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The pyramid of spheres, the mountain of metal, shuddered.
That force-field generator was only one of three, but without it in place, the formation was unbalanced. And when a million ball bearings stacked upon one another were not exactly balanced…
Ash turned and sprinted.
Ahead, Holly had fallen and struggled to get to her feet. He went to her, grabbed her hand, and lifted her up.
But they both froze as they caught a glimpse of the pyramid.
The outer layers of spheres tumbled and bounced off their fellows, a chain reaction of cascading destruction; rivers of metal balls flowed, then torrents, an avalanche that rolled across the floor in great waves, tons of metal headed for them.
"Guys! Move it!" Mark yelled over TEAMCOM.
Ash blinked and snapped out of his stupor.
He and Holly turned and sprinted toward the extraction point. Mark and Olivia were already on the platform, waving them to hurry.
Ash felt the thunderous force through the floor that grew louder with every step until it shook his bones.
He and Holly leapt onto the platform.
"Dr. Halsey, go," he screamed over an open COM channel.
Nothing happened.
Team Saber stood shoulder to shoulder and watched the tidal wave of metal smash over machinery and crush the Sentinels that struggled to escape its kilometer-high surge.
But there was no escaping something Hke this.
"We got the mission done," Ash told his friends over TEAMCOM. "We won."
He still held Holly's hand. He gripped it tighter.
The shadow of the wave covered them and plunged them into darkness.
There was a flash of light.
Nausea hit Ash in the gut like a lead glove wrapped around a brick.
The blinding light faded.
They were back on the ledge.
Holly disentangled her hand from his and looked away. Mark steadied himself against the wall. Olivia stepped off the platform and hung her head between her legs.
Dr. Halsey sat and stared at a tornado of Covenant symbols that rose from her laptop, her eyes darting back and forth trying to watch them all at the same time. She herded a collection of silver triangles together.
"My apologies for the delay," she said without glancing up. "There are complications. Please, step off the platform. Tom and Lucy are next."
The SPARTAN-II Blue Team was already back crouched along the shadow line by the ledge overlooking the factory.
The air was full of Sentinels flying in formations. The pyramid was gone, and on the floor a million spheres bounced and surged forward, flattening machinery and sparking conduits.
The fountain of fire that Blue Team had targeted oscillated wildly out of control, spaying molten alloy on the walls, ceiling, everywhere but the receiving vessel it was supposed to hit.
Over the COM Tom's voice crackled: "Ready for translocation. Dr. Halsey." Gunfire sounded in the background.
Dr. Halsey exhaled a hiss of frustration and slashed her hand through the icons, and then started the process of gathering them again.
"What's the holdup?" the Lieutenant Commander asked.