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“Master Chief?” Sergeant Johnson said, startled. “Sir, yes sir!”
“Blue-One,” the Master Chief said. “I’m going in. We’re going to open up theCircumference like a tincan.” He nodded toward the Pelican in the adjacent bay. “Give me a few grenades over the top.”
“Understood,” she replied. “You’re covered, sir.” She primed two frag grenades, swung around thepressure doors, and threw them behind the Jackals.
The Master Chief pushed off the wall—propelled himself in the zero gee across the bay.
The grenades detonated and caught the Jackals on their backsides. Blue blood spattered on the insides oftheir shields and across the deck.
The Master Chief crashed into the Pelican’s hull. He pulled himself to the side hatch, opened it, andcrawled in. He got into the cockpit, released the docking clamps, and tapped the maneuvering thrustersonce to break free.
The Pelican lifted off the deck.
The Master Chief said over the COM channel, “Marines and Blue-One: take cover behind me.” Hemaneuvered the Pelican into the center of the docking bay.
A dozen Jackals poured in through the passage that Blue-One had just left.
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The Master Chief fired with the Pelican’s autocannon—cut down their shields and peppered the alienswith hundreds of rounds. They exploded into chunks; alien blood twisted crazily in zero gravity.
“Master Chief,” Linda said, “I’m picking upthousands of signals on the motion tracker, inbound from alldirections. The entire station is crawling.”
The Master Chief opened the Pelican’s back hatch. “Get in,” he said. Blue-One and the Marines piledinside.
The Marines did a double take at Blue-One and the Master Chief in their MJOLNIR armor.
The Master Chief turned the Pelican to face theCircumference . He sighted the autocannon on the ship’sforward viewports—and opened fire. Thousands of rounds streamed from the chain-gun and crackedthrough the thick, transparent windows. He followed up with an Anvil-II missile. It blasted through theprow and peeled the craft open.
“Take the controls,” he told Blue-One.
He slipped out the side hatch and jumped to theCircumference . The inside of the ship’s cockpit wasscrap metal. He accessed the computer panel in the floor deck and located the NAV database core. Itwas a cube of memory crystal the size of his thumb. Such a tiny thing to cause so much trouble.
He shot it three times with his assault rifle. It shattered.
“Mission completed,” he said. One small victory in all this mess. The Covenant wouldn’t find Earth . . .today.
He exited theCircumference . Jackals appeared on the level above them in the docking bay. His motiontracker blinked with solid contacts.
He jumped back into the Pelican, strapped himself in the pilot’s chair, and turned the ship to face theouter doors.
“Blue-One, signal the dockmaster AI to open the outer bay doors.”
“Signal sent,” she said. “No response, sir.” She looked around. “There’s a manual release by the outerdoor.” She moved toward the aft hatch. “I’ll get this one, sir. It’s my turn. Cover me.”