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Burgundy had her pistol out, safety off, even with the Pelican sealed up tight. There’d been too much gunfire out there. The Marines might call her Stickybeak and joke about pilots not seeing any action except on leave, but Burgundy had seen enough to know you didn’t wait until you could see the whites of their eyes before turning up the heat. Covenant didn’t have whites, for starters.

The feeds from the Pelican’s rear cameras didn’t help her mood any. It looked like the Covie action was getting a little too close for comfort.

Lopez pinged her right after she’d heard one last burst of rifle fire that cut off abruptly. The signal was weak, the ship’s structure already interfering. Strange static.

“Burgundy, what’s happening there? Can you see Cranker? Simmons?”

“Sarge, I’m not sure what I’m seeing.” Her throat was dry and she swallowed. “It’s dark, and their flashlights are just lying on the floor now. I couldn’t really make out what happened. I think I’m seeing dead Covenant and . . . oh shit.” The hair on her arms rose, gooseflesh stippling her skin. “Sarge, something just dragged one of the Covenant out of the light.”

“Something? Like what?”

“I can’t see shit! Something big. I think. I really can’t see it. Do they eat their own, Sarge? Because that’s what it looks like.”

Except she knew Covenant didn’t eat their dead any more than Marines ate their dead.

She wasn’t sure she wanted the lights on anymore.

“Maller, Cranker, Simmons, and Sydney, where are they?” Lopez demanded.

“Sarge, I’m telling you, I don’t see them, Sarge.” She put her finger on the trigger, took it off. She put it on again.

Okay, so she’d seen something earlier, but hesitated to tell Lopez. She thought she’d seen them at the beginning of the attack, spinning out of view, hit by something that looked like a handful of pale balls. Twirling and rolling to the ground, rifles abandoned, grappling with them. The feed went to a black box. She couldn’t replay it.

“KIA?” came Lopez’s calm voice.

“Not sure. Maybe. I’d hate to be wrong,” Burgundy said, certain of nothing, and hating that.

Lopez was silent for a moment, then said, “Keep talking to me, pilot.”

But there wasn’t anything to see any more. Discarded flashlights, fading as the batteries died. The darkness drawing a little closer.

“Nothing. All calm now.”

“Red Horse there?”

It was hard to look away from the feed, but she scanned the waveband. “Yes! Got her.”

“Patch her through.”

“Yes, sir.” Always good to have a call from home.

“Sergeant Lopez?” If Lopez’s voice was weak, Rebecca’s was weaker, grainy, but calm. “What have you found?”

“No sign of crew or prisoners. One KIA, four more missing, possible KIA. Unknown number of Covenant forces on board. I don’t know how the Covenant got here, and they’re acting mighty strange.”

“Strange how?” Rebecca asked, echoing what Burgundy was thinking.

“No armor. No weapons. Not really fighting back, most of them.”

“That is all you’ve found?” Rebecca sounded disgruntled, as though she found this report lacking.

A pause from Lopez. “I did mention the Covenant. Acting strangely. On this civilian ship. In an unknown and highly classified location. Right?”

Burgundy bit back a chuckle. She wasn’t fond of Rebecca either.

“We heard you, Sergeant,” Rebecca said, about as icy as an AI could get.

“Request reinforcements to aid with the mission.”

“Request denied.”

“I want to talk to the commander.”

A false smile entered Rebecca’s voice, like the sun rising over an ice field. “The commander and I are of the same mind, Sergeant.”

“Requesting—”

“Negative.” This time it was Foucault, patched in over Rebecca’s feed. Burgundy’s stomach churned. “Sorry, Sergeant, but we can’t send anyone without alerting the Covenant capitol ship to our presence, and you know we’re outmanned and outgunned. I’m invoking the Cole Protocol. The secrecy of Earth’s location is paramount, and the Mona Lisa does appear to be compromised by Covenant. Stand by for your orders.”

“Sir.”

“Ascertain if the Covenant have accessed the nav system. If not, destroy it before they