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He felt the maneuvering thrusters fire, and the ship rotated 180 degrees.
"Decompression in three seconds," Cortana said.
The Chief opened the empty weapons locker and climbed partially inside. He braced himself.
40 HALO: FIRST STRIKE
Cortana dropped the aft hatch, and the inside of the ship ex?ploded out; the Chief slammed into the door of the locker, dent?ing the centimeter-thick Titanium-A.
He climbed out and Cortana overlaid a blue arrow-shaped NAV point on his heads-up display, indicating the location of the drifting cryopods.
The Chief jumped out of the Longsword.
He floated through space. He was only thirty meters from the pods, but if he'd guessed wrong about his trajectory and missed the target, he wouldn't get a second chance. By the time he reeled himself back to the Longsword and tried again, those Covenant ships were certain to kill them all.
He stretched his arms and hands toward the cylinders. Twenty meters to go.
His approach was off. He shifted his left knee closer to his chest and started a slow tumble.
Ten meters.
His upper body rotated "down" relative to the pods. If he spun just right as he passed the cryotubes, it would give him enough extra reach to make contact. He hoped.
He rotated back... almost standing "up" now.
Three meters.
He stretched his arms until the elbow joints creaked and popped; he stretched his hands, willed his fingers to elongate.
His fingertips brushed against the smooth surface of the lead?ing cryopod. It slid off and over and touched the second pod. He flexed and failed to grab hold. He scratched the surface of the third and final pod—his middle finger hooked on the frame.
His body swung inward, curled, and landed on the pod. He quickly looped his tether through the frame, secured himself to it, and pulled their combined mass back to the Longsword.
"Hurry, Chief," Cortana said over the COM. "We've got trouble."
The Chief saw exactly what the trouble was: The engines of two Covenant cruisers flared electric blue as they accelerated toward the Longsword. The plasma and laser weapons along their hulls warmed from red to orange as they readied to fire.
He pulled as fast as he could, making minor adjustments with
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the muscles in his braced legs so his motions didn't send them into a tumble in the zero gravity.
The Longsword was a sitting duck for those Covenant cruis?ers. Cortana couldn't fire the engines until he got on board. Even if he and the pods survived the thruster wash, any evasive ma?neuver Cortana made would snap him and his cargo like the end of a whip.
The Covenant ships were within firing range, lined up per?fectly to destroy the Longsword.
Three missiles streaked though space, impacting on the star?board side of the lead Covenant ship. The explosion splashed harmlessly across its shield, which shimmered silver as it dissi?pated the energy.
The Chief turned his head and saw the Pelican blast off from the asteroid where it had been hiding. It rocketed on a perpen?dicular course toward the two Covenant ships.