Halo_ First Strike - Eric S. Nylund [120]
"Archer missile pods depleted," the Master Chief answered. He scanned the display, hoping he had missed something. "No rounds for the MAC gun. All Shiva nuclear missiles fired as well, sir. The only things left in the tubes are three Clarion spy drones."
"No plasma and no missiles," Admiral Whitcomb said. "We might as well open an air lock and throw rocks at 'em."
Throw rocks? The Master Chief wondered if they could fashion a slug to shoot from the MAC cannon. Let its magnetic coils propel the mass to supersonic velocities and—
Magnetic coils?
"Sir," the Master Chief said. "We may have a way to fire the plasma turret after all. The Gettysburg's MAC gun has seventeen superconducting coils. Cortana might be able to use them to shape and aim the plasma."
"Yes," the Admiral said, nodding.
"Maybe," Cortana amended and stared off into space, thinking. "Calculating field strength drop-off now." The mathematic symbols scrolling across her body increased threefold. She frowned. "This would be easier if the Gettysburg was oriented bottom to Ascendant Justice's top. I'll have to guess at the interference from the intervening hulls, but it still might work. Chief—power it up. I'll need to recalibrate the pulse generation to match the plasma output."
"MAC gun magnetic fields coming online," the Master Chief said as he tapped in commands. "Rerouting power from Ascendant Justice's reactor."
"We won't have enough power to move fast if we have to," Fred remarked, watching the energy fed to the Gettysburg's engines drop to nothing.
"That's okay." The Admiral absentmindedly tugged at the end of his mustache. "We wouldn't be able to outrun that Covenant cruiser even if we had full power. Our only chance is to take them out before they take us out. Launch those Clarion spy drones, Chief. Target the region abeam that planetoid—so we can see around the corner."
The Master Chief kept one eye on the fluctuating magnetic field strengths of the superconducting coils as he programmed a course for the spy drones. Set to either side of the large asteroid, they'd effectively give them another set of eyes to see past the obstructing rock.
"Drones away," the Chief said and launched them; their feathery propellant trails vanished into the distance.
"Cortana," Admiral Whitcomb said, "slave your targeting system to the feed from those drones. I want a clean shot fired before the cruiser crosses that rock's shadow and shoots at us."
"Working," she replied. "Getting magnetic field variations from the Ascendant Justice-to-Gettysburg energy transfer." "Drones in position and images online," the Master Chief said and pushed the video feed to the forward screen.
Doubled images of the Covenant cruiser appeared. Along its three bulbous sections, lateral plasma conduits glowed and every turret bristled with energy, ready to fire. Their laser batteries obliterated the large asteroids in their path, while the smaller ones simply bounced off their shields. The warship accelerated as it entered the gravitational influence of the planetoid between them.
"They're going to slingshot around," the Admiral said. "Cortana, give me your best targeting solution and fire at will!"
Cortana narrowed her eyes and calculations flashed across her body. "Extrapolating their course and speed," she breathed. "I got them."
On Weapons Station One the Master Chief saw the acceleration coils of the Gettysburg's MAC pulse—then redline with power. Magnetic field lines ballooned, overlapped, and distorted asymmetrically. Static washed across his MJOLNIR armor's shields, and every electrically conducting surface on the bridge sparked as the magnetic lines of force penetrated through the ship and toward the turret on Ascendant Justice.
Their only working turret heated, and plasma gathered at its tip; streamers looped upon themselves like tiny solar flares, vibrated, intensified to orange and then blue-white.
"Almost there," Cortana cried. "Hang on."
The ball of squeezed plasma imploded. It instantly boiled away a thirty-meter