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They charged past the two tanks.
"They think we're on their side," Fred said. "They're going to see what attacked them. Let's not show them otherwise until we have to."
Kelly's acknowledgment light winked on, and she pushed a path through the onrushing Grunts—who quickly parted be?fore her.
Half a kilometer ahead was a stand of hexagonal gold and silver structures: the shielded tents of the Elites. There were half a dozen stationary plasma turrets, "Shades," guarding them, and beyond them lay the mountain under which were ONI Sec?tion Three's secret research caverns. The Covenant were there as well.
Without thinking, Fred tapped a control; the display magni?fied. A hundred Covenant Engineers maneuvered heavy equip?ment: laser drills and conveyor belts and giant insectlike machines that looked as if they could dig through the entire mountain.
"They found the caverns," Fred told Kelly. "Looks like they're going to dig them out."
But again ... why? Why not just blast them from orbit? The Covenant had never taken prisoners—except the occasional strag?gler to execute for sport. They didn't go to this much trouble. Unless it wasn't Delta Team they were after.
ERIC NYLUND 115
Fred keyed his COM. "Delta, if you're listening, we're com?ing in from south-southeast in a pair of captured Wraith tanks. You'll know which ones from the fireworks. Keep your heads down and don't shoot us."
He keyed over to Kelly's personal COM. "Blaze a trail, Red-Two! Kill everything and get to that entrance ASAP!"
"I'm on it," she whispered, her voice thick with concentration.
A blue acknowledgment light flickered on ... but it wasn't Kelly's. It was tagged as SPARTAN-039, Isaac. That was part of Will's team.
So they were holed up at the fallback position. Relief flooded into him to know his team was here and still alive.
But he couldn't hope—not yet. He had three hundred meters to cross, every millimeter of which was covered with a solid wall of Covenant Grunts, Jackals, and Elites—a path straight through hell.
Kelly rotated her tank about and fired at the remaining Wraiths and the cluster of Grunts trying to put out the fires near those she'd already destroyed. For a split second the ground was the surface of a sun; it flared, faded, and then was nothing but ash.
Fred fired his mortar—as fast as the tank's power supply would cycle. He lobbed three silver-white projectiles at the con?centration of Elites and plasma turrets. They had shields that protected them for a microsecond before they overloaded and collapsed. They flared like the "strike-anywhere" matches the ODSTs used to light their contraband cigarettes.
Kelly shot arcing projectiles into the hundreds of Grunts and Jackals running in every direction. Bodies charred midstride and turned to vapor. It was as if a dozen lightning bolts had struck in the center of the camp.
Grunts ran and ducked and shot at one another. The few Jack?als tried to marshal the diminutive soldiers, but the Grunts, en?raged or terrified, fired on them as well.