第190页
For some reason he thought of Lieutenant Melissa McKay, her calm green eyes, and the fact that he had never gotten to know her. “Did anyone else make it?”
“Scanning,” the AI replied. She paused, and he could see scan data scroll across the main terminal. A moment later, she spoke again, her voice unusually quiet. “Just dust and echoes. We’re all that’s left.”
The Spartan winced. McKay, Foehammer, Keyes, and all the rest of them. Dead. Just like the children he’d been raised with—just like a part of himself.
When Cortana spoke it was as if the AI felt that she had to justify what had transpired. “We did what wehad to do—for Earth. An entire Covenant armada obliterated. And theFlood —we had no choice. Halo, it’s finished.”
“No,” the Chief replied, settling in behind the Longsword’s controls. “The Covenant are still out there, and Earth is at risk. We’re just getting started.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Master Chief saw the yellow-green blob appear in his peripheral vision, and decided to turn toward the enemy both to make the ’Hog look smaller and to give the Corporal an opportunity to fire. But he ran out of time. The Spartan had just started to spin the wheel when the energy pulse slammed into the side of the Warthog and flipped the vehicle over.
All three of the humans were thrown free. The Master Chief scrambled to his feet and looked up-slope in time to see a Hunter drop down from the structure above, absorb the shock with its massive knees, and move forward.
Both the Corporal and the freckle-faced youngster were back on their feet by then, but the noncom, who had never seen a Hunter before, much less gone head-to-head with one, yelled, “Come on, Hosky! Let’s take this bastard out!”
The Spartan yelled, “No! Fall back!” and bent over to retrieve the rocket launcher. Even as he barked the order, he knew there simply wasn’t time. Another Spartan might have been able to dodge in time, but the Helljumpers didn’t have a prayer.
The distance between the alien and the two Marines had closed by then and they couldn’t disengage. The Corporal threw a fragmentation grenade, saw it explode in front of the oncoming monster, and stared in disbelief as it kept on coming. The alien charged right through the flying shrapnel, bellowed some sort of war cry, and lowered a gigantic shoulder.
Private Hosky was still firing when the gigantic shield hit him, shattered half the bones in his body, and threw what was left onto the ground. The private remained conscious however, which meant he was able to lie there and watch as the Hunter lifted his boot high into the air, and brought it down on his face.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Halo: The Floodis a work of fiction. Names, places, and incidents either are a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
A Del Rey?Book
Published by The Random House Ballantine Publishing Group