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"Company's coming fast," she said and then shot each Brute once more. "I hope this car can still move."
Fred regained his senses.
The inside of the car was a mess. The grenades had busted every crate and punched rents into the walls. A dozen conical warheads lay scattered, but intact, on the deck.
Fred took up position by the door and looked out.
Three Wraith tanks crushed a path through the complex, heading their way. In the sky. Banshee fliers circled.
"Here…" Fred dug into his satchel and handed Will the ONI datapad.
Will booted the intrusion software and cut through the elevator's control software. "Hang on," he said. "Maximum acceleration."
The climbing motors engaged and high-frequency screams rattled the car.
"Ah—the clutch," Will noted and pressed a button.
A jolt of upward acceleration hit. Fred, Linda, and Will dropped to all fours, and the car groaned and pinged.
Fred rolled over and looked out the open doors. The ground dropped away; the Wraith tanks looked like toys.
Would they fire on the stalk? Or would they gather forces and follow them with another car?
"Will…" he said.
"I'm on it." Will returned to the override panel. "Interfacing with Stalk Control. Jamming the sequencing tracks. That should slow them down."
Linda eased next to Fred by the open doors. She set a tiny satellite dish down and it opened like a rose bud. "Getting a UNSC network handshake," she reported.
"Raise CENTCOM," Fred told her. "Tell them we need an extreme low-orbit extraction. We'll need a fast ship to get in before those Covenant ships at the top can—"
"Stand by," Linda said. "FLEETCOM contacting us." She turned to Fred. "It's Lord Hood on Cairo Station."
Lord Hood's unshakably confident voice came over the COM: "Give me a status update, Blue Team."
"Sir," Fred answered. "Covenant forces at the COE were after the mothballed nukes being shuttled up to the fleet. We've recovered twelve FENRIS warheads. We are en route to low orbit on the stalk. There's an entire company of Brutes on the ground with Wraith tanks and Banshee reinforcements."
Fred craned his head skyward.
Along the arc of Earth distant sparks and lines of fire traced patterns of destruction. Long smoking trails plummeted to the ground, ending in thermal blooms of impacted ships and plasma bombardment. The broken hulls of UNSC ships made a bone-yard of the thermosphere. There were Covenant ships in orbit as well… many more than Fred remembered… dozens.
He increased magnification directly overhead.
"There are two Covenant destroyers at the elevator's terminus near Station Wayward Rest."
"I'll send a prowler for an ELO extraction," Lord Hood said. "Get your team ready" There was an uncharacteristic hesitation, and then he said in a lowered voice, "One more thing has come up: a message from Dr. Catherine Halsey, and new mission."
Fred, Linda, and Will looked at one another.
"Dr. Halsey's message," Lord Hood explained, "was piggybacked on a carrier signal sent by Cortana through Slipspace. The message was subsequently detected by Pluto Slipstream Space Monitoring Station Democritus. It will make more sense if you heard and read the material. Set to encryption scheme thirty-seven."