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The Covenant cruiser fired. Lances of energy launched and veered toward Ascendant Justice ... and arced away in cork?screw spirals and right angles. The space between the two large masses was still tangled and fractured.
"Two thousand kilometers," Cortana reported.
"Stay on course," the Admiral said. "And continue to hold fire."
Lieutenant Haverson's jaw clenched, and his hands trembled over the controls.
The enemy cruiser filled the displays. Its plasma turrets re?cycled and glowed a dull red.
"One thousand kilometers," Cortana announced.
"Admiral?" Lieutenant Haverson asked.
"Hold your fire."
"Five hundred kilometers," Cortana said. "Three hundred... two... collision imminent."
The Admiral's fist clenched. He barked, "Fire! All turrets, fire! Cortana, depressurize the launch bay and give us full power to port."
Ascendant Justice was a kilometer from the Covenant ship on an intercept course when it fired. The Gettysburg's launch bay doors opened and the air inside explosively decompressed— propelling the conjoined ships to port—just enough to miss the cruiser.
Plasma rocketed toward their target. There was no way to miss. White-hot fire impacted on the cruiser's hull, splashed across its surface, boiled off the armored skin, and corroded the skeletal framework underneath.
"Aft cameras," the Admiral ordered.
230 HALO: FIRST STRIKE
On screen he saw fire explode out the opposite side of the cruiser. The warship tilted and rolled belly-up, plasma disinte?grating the interior from stern to stem until it reached the fusion core. The ship detonated in a ball of flame. An instant later the explosion twisted and curved as the warped Slipspace field swept away all traces of the enemy ship.
Lieutenant Haverson exhaled and wiped his brow. "Excellent maneuvering, Admiral."
"Don't waste your breath on victory speeches yet, son." The Admiral scrutinized the tactical display and spotted the other ship. "There. We've got a new target."
He pointed to a ship half obscured in the plasma fog: the car?rier, intact, with a cloud of gnats swarming about it. Seraph fighters dived and intercepted plasma and meteor bolts that got too close. The resulting fireballs deflected the impacts from the hull.
"She's got a smart Captain," the Admiral muttered. "So we can't use the same trick twice."
Five explosions rattled Ascendant Justice, and the ambient blue light on the bridge flickered.
"Meteor impact," Cortana replied. "We just lost plasma tur?rets two and three. All functionality on decks eight and below has been lost. The structural integrity of this ship, sir, is in dan?ger of imminent collapse."
"Another minute, Cortana," the Admiral told her and contin?ued to search the tactical display. "We either take out that carrier here—where their shields can't regenerate—or we face them in normal space."
He tapped the TAC map. "Gotcha! Cortana, come about to zero-three-zero by one-four-five, calculate the fastest accelera?tion and deceleration burns this ship can handle to get us to this object, and move this ship ASAP."