第127页
But as the end neared, she would have no choice but to trust Kurt. She would have to trust them all to forgive the lies she had told about the treasure trove of Forerunner technologies.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
← ^ → CHAPTER
THIRTY
1950 HOURS, NOVEMBER 3, 2552 (MILITARY CALENDAR) \ ZETA DORADUS SYSTEM, PLANET ONYX \ NEAR RESTRICTED REGION ZONE 67
Kurt stood behind Kelly and Will in the Covenant dropship's cockpit. Kelly sat in the pilot's seat while Will manned the gunner's station and watched the scanners. The other Spartans, Mendez, and Dr. Halsey were aft, readying equipment, waiting, and watching.
Kelly shifted back and forth—the pilot's seat was angled wrong for human physiology, and she leaned awkwardly over the control surface.
She took the ship in low and fast over the jungle. The controls were an odd assemblage of holographic geometries that danced before her hands.
Kurt tried to learn as much as he could in case he had to fly the alien ship. It was difficult, however, to watch her and not the viewscreens.
The sun was a hand's breadth from the edge of the horizon, and the Covenant ship passed through long shadows and dim red light.
As the jungle thinned, Kelly dropped and swerved between acacia trees, skimming two meters over the grassland.
Without looking up from her controls, Kelly said, "Piece of cake, LC. Relax."
She smoothed her hand over an acceleration stripe and the ship leapt forward—zipping off the savanna and over the broken canyon lands.
Kelly maneuvered aggressively—jinking up and down, performing quarter rolls to veer around mesas, dropping into ravines and pulling up at the last instant to avoid a crash headlong into a wall.
"Great," Kurt whispered to Kelly. He forced himself to release the edge of her seat.
Dead ahead the slope of a mountain angled gently up over two thousand meters.
"Nothing airborne on sensors," Will announced. "Clear sailing ahead."
"Status on the warheads?" Kurt asked over the COM.
Ash clicked on the channel. "All FENRIS warhead detonators now secure and slaved to our secure COM signal, sir. As ordered, two warheads cut down, armed, and ready for transport. Working on the rest."
"Hang on!" Kelly cried.
The nose of the ship jerked up. A rock the size of a Warthog tumbled down the mountain slope—clipping the undercarriage of the ship.
The dropship spun, but Kelly expertly rolled, righted, and got them back on course.
"Close," she muttered.
"Rescan for surface motion," Kurt ordered Will.
Will swept the camera angle port and starboard.
Kurt saw they weren't on a single mountain; it was a range-all equivalent elevation, extending in a gentle arc as far as he could see.
"Motion detected," Will said. "Just appeared, sir. Ahead. Got a target lock."
A silhouette resolved on the viewscreen, outlined by the glare of the setting sun.
Kelly came hard to port.
As their relative angle changed, Kurt saw motion: earth and rocks shot up and then cascaded down the slope.