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Fred chimed in, "This isn't so bad. The last insertion I made, we hit the ground before the dropship. Now, that was a rough ride. We were—"
The dropship lurched violently and cut off Fred's story.
Cracks appeared along the armor welded to the port wall. Molten lead oozed from the rupture.
Despite the hydrostatic gel and the padding, a jolt slammed the Master Chief's head against the front of his helmet with force enough to make black stars explode in his eyes. Another jolt slammed his head into the back of his helmet. The inside of the dropship went entirely dark.
"Chief? Chief?" Cortana's voice whispered through his hel?met speaker. "Chief, respond please."
John's vision came into focus. His biosigns sluggishly pulsed on his heads-up display. Beyond the display, it was completely dark. He activated his external lights and pointed his head along the interior of the dropship.
His Spartans hung limp in their harnesses. Aside from spheres of lead that had melted under the hull armor, resolidified, and now floated like champagne bubbles in the interior of the vessel, there was no other discernible motion.
"We made it?"
ERIC NYLUND 297
"Affirmative," the cloned Cortana answered. "I'm picking up a tremendous volume of Covenant COM traffic on the F- through K-bands. They've pinged us three times already for a response, Chief. Awaiting orders."
"How can you pick up any signal inside this lead-lined hull?"
"The hull is breached in many sections, Chief. The COM traf?fic is also unusually strong, indicating extremely close proximity of Covenant forces."
"Stand by," he told her. He hit the quick release on his harness and floated free. He called up Blue Team's biosigns and found them all unconscious, but alive. He grabbed a first-aid kit, in?jected them each with a mild stimulant, and released them from their safety restraints.
"Where are we?" Will asked.
The Master Chief looked instinctively to the forward moni?tors, but they were dead. "There's only one way to find out," he replied. "I'll take the portside hatch. Fred, you're on the starboard."
"Roger, Blue-One," Fred replied.
The Chief rotated the manual release of the hatch and it eased open. Beyond was the velvet black of space, filled with stars that shone yellow and amber and red. He clipped a tether onto his suit and then onto the hull and leaned out the hatch.
As Cortana had indicated, there were Covenant forces in close proximity. A cruiser glided silently past them three hundred me?ters away. All John could see was its silver-blue hull, its plasma turrets with their lateral lines aglow with fire, and the flare of its engine cones as it passed... and then John saw the rest of them.
There were Covenant cruisers and larger carriers; there were even bigger vessels with five bulbous sections that were two kilometers stem to stern and had a dozen deadly energy projec?tors. Motes of dust swirled between the numerous ships: Seraph fighters, dropships, and tentacled Engineer pods.