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Her opponent twisted her wrist and escaped from Kelly's grip.
Kelly was still faster—her other hand lashed out, palm flat, and impacted the solar plexus.
The other figure flew back two meters, hit a tree, and slumped.
"Stand down. Spartan!"
Kelly whirled. She recognized the voice—not Mendez's but another voice from the past… one that couldn't be. That person was dead.
Before her stood a figure wavering as if a mirage, then the active camouflage faded, and a person in what looked like cut-down MJOLNIR armor was there, one hand holding an MASK rifle pointed at the ground, the other held up.
"No time to explain, Kelly," this man said over the COM. "Move! Hostiles in—"
An explosion tore through the jungle.
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← ^ → CHAPTER
NINETEEN
1045 HOURS, NOVEMBER 3, 2552 (MILITARY CALENDAR) \ ZETA DORADUS SYSTEM, PLANET ONYX \ NEAR RESTRICTED REGION KNOWN AS ZONE 67
Kelly ducked and placed herself between the blast and Dr. Halsey. Splinters and stones pelted the energy shield of her MJOLNIR armor.
When the dust cleared, the other person—the one that had
sounded impossibly like Kurt—had vanished. So was the soldier she had knocked out.
Her questions would have to wait, because Kelly saw the source of that explosion: a drone identical to the ones they had seen in space now hovered ten meters off the jungle floor, moving like a moray eel through the trees and vines.
She aimed her MA5B and fired.
A burst of three rounds hit and deflected off a gold shimmer of shields.
It turned toward Kelly, and its central sphere heated.
Kelly sprinted to draw the fire away from Dr. Halsey. Five strides, darting between trees, and she suddenly stopped, spun— jumped.
A flash of light blinded her, and then the world detonated where she had stood a second before.
The overpressure propelled her into the air. Kelly's shields drained to half, and she felt the heat prick her skin.
She hit the ground, chest first, rolled awkwardly, wobbled, and got to her feet.
A direct hit from that energy weapon would collapse her shield, and possibly melt her armor… and her.
Pistol fire crackled through the brush. The drone's shields glimmered, and the thing turned and moved away.
Kelly made out the camouflaged outlines of three soldiers, drawing it toward them.
She appreciated the help, but it was suicide for them.
Kelly started toward them.
An amber acknowledgment light flashed twice. That was the Spartan team "wait" signal.
She took cover behind a tree trunk.
The drone aligned for a clean shot on the two. Its center sphere glowed molten.
The trees to either side of the drone blasted into smoke and splinters. It was the sharp crack of high explosives that Kelly
recognized as a LOTUS antitank mine detonated above ground.
Two of the drone's booms twisted, bent inward by the force of the blast. The machine fell to the ground with a thud.
The trees that had held the antitank mines toppled as well and their two-meter trunks crushed the drone, the wood bursting into flames.