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“Beta probe signal on the board,” Lieutenant Brightling reported. “Calculating the object’s trajectory . . .
”
The planetoid was closer. Its edges, however, had abnormalities—bumps and spikes and protrusions.
Chief McRobb shifted and clenched his hands into fists.
“It will pass though Reach System,” Lieutenant Brightling said. “Intersecting the solar plane inseventeen seconds at the system’s outer edge at zero four one.” He inhaled sharply. “Sir, that’s only alight-second away from us.”
Lieutenant Streeter stood and knocked over his chair, almost backing into the Chief.
McRobb righted the chair. “Sit down, Lieutenant. We’ve got a job to do. Target the telescope array tomonitor that region of space.”
Lieutenant Streeter turned and gazed into the rock-solid features of the Chief. He took a deep breath.
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“Yes, sir.” He sat back down. “Aye, sir, moving the array.”
“Gamma probe returning in three . . . two . . . one.” Lieutenant Brightling paused. “There’s no signal, sir.Scanning. Time plus four seconds and counting. Probe may have translated on a temporal axis.”
“I don’t think so,” the Chief murmured.
Lieutenant Streeter said, “Telescope array now on target, sir. On the main view screen.”
Pinpoints of green light appeared at the edge of the Reach solar system. They collected and swarmed asif they were caught in a boiling liquid. Space stretched, smeared, and distorted. Half the stars in thatregion were blotted out.
“Radar contact,” Lieutenant Brightling said. “Contact with . . . more than three hundred large objects.”His hands started to shake. “Sir, silhouettes match known Covenant profiles.”
“They’re accelerating,” Lieutenant Streeter whispered. “On an intercept course for the station.”
“FLEETCOM network connections are being infiltrated,” Lieutenant Brightling said. His tremblinghands could barely type in commands. “Cutting our connection.”
Chief McRobb stood as straight as he could. “What about the astrophysics data?”
“Sir, they’re still trying to end the diagnostic cycle, but that takes a few minutes.”
“Then we don’t have a lot of options,” McRobb muttered.
He set his hand on Lieutenant Brightling’s shoulder to steady the young officer. “It’s all right,Lieutenant. We’ve done the best we could. We’ve done our duty. There’s nothing more to worry about.”
He set his palmprint on the control station. The Chief locked out the reactor safeties and saturated thefusion chamber with their deuterium reserve tanks. Chief McRobb said, “Just one last order to carry out.”
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CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
0519 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar) /UNSCPillar of Autumn , Epsilon Eridani System’s edge
Something was wrong.
John felt it in his stomach first: a slight lateral acceleration—that became a spin strong enough that hehad to brace his legs. ThePillar of Autumn was turning.
Every other Spartan in the storage bay felt it as well; they paused as they unloaded equipment fromcrates and readied the cryo tubes for their journey.