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“Blue-Two,” he said, “police those explosives.” He gestured to the prow. The motion sent him gyrating.
“Yes, sir.” James puffed his thruster pack once and drifted up to the nose of the Pelican.
The Spartans had trained to fight in zero gravity. It wasn’t easy. The slightest motion sent you spinningout of control.
A flash overhead reflected off the hull. The Master Chief looked up. The Covenant ships were alive now—lances of blue laser fire flashed and motes of red light collected on their lateral lines. Their enginesglowed and they moved close to the station.
A streak crossed the Master Chief’s field of vision in the blink of an eye. The center Covenant frigateshields strobed silver; the ship shattered into a cloud of glistening fragments.
The orbital guns had turned and fired on the new threat.
This was a suicide maneuver. How did the Covenant think they could withstand that kind of firepower?
“Blue-One,” the Master Chief said. “Scan those ships with your scope.”
Linda floated closer to the Master Chief. She pointed her sniper rifle up and sighted the ships. “We’vegot inbound targets,” she said, and fired.
The Master Chief hit his magnification. A dozen pods burst from the two remaining Covenant ships.Trails of exhaust pointed right at the Spartans’ position. There were tiny specks accompanying the pods;the Master Chief increased his display’s magnification to maximum. They looked like men in thrusterpacks—
No, they were definitely not men.
These things had elongated heads—and even at this distance, the Master Chief could see past their
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faceplates and noted their pronounced sharklike teeth and jaws. They wore armor; it shimmered as theycollided with debris—which meant energy shields.
These must be the elite warrior class Dr. Halsey had conjectured. The Covenant’s best? They were aboutto find out.
Linda shot one of the EVA aliens. Shields shimmered around its body and the round bounced off. Shedidn’t stop. She pumped four more rounds into the creature—hitting a pinpoint target in its neck. Itsshields flickered and a round got through. Black blood gushed from the wound and the creature writhedin space.
The other aliens spotted them. They jetted toward their location, firing plasma rifle and needlers.
“Take cover,” the Master Chief said. He unclipped himself and clung to the side of the dropship.
Linda followed—bolts of fire spattering on the hull next to them, spattering molten metal. Crystallineneedles bounced off their shields
“Blue-Two,” the Master Chief said. “I said fall back.”
James almost had the explosives rigged to the nose free. A shower of needles hit him. One stuck the tankof his thruster harness—penetrated. It remained embedded for a split second . . . then exploded.
Exhaust billowed from the pack. The uncontrolled jets spun James in the microgravity. He slammed intothe station, bounced—then rocketed away into space, tumbling end over end, unable to control histrajectory.