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294 HALO: FIRST STRIKE
"Allow me, Sergeant." John grasped the two-hundred-kilogram machine and lifted it with one hand.
The Master Chief exited the dropship, and he and the other Spartans assembled outside. He stowed the arc welder and took his position at the head of the Spartan formation.
Admiral Whitcomb looked them over once and then said, "I'd wish you luck, Master Chief, but you Spartans seem to make your own luck. So let me just say I'll see you all when this is over."
He saluted them and they returned the salute.
"Just one last order," the Admiral said.
"Sir?"
"Give'em hell."
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
0530 hours, September 13,2552 (revised date, Military Calendar)\Aboard captured Covenant dropship, in Slipspace.
The dropship rolled, inverted, and spun out of control. It tum?bled and pitched, and one of the I-beams solidly welded to the hull bucked and snapped.
The Spartans of Blue Team were strapped to the hull in quick-release harnesses. No one, however, gave any thought to the red quick-release button in the center of their chests. They were all hanging on for their lives.
The forward monitor was black because there was nothing for them to see in Slipspace. The only light inside the dropship came from chemical light sticks activated and tossed inside before they departed. Those plastic sticks had cracked, and their lumi?nous contents had balled into a million microscopic blobs in the zero gee.
Although the hydrostatic gel inside his MJOLNIR armor had been pressurized to its maximum safe value, John's bones still felt as if they were being shaken apart.
This violent ride started when they had cleared Ascendant Justice's launch bay and entered the inky void of Slipspace. This "normal" Slipspace was nothing like John had experienced before. Without the smoothing effect of Dr. Halsey's alien crystal—this ride was a thousand times worse.
Radiation levels spiked and dipped... but so far the dosages getting into the lead-lined dropship were survivable.
"Now I know," Linda said, "why only big ships travel through Slipspace."
296
HALO: FIRST STRIKE
"You know those SS probes?" Fred asked. "They're almost solid Titanium-A."
The Master Chief checked his team's biosigns: erratic but still within normal operational parameters. Grace's heart skipped a beat or two, but then returned to a normal strong rhythm. No broken bones or signs of internal bleeding yet, either. It was also a good sign that Blue Team were reasonably calm about their dire situation. The Chief knew it was all they could do until they cleared the Slipspace field generated by Ascendant Justice.
He ran a diagnostic on his MJOLNIR shields. They still re?charged faster than they were drained by the ambient radiation that stormed invisibly around them. He wished the real Cortana were with him. She would have said something to distract him.
"Status?" John asked.
Four blue acknowledgment lights winked on, and four Spar?tans gave him thumbs-up signals.