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Captain Keyes and the Master Chief would get their chance to disable and capture one of those vessels.
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Their “luck” had so far defied all probability and statistical variations. She hoped their defiance of theodds continued.
“Captain Keyes? Wake up, sir,” Cortana said. “We will enter normal space in three hours.”
Captain Keyes sat up in the cryo tube. He licked his lips and gagged. “I hate that stuff.”
“The inhalant surfactant is highly nutritious, sir. Please regurgitate and swallow the protein complex.”
Captain Keyes swung his legs out of the tube. He coughed and spat the mucus onto the deck. “Youwouldn’t say that, Cortana, if you ever tasted this stuff. Ship status?”
“Reactor two has been fully repaired,” she replied. “Reactors one and three are inoperable. That gives ustwenty percent power. Archer missile pods I and J rows serviceable. Autocannon ammunition at tenpercent. Our two remaining Shiva warheads are intact.” She paused and double-checked the MAC gun.“Magnetic Accelerator Gun’s capacitors depolarized. We cannot fire the system, sir.”
“More good news,” he grumbled. “Continue.”
“Hull breaches patched—but the majority of decks eleven, twelve, and thirteen are destroyed—thatincludes the Spartans’ weapons locker.”
“Are there any infantry weapons left?” Keyes asked. “We may need to repel boarders.”
“Yes, Captain. A substantial number of standard Marine infantry weapons survived the engagement.Would you like an inventory?”
“Later. What about the crew?”
“All crew accounted for. Spartan 117 is in cryo sleep with the Marine and security personnel. Wakingbridge officers and all essential personnel.”
“And the Covenant?”
“We’ll know in a moment if they were able to track us, sir.”
“Very well. I’ll be on the bridge in ten minutes.” He eased out of the tube. “I’m getting too damn old tobe frozen and shot through space at light speed,” he muttered.
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Cortana checked the status of the waking crew. There was a minor flutter in Lieutenant Dominique’sheart, which she corrected. Otherwise, status normal.
The Captain and crew assembled on the bridge. They waited.
“Five minutes until normal space, sir,” Cortana announced.
She knew they could see the countdown timer, but Cortana noticed that the crew responded well to hercalm voice in stressful situations. Their reaction times generally improved by as much as 15 percent—give or take. Sometimes, human imperfection made calculations maddeningly imprecise.
She ran another check on all intact systems. ThePillar of Autumn had taken a tremendous beating atReach. It was a wonder it was still in one piece.
“Entering normal space in thirty seconds,” she informed Captain Keyes.
“Shut down all systems, Cortana. I want us to be dark when we hit normal space. If the Covenant didfollow us—maybe we can hide.”
“Aye, sir. Running dark.”
The view screen filed with green light; smears of stars came into focus. A purple-hued gas giant filled athird of the screen.