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"Rebels?" Haverson said. "I've read about them. But why con?tinue to stay separated from UNSC forces when the Covenant War started? Surely their chances of survival would be better with us?"
The Admiral snorted a derisive laugh. "Some people didn't want to fight, son. Some just wanted to hide... in this case, liter?ally under a rock. Maybe they think the Covenant won't bother with 'em." A smile flickered across his face. "Well, we're about to change all that for them."
The elevator doors parted, and Dr. Halsey stepped onto the bridge. She removed her glasses and rubbed her eyes. She looked to the Master Chief as if she had just retimed from an in?tense fight—fatigued and shocked. He noticed a single drop of blood on the lapel of her wrinkled white lab coat.
"She's fine," Dr. Halsey whispered. "Linda will make it. The flash-cloned organs took."
The Master Chief exhaled the breath he had been uncon?sciously holding. He glanced over to Fred, who nodded to him. John nodded back. There were no words to express how he felt.
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One of his closest teammates, his friend, someone he had thought dead... was alive again.
"Thank you, Doctor Halsey," he said.
She waved her hand dismissively, and there was a strange look in her eyes—almost as if she had regretted the success of her operation.
"Damn good news," Admiral Whitcomb said. "We could use another hand on deck."
"Hardly," Dr. Halsey replied, suddenly looking much more alert. "She'll need at least a week to recover—even with the bio-foam and steroid accelerants I have her on. Then she'll barely be able to get on her feet. She won't be combat-ready."
Gettysburg-Ascendant Justice moved into the plane of the as?teroid belt, and three rocks appeared on the screens.
"This region is the source of the D-band signal," Cortana told them. "There are three possible candidates based on the size pa?rameters you gave me, Chief."
"Which one is it?" the Admiral asked.
"Only one is rotating fast enough to generate a three-quarter-gravity internal environment," Cortana replied.
"That's it," the Master Chief replied and nodded toward the central display. The rock hadn't changed much in the last twenty years. Was it possible the place had been abandoned? The D-band transmission that Cortana detected could have been an automated signal, weak from years of drain on a single battery ... or the lure for a trap.
"Admiral?"
"I know, Chief," he said. "They've baited the hook and we're taking it... at least that's what it's supposed to look like." He chuckled. "Cortana, power up every turret on our Covenant flagship."
Her holographic body flushed blue-green and she crossed her arms. "Let me remind you, sir, that of the three working turrets, two are offline. I have no way to aim the plasma. The magnetic—"
"I know, Cortana. But they"—the Admiral stabbed a finger at the displays—"don't know that."
"Yes, sir," she said. "Heating them up now."
"Power dropping," Fred warned the Admiral as he peered at the Engineering screens. "Down to forty-four percent."