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The UNSC corvette Chalons had come, but not for a daring exfiltration. It had been a bit of misdirection, giving the Covenant ships something to focus on as the Spartans transferred outside the elevator car.
When two Covenant dropships came to collect the warheads, Fred, Linda, and Will had stealthed under one of the vessels and—if their luck now held—they would be ferried away.
The "luck" part of this mission couldn't be taken for
granted… because above them sat a dozen—now armed— FENRIS nuclear warheads.
"A little slice of Armageddon," Will had called it.
Their dropship smoothly accelerated toward one of the destroyers, and an open shuttle bay yawned before them.
He spotted the other shuttle as they moved to the sister vessel. Then the hull of the destroyer flashed before them and cut off the view. Artificial gravity tugged at them.
They'd made it inside.
The three Spartans slipped from the underside of the ship and rolled out of the shadows. Fred and Linda took cover around either fork of the hull. Will leapt to the top of the vessel.
Ten Jackals and a score of Grunts stood in the open bay between the twin hulls of the dropship—a space usually encased by a gravimetric field, now dropped to allow them to unload their stolen cargo.
Blue Team opened fire.
Three Jackals dropped, but the remaining vulture-head aliens snapped on their shield gauntlets and fell back.
The Grunts scattered, and Will concentrated his fire on them, dropping six, igniting one's methane task, which exploded into a fireball and wiped out another dozen.
Fred and Linda combined fire on the leader Jackal in red armor. Its shield shimmered, failed, and armor-piercing rounds penetrated his body, making it shudder and dance.
Two Jackals screeched and primed and chucked plasma grenades at Fred.
Linda tracked them, fired once, twice, shooting both projectiles midtoss.
The grenades exploded into a spray of half-heated ionized gas, which made the Jackals' and Spartans' energy shields shimmer and drain.
Meanwhile, a pair of Jackals opened fire at Will; he dodged the shots, but was forced back.
A plasma bolt singed the hull near Fred, but he ignored it and focused on the pair targeting Will. He flicked his MA5B assault rifle to full auto and shot. Linda combined her fire and they dropped the Jackals.
The last four Jackals charged Fred and Linda—plasma pistols firing.
Linda made a fist and pumped it once.
Fred nodded and he faded back behind the hull, leaving a primed grenade on the ground.
He reloaded, waited two heartbeats, and then twin blasts shuddered through the hull.
Fred moved up and shot the wounded Jackals struggling to rise off the deck.
He looked for another target.
None but the Spartans stood. The cavernous shuttle bay of the Covenant destroyer was empty save mangled and bloodied corpses of Jackals and Grunts.
Fred pointed at Linda and then to the nukes on the ship. They had to get those things defused. She nodded and moved toward the FENRIS warheads.