Halo_ First Strike - Eric S. Nylund [123]
Fred visibly flinched.
Locklear twisted the red bandanna he had tied on his biceps. "So we get to watch another fight in space?" he hissed. His fists trembled with barely checked rage. "There has to be a way to get to those bastards first—on the ground where we can win. Hell, I'd even take my chances in hand-to-hand combat. Anything but floating in zero gee and watching Earth get burned."
"What about our original mission?" Linda asked. "Find the Covenant home world?"
"Our priority has to be to warn Earth," the Chief answered. "Admiral Whitcomb would insist... and he has the authority to scrub our mission."
"And there's no ground between here and Earth where we can take the fight to them," Locklear said. He unclenched his fist and dropped his gaze to the deck. "Sometimes," he whispered, "I really hate this war."
Sergeant Johnson worked his mouth but said nothing. He set
his hand on Locklear's wide shoulder and whispered, "Stand tall,
Marine. Try to—"
The Sergeant's gaze fell on the data pad and the star map. "Hang on a second. What was it you said about no ground to fight on between here and there?" He grinned and picked up the data pad. "What's this?" He tapped a dot on the map, squinted, and read the tiny words. "This... 'Uneven Elephant'?"
"Unyielding Hierophant," the Chief corrected. "According to Cortana, it's a command-and-control center, a mobile space platform where the Covenant fleet will rendezvous before their final jump to Earth."
"Well, there's your ground," Sergeant Johnson said. "On this 'elephant'thing." Will got up and walked over to the data pad. "It fits with the timetable. This station is on the way to Earth." Fred offered, "We can drop out of Slipspace in a smaller craft. Go in and—" "And do what you Spartans do best," Locklear said. "Infil
trate, kill, and blow shit up. If there's room in this operation for an ODST, pencil me in."
The Master Chief looked to the data pad, then to his team, Locklear, and the Sergeant. They were right: For the first time, they'd know when and where the Covenant would be. If they hit the enemy hard enough, they could stop them before the Covenant hit Earth... and delay Armageddon.
The Master Chief gave rapid-fire orders:
"Fred, Will: Get Linda's suit back together ASAP.
"Locklear, you're on weapons detail again. Scrounge every pistol, rifle, ammo bag, and scrap of explosives on this vessel and haul it to Ascendant Justice's launch bay.
"Grace, Linda, and Sergeant Johnson: Get that Covenant drop-ship ready for its last flight. Reinforce the hull for a Slipspace-tonormal-space transition.
"And I'll take this plan to Admiral Whitcomb—make him see that it's the only way. We're going to take this fight to the Covenant. We're going to launch a first strike."
CHAPTER THIRTY
0440 hours, September 13,2552 (revised date, MilitaryCalendar)\Aboard hybrid vessel Ascendant Justice-Gettysburg, station-keeping in Eridanus system.
Time was running out.
Dr. Halsey could feel the Covenant nearly upon them and her window of opportunity shrinking to a pinpoint. Only a few more things to take care of before she could go—before she started something she couldn't stop.
Someone approached the clean room, heavy footfalls that could only be a Spartan in MJOLNIR armor. Kelly appeared and waved from the other side of the glass partition that separated the clean room from the rest of Medical Four. Dr. Halsey buzzed her in.
"Reporting for treatment, Doctor," she said.
Kelly hesitated a moment as she glanced about at the unsterile environment the doctor had been working in: Styrofoam cups littered the surgical instrument trays, thermal printout paper curled from the biomonitors—and the radiation-emitting crystal they had found on Reach sat on a nearby instrument tray.
"I thought that crystal was in the reactor room," Kelly said. "Behind plenty of radiation shielding."
"It's perfectly safe," Dr. Halsey said, "as long as we're