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The missiles impacted—smoke and flames ballooned about the Sentinel.
A heartbeat later, the winds blew the discharge cloud aside… the Sentinel jerked, and plummeted.
Linda got to her feet.
The Sentinel scattered as it fell, center sphere and three booms spinning out of control until they impacted.
"Go," he told them. "Make sure it's dowm."
Kurt didn't waste another second on the Sentinel; he turned back to the ravine and ran—toward Kelly.
He scanned Kelly's bio signs: erratic heartbeat, falling blood pressure, low body temperature. She was in borderline shock.
Kurt skidded to a halt in the ravine as Ash and Holly propped her up.
"I'm sorry, sir," Ash said. "The Sentinels were three meters from the exit. If I had waited any longer it would have cleared the trap. It would have shot her. I couldn't take that chance."
Kelly shook her head—not to disagree, rather to clear her senses. Her bio signs perked.
"He's right," she whispered and coughed. "The kid did good." She gave Ash the thumbs-up signal.
Ash bowed his head.
Kurt breathed a sigh of relief that Kelly had survived. He'd risked her life to gain a slim advantage over the enemy—he now had to use it wisely.
"What's next?" Fred asked.
Kurt told them, "Now we have an opportunity. If that over-watch Sentinel didn't get a fix on our position we'll have some room to maneuver and take the initiative."
"Maneuver where?" Holly asked.
"Zone 67," Kurt said. "It's the center of everything. If there's any technology to be recovered other than broken Sentinel parts, it's going to be there."
"Patrols get denser the farther north we've gone, sir," Dante noted.
"It'll be dusk soon," Kurt said, "enough time to circle back to Blue Team's dropship. The sun will be setting and we'll fly it in low, get some camouflage from the long shadows. The rocks in these canyons have been baking all day and we'll have thermal cover, too."
Kurt surveyed his team. "Unless there's a better idea?"
His gaze fell on Dr. Halsey as she and Chief Mendez made their way down the valley slope. She stared at him as if she could see through his mirrored faceplate.
"Okay, stay sharp. Olivia, Will, Linda, scout ahead. No COM chatter. Let's get this done."
Dr. Halsey watched Kurt give detailed instructions to the Spartans.
She didn't care what his orders were so much as how he was saying it, and the effect it had on them. He spoke with confidence, but there was also warmth and pride in his voice. She'd never heard any Spartan so demonstrative. Certainly Kelly would crack the rare joke, but that was just a layer of emotional armor.
Kurt was different.
The Spartans, young and old, responded to him. There was the usual Spartan stoicism and no questions asked, but there were also nods, slight tilts of their heads—the involuntary indication of rapt attention. Kurt was their leader now.
That fact might serve her well in the upcoming crisis.
Of course he was hiding something about his SPARTAN-IIIs. If the mute psychologically damaged Lucy was any indication of what this secret was, Dr. Halsey could only guess at its horrors.