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“Damn.” She scowled. Without well-armed air support, Alpha Base was going to be a lot tougher to defend.
“Affirmative,” Oros agreed. “Oh, and I ordered the pilots to bring fifteen additional bodies on the return trip. Clerks, medics, anybody who can drive or fire an M41. That would allow me to squeeze some additional ’Hogs into the column and put at least two people on each tank.”
McKay raised an eyebrow. “You ‘ordered’ them to bring more bodies?”
“Well, I kind of let them believe thatyou whistled them up.”
McKay shook her head. “You are amazing.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Oros replied shamelessly.“Semper Fi.”
The Pelicans swept over the glittering sea, passed over a line of gently breaking surf, and flew parallel with the beach. Foehammer saw a construct up ahead, a headland beyond, and a whole lot of Covenant troops running around in response to the sudden and unexpected arrival of two UNSC dropships. Rawley fought the urge to trigger the Pelican’s 70mm chin gun. She’d expended the last of her ammo on the last pass—had watched geysers of sand chase an Elite up the beach, and was rewarded by the sight of the alien disappearing in a cloud of his own blood—and it didn’t look like more were coming anytime soon.
She keyed open a master channel. “The LZ is hot, repeat,hot ,” Foehammer emphasized. “Five to dirt.”
The Master Chief stood next to the open hatch, and waited for Foehammer’s signal: “Touchdown! Hit it, Marines!”
He was among the first to step off the ramp, his boots leaving deep impressions in the soft sand.
He paused for a quick look around, then started down-spin to the point where the aliens waited. No sooner had the last member of the landing party disembarked than the Pelicans were airborne once more—and flying up-spin.
Plasma fire stuttered down from the top of a rise as the Marines advanced up the sandy slope, careful to fire staggered bursts, so the entire group didn’t wind up reloading at the same time. The Spartan ran forward, added his fire to the rest, and sent an Elite sprawling to the ground. The Covenant forces were outnumbered for once and the human attackers wasted little time cutting them down. The whole fight lasted only ten minutes.
Time to get moving. He reviewed the mission objectives as he surveyed the LZ: find and secure a Covenant-held facility, some kind of map room—which the enemy had already captured.
The Covenant called the site “the Silent Cartographer”—which could presumably pinpoint the location of Halo’s control room. Keyes had been very adamant about the urgency of the mission. “If the Covenant figure out how to turn Halo into a weapon, we’re cooked.”
Maybe, with Cortana’s help, they had a good chance of figuring out where the hell the ring’s control systems were housed. All they had to do is take it away from an entrenched enemy.
The Spartan heard a burst of static followed by Foehammer’s cheerful voice as her Pelican swooped back into the LZ area.“Echo 419 inbound. Did someone order a Warthog?”