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In front of the SPARTAN-IIs sat Ash, Holly Olivia, Mark, Tom, and Lucy—a collection of mottled blacks and grays in their camouflaging SPI armor. They held }ackal shield gauntlets, ready to activate them to protect the others.
There had been serious nausea effects during the translocation. "Uncertainty errors," Dr. Halsey had called them.
It felt like Kurt's guts had been untwisted, and then dumped back into his body, inside out.
Holly had thrown up during the ride. She shook her head, clearing as much of her visor as possible. She didn't dare remove her helmet on hostile ground. There was a defogging vent that could dry the stuff, but that would take a few minutes.
She moved closer to Dante and set a hand on his shoulder.
The young Spartan's body lay against the wall, shrouded in a thermal blanket.
Kurt looked away—it was too painful, and he was grateful that no one could see his twisted expression.
"Are you certain we can't use nukes?" Kurt whispered to Dr. Halsey.
"The electromagnetic pulse will disrupt the translocation system for days." She glanced at her wristwatch. "In sixty-eight minutes what was set in motion by the arming of Halo rings comes to completion on this world. The doorway to the core room of Onyx closes. Without the translocation system we will have no way to move in, recover the technologies, and escape."
Fred nodded out to the factory. "If those things get out, engage the UNSC fleet, and win, then we're stuck here."
Dr. Halsey unfolded her laptop computer. She tapped a few keys and then turned the screen to face the Spartans. On the display was an overhead view of the factory. "Here, here, and here," she said pointing. "Take out these structures and Sentinel production will halt indefinitely."
The targets were a crystal energy emitter the size of a three-story building, a U-shaped object as large as a UNSC cruiser, and a titanic sphere that extended ten thousand meters under the floor.
"Oh… easy," Kelly quipped.
"If we use the rest of the C-12," Will said, "and a few SPNKr missiles, we might be able to shatter that crystal."
Fred shook his head. "Look at the map scale. The targets are thirty kilometers apart. It's going to take too much time to get there and set up."
Holly coughed, and said, "So we have to be in three places simultaneously, and we need ten times the firepower we currently have. That's not possible."
Kurt winced at this, reminded of the "nothing is impossible for a Spartan" credo. How many lives had it cost to prove that? Maybe this time they were in an intractable tactical jam.
They all stared at the diagram, stumped.
"… Rabbit," Ash whispered.
Kurt waited for an explanation, but Ash just continued to examine Dr. Halsey's map.
Kelly snapped her fingers. "I get it!" She snorted a single laugh. "Gutsy plan, kid."
Ash faced them. "We can be in three places at the same time," he said. "And we've got a hundred times the firepower we need." He turned and gazed out to the factory. "We're going to all be rabbits."