第113页
A dozen drones punched through the clouds and left swirling vortices, and then a hundred more drones appeared, giving chase.
As the destroyer dropped to a hundred meters, the heat ignited the jungle canopy, leaving a blistering path in its wake. Debris from the disintegrating vessel rained into the trees, crushing them to splinters.
The drones closed and fired.
As Bloodied Spirit turned and its shuttle bay presented groundwork, what appeared to be another chunk of the ship fell, spinning until it plummeted below the canopy—and then the dropship's engines flared, and it righted.
The tiny ship's momentum smashed it through three banyan trees before it touched ground and scraped to a full stop.
Three figures eased from the tuning fork-shaped vessel, and quickly melted into the surrounding jungle.
Fred watched pieces of Bloodied Spirit fall to the earth. The ground under him shook from the impacts.
Drones accelerated after the lost destroyer, so many that they blackened the sky.
A flash cut through the jungle, casting long hard shadows. A wave of pressure shot rock, splinters, and smoldering vegetation hurling over his head, igniting leaf and wood and flattening brush and trees.
Bloodied Spirit had landed.
A kilometer to the north a wall of plasma-fueled fire shot skyward and the clouds overhead parted.
Fred flicked his green status to his teammates.
Linda's status light burned green, but Will's remained dark a moment, and then winked amber.
There was a flutter on Fred's motion detector, two o'clock, and then nothing. Another malfunction?
Linda's light shifted to amber as well.
No. Real trouble.
Fred sited down his assault rifle and covered the area. Linda would soon be in position to snipe. Will would draw whatever was there out into the open.
Had those drones discovered them so quickly? Or had the Covenant managed to track them here after all?
On his heads-up display, the secure single-beam COM system activated. His helmet speaker hissed with static, and then a voice as familiar as his own spoke.
Kelly whispered: "Olly olly oxen free."
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TWENTY-SEVEN
SEVENTH CYCLE, 49 UNITS (COVENANT BATTLE CALENDAR) / ABOARD FLEET CARRIER SUBLIME TRANSCENDENCE, IN ORBIT ABOVE JOYOUS EXULTATION, SYSTEM SALIA
The Unggoy Kwassass knew his place aboard the Covenant su-percarrier Sublime Transcendence. He was to be trod upon under the boots of its glorious Sangheili officers. He was to clean, scrub, wait in the shadows for orders, and never speak unless spoken to.
Among his other duties Kwassass was also responsible for the maintenance of storage subdeck K. The mining gear that had exacted the human fortress world Reach had been stored on subdeck K. Diggers, earthen conveyors, portable microenergy projectors, plasma fuel cells all sat in orderly rows.
He had been ordered to repair and refit everything, a gargantuan task that would take six months and the entire K-deck tribe. It was a crushing responsibility… but also a tremendous opportunity.