t know how to handle. Complications that no one had planned for.
“Go ahead,” the Master Chief whispered.
“We have survivors. Twenty civilians hid in a cargo ship here. There are several wounded.”
The Master Chief mulled this over. It wasn’t his choice to weigh the relative worth of a handful ofcivilian lives versus the possibility of taking out ten thousand Covenant troops with their nuke. Hisorders were specific on this point. They could not set up the nuke if there was civilian population at risk.
“New mission objective, Red Team Leader,” the Master Chief said. “Get those civilians to the recoverypoint and evac them back to fleet.” He switched COM channels again, broadcasting to all the teams.“Green Team Leader, you still online?”
A pause, then Linda spoke: “Roger.”
“Move to the docks and coordinate with Red Team—they have survivors we need to evac. Green Teamleader has strategic control of this mission.”
“Understood,”she said. “We’re on our way.”
“Affirmative, sir,”Joshua said. “We’ll get it done.”
“Blue Team out.” The Master Chief disconnected.
It was going to be rough for Green and Red Teams. Those civilians would slow them down—and if theyhad to protect them from Covenant patrols, they’d all get noticed.
Blue-Two returned. She opened the COM link and reported in. “There’s access to the building—a ladderand a steel plate welded shut. We can burn through it.”
The Master Chief opened up the team COM channel. “We’re going to assume that Red and GreenTeams will remove the civilians from Cote d’Azur. We will proceed as planned.”
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He paused, then turned to Blue-Two. “Break out the nuke and arm it.”
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CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
2120 Hours, July 18, 2552 (Military Calendar) /UNSCIroquois , military staging area in orbit around Sigma Octanus IV
“Ship’s status?” Captain Keyes said as he strode onto the bridge, buttoning his collar. He noticed that therepair stationCradle still obscured their port camera. “And why aren’t we clear of that station yet?”
“Sir, all hands are at battle stations,” Lieutenant Dominique replied. “General quarters sounded. Tac datauploaded to your station.”