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“Blue-Two! Come in,” the Master Chief barked over the COM channel.
“Can—control—” James’ voice was punctuated with static. “They’ve—everywhere—” There was morestatic and the COM channel went dead.
The Master Chief watched his teammate tumble away into the darkness. All his training, his superhumanstrength, reflexes, and determination . . . completely useless against the laws of physics.
He didn’t even know if James was dead. For the moment, he had to assume that he was—put him out ofhis mind. He had a mission to complete.If he survived, then he’d get every UNSC ship in the area tomount a search and rescue op.
Linda shrugged out of her thruster harness.
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The suppressing fire from the aliens halted. Covenant landing pods descended toward the station,touching down at roughly three-hundred-meter intervals.
A pod landed twenty meters away. Its sides uncurled like the petals of a flower. Jackals in black-and-blue vacuum suits drifted out. Their boots adhered to the station’s hull.
“Let’s pave a path out of here, Blue-One.”
“Roger that,” she said.
Linda targeted spots their energy shields didn’t cover—boots, the top of one’s head, a fingertip. ThreeJackals went down in quick succession, their spacesuits ruptured by her marksmanship. The restscrambled for cover inside the pod.
The Master Chief braced his back against the dropship and fired his assault rifle in controlled bursts. Themicrogravity played havoc with his aim.
One Jackal leaped from his cover—straight towards them.
The Master Chief switched to full auto and blasted his shield with enough rounds to send the alien flyingbackward off the station. He spent the clip, reloaded, and got out a grenade. He pulled the pin andlobbed it.
He threw it in a flat trajectory. The grenade ricocheted off the far side of the pod and bounced inside.
It detonated—a flash and spray of freeze-dried blue vented upward. The explosion had caught the enemyon their unshielded sides.
“Blue-One, secure that landing pod. I’ll cover you.” He leveled his rifle.
“Yes, sir.” Linda grabbed a pipe that ran along the station and pulled herself hand over hand. When shewas inside the pod, she flashed him a green light on his heads-up display.
The Master Chief crawled toward the prow of the Pelican. As he crested the ship he saw that the stationwas swarming with Covenant troops: a hundred Jackals and at least six Elites. They pointed toward thePelican and slowly started to advance on their position.
“Come and get it,” the Master Chief muttered.
He pulled two grenades from his satchel and wedged them into the C-12 on the nose of the ship. Hepushed off and propelled himself back to his teammate.
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She grabbed him and pulled him into the interior of the open pod. Bits of a dozen dead Jackals pastedthe inside.
“You’ve got a new target,” he told her. “A pair of frag grenades. Sight on them and wait for my order tofire.”