Halo_ Evolutions - Essential Tales of the Halo Universe - Eric Nylund [69]
Headhunters, on the other hand, were as near perfection as humanity could muster in terms of weapons of death and war.
Confident in their abilities and dedicated to their purpose, Jonah slunk out from the rear of the storage unit, heading to the barracks to play his part in the massacre to come.
Roland followed closely behind him before veering off toward the nearest reactor. Using the shadows at the edge of the forest that ringed the camp, they both moved quickly into place.
Jonah cocked his M7S, armed the ONI special-issue energy disruptor, and primed two flares, then waited silently for Roland’s signal.
On the other side of the camp, Roland checked his weapon and primed the first set of charges.
A pair of Sangheili strolled past, close enough that had they simply glanced to their left they would have been staring directly at the human intruder, but the creatures passed uneventfully, totally oblivious to the enemy in their midst.
Once the two Elites were at a safe distance, Roland pulled out a small transceiver, flicked the devise’s safety cap open, and pressed his thumb to the larger of two buttons on its plain surface.
An explosion erupted in the distance, echoing across the canyon, and somewhere off in the night a large tree fell to the earth, a lone Jackal sniper tumbling down with it.
The triggering of the lumberjack was the “go” signal. As the explosion reverberated through the valley and the Covenant camp sprang to life.
Roland activated his camouflage and stepped from his cover, darting toward the first reactor. The instant the crack of the detonation filled the air, Jonah swung around the front of the barracks building, tossing his energy disruptor through the barrier that served as its door.
Like Roland’s av-cam, and most other advanced battlefield equipment, the energy disruptor Jonah used to deactivate the barracks’ entry barrier and all electronic devices within was reverse engineered by ONI scientists from scavenged Covenant technology.
Part of Jonah was irked by the need to rely on their enemy’s tech, but a larger part thrilled at the irony of turning the Covenant’s advances against them. He followed the disruptor with a pair of flares, then stepped through the entryway prepared for chaos.
Hell and fury seemed to erupt from the area surrounding the barracks. As Roland continued about his piece of their little insurrection, he allowed himself to briefly imagine Jonah prancing upon a field of Covenant corpses, happily bounding about in his own private nirvana, but just as quickly Roland was back in the moment, and his internal clock was telling him they didn’t have much time.
Aside from the reality of his av-cam’s limited lifespan, Roland also knew the second he triggered the explosion at the sniper’s perch, he and Jonah would have a very limited time frame before reinforcements from one or more of the other camps arrived. Making an effort to focus solely on placing the charges on the chosen reactors, Roland had to pause briefly between the first and second in order to drop a collection of Grunts and Jackals who were in the process of setting up a defensive perimeter around a shade turret. Moving as quickly as he could, Roland finished planting his charge on the third of the four reactors and turned toward his final target, when he saw a squad of five Elites and four Grunts heading up the low brim that led to the barracks.
Certain that Jonah was able to handle himself, but not wanting his partner caught unaware by the Covenant making a beeline directly for him, Roland altered his course to engage this new threat, tossing a frag grenade into their midst to soften them up.
The small, round explosive bounced and ignited directly between two of the Elites;